Writing Reflection

Leave a reply

Thomson Li

Professor Dr. Leigh Gold

ENG 1121 D432

17 May 2019

                                                              Writing Reflection

In the beginning of class I was confused about the things you wanted us to learn through our writing and reading. As the months a pass I realize my writing needed work and how if we sure our writing it would help us in the future. Now that i’m thinking about it I think I learn a few things from my fellow classmates. All of them have unique way to write, and i notice these through open lab. I didn’t read all but I read a few which were good.

From the start i always had trouble understanding poems and short story. It was really hard for me and even now I can’t understand the writing the author want me to read it from. I would never understand what they want me as a reader to know. So during this class we were given many poems and I read some. Some were easier than some other but I understood some. After reading we would share the what we thought it meant and made it easier for me to understand after class. Secondly sad to say but my grammar is like a child. I never go back and check my essay. I would always think it’s fine because I read really fast I skim through basically so i wouldn’t notice.

During this semester i revise all of them with the help of a tutor but never had the chance to print the revised version out. I would have exams come up so it was hard to reprint the newly written essay. When I was revising the proffor reading my paper said I really need to work on my grammar, I laughed and said I know. Knowing that i also realize my paper needed a lot of work I should focus on reading to improve my writing. Writing about my idea and is my strength because I could never say the things I write because it personal. I can share my feelings through writing, my opinion, and my thoughts. I don’t think I improve much I still make the same mistakes twice so i’m not to sure.

When we read about Ray Bradbury and the other poem authors. For years I didn’t understand poems so I would like to understand them now as I get older so it helped when we read this in class. Gave me time to realize what some poems mean. I still like to write how I feel I don’t know what kind of writing style that. I would say I don’t mind any because I get to figure out another way of writing. The genre essay was difficult in some sense, I had to do some research for the genre I chose which was difficult. Well repurposing my genre essay I had to go back and check my mistakes and what I did wrong through out that essay. Im was never a good reader, throughout this semester we read a lot so I hope it help impact my reading because i’m not sure myself yet. I hate reading but I try my best to I would always skim through it look at the important facts and highlight and remember that part only.

When writing I would have thought is self expression. A way to tell your own story for reader to read. Have significant connection to readers and hope it can impact someone’s life. When I was younger I hated english I was never the person that pass english. I was always good at math, but then when I had a good teacher i realized how it was english was easy, you just need to put in effort in to reading and writing your thought clearly. I would say my highschool writing was poor but entering college I learn some new things that i think help change my writing for the better. To hope for the future I want to be better in writing so I can use it when needed for my job or mayne for future kids. In doing so I believe this semester and my last semester of english was helpful learn new perspective and new way to think of writing

Online Portfolio

Leave a reply

Muhammad Abdullah

English 1121-D432

Professor Leigh Gold

Literacy Assignment

Essay #1

When you read a book, it’s like travelling to a distant world. You learn many new things while expanding your imagination. Unfortunately, I learned that the hard way. When I was in middle school, I didn’t think much of books. I thought books were boring and just for nerds. My shelves were filled with books but I never bothered to pick one up and spend the time to read it. I was too busy playing games on a computer or phone to notice how amazing reading books was. I also did not appreciate the fact that I was gifted with the skill of literacy while many others around the globe were illiterate and not so blessed. This all changed on the day my report card was delivered to my mother. I was failing in most of my akademik courses due to being preoccupied with technology. As my punishment, my mother grounded me and took all my electronics and only promised them back only if I improved my grades. My mother was aware of my distaste of reading so she had me read for an hour each day if I wanted to go play outside.

Thinking back to this, I appreciate my mother for doing this for me because it made me realize how amazing reading books can be. I started off my grounded days by reading J.K Rowling’s, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”. I found the book so interesting that instead of reading for one hour a day I read for hours and hours. I was so taken in by the magical world of Harry Potter and enjoyed every single page of the book. It made me feel like I was actually there due to the imagery in the book. Some time passed and I started doing better in all my classes especially in english class. My vocabulary increased greatly and I actually felt intelligent for the first time, as funny as that may sound. My next report card was sent to my mother and it turned out that I was passing all my classes with high grades. As promised, my electronics were returned to me. As excited as I was to play games again, I did not spend much time on them anymore. I started going to the library more often and getting new books every two days. My mother helped me learn that books will increase your knowledge as well as make you more intelligent. They can also provide entertainment as much as an electronic device can.

Like I once was, I know that there are many people out there who do not enjoy reading, especially the youth. My advice is to give reading a chance. As much as you enjoy playing games on a screen you can enjoy reading a book as well. If things aren’t going so well in your life, reading books can be a way of escaping reality. I experienced this first hand. I wasn’t doing well in school and had all my electronics taken away from me but reading helped me solve both of these problems. You can start off by reading a page a day. It can even be a couple of lines from a book but you have to start somewhere. Gradually, start increasing the amount every day with the goal of completing the book in mind. Soon enough you will find yourself feeling more confident to tackle difficult texts as well as understanding complex ideas. Of course, you will not be able to do this if you do not appreciate reading. Just remember that there are many people in the world who are not able to read and that you are blessed and should take advantage of that.

With that being said, my motto is, “Literacy is a blessing so take advantage of it because many people are not as blessed as you”. If you do come across someone who is illiterate one day, try to teach them how to read and write or even teach them a couple of words. Reading has been in this world far longer than technology so it must be given more importance. You can even read on your phone or any electronic device but there is nothing that compares to the feeling of reading an actual book. Seventeen percent of the world can not read or write so we must appreciate our blessings and start reading books more often.

 

Muhammad Abdullah

English 1121- D432

Professor Leigh Gold

Writing Reflection Questions

Before class, I had an idea of where I stood in terms of writing capabilities. I feel like I have gotten better as a writer and learned to structure my paragraphs and transition between them smoothly. The most challenging writing experience I faced was choosing a genre topic for my genre project. First I wanted to do something relating to science fiction but then I changed it to phone reviews. I just couldn’t make up my mind. My strengths as a writer as I mentioned are structuring and transitioning between paragraphs as well as using different tones whether it be formal or informal. To improve my writing, I believe I need to work on brainstorming my ideas before actually writing an essay. Also I need to start adding more reliable quotes to back up my claims. I noticed my writing has improved in terms of vocabulary. The professor defining different words on the board has really helped with that. I found the genre project to be most useful in understanding writing because it allowed you to gather various sources and learn from all of them in different perspectives. I don’t necessarily have a specific type of genre I enjoy. I like reading anything that contains valuable knowledge and information.

Repurposing my genre helped me with my writing by giving me a different way to shape my writing to give it more appeal. My genre was phone reviews so for my step 5, I created my own phone review but had it turned into a parody. Reading can also impact your writing. The kind of reading you do impacts your writing greatly because you tend to implement what you read into what you write. For example, if you read something informative, you can display what you learned from that reading in your own writing. I believe that writing is a process. You can not become a good writer without practice just as you can not get a good job without a degree. You should approach writing with an intent to learn because there is always room for improvement. I believe writing is a way to express oneself. When you write, you are not bound by limitations and you can share your language and ideas freely. Writing can also be a way to preserve your legacy. None of us will live forever and when we do die, our writing will live on and people will remember us through it. 

Writing is important in my life because it is a way to express myself. Whether it be a speech, a class essay, or even a text message. I am expressing myself right now through this paper. In the future, I want my writing to improve and I want to use it to get good grades in all my future courses. Back in highschool, I wasn’t the best writer. I used to struggle to complete essays and my vocabulary wasn’t that great. I used to use very basic words repeatedly making me sound illegitimate. Now I have improved very much as a writer. Sometimes I look back at my high school essays and laugh thinking that it couldn’t be me who wrote them. All in all, this class has been a great learning experience for me and has helped me develop my motto regarding reading and writing: “Literacy is a blessing so take advantage of it because many people are not as blessed as you”.

 

Multimodal Project- Multimodal Project

Revised Genre Project

Leave a reply

Step 1:
Genre of choice: Fashion Articles

Examples:
BOTW: Dries Van Noten, Your Favorite Rappers Low-Key Favorite Brand (Highsnobiety)
Rihanna and LVMH Confirm Fashion Label (BusinessOfFashion)
Fly Like Nic Cage: The Incredible Timelessness Of 90’s Airport Style (GQ)
Virgil Abloh Responds To Plagarism Critique and Discusses His Design Philosophy (Hypebeast)
Adidas and Kid Cudi Officially Announce Partnership (Complex)

Step 2:
Fashion articles are very important in modern society. They are a constant reminder that fashion is much more than a consumer/seller exchange and outfits. Articles about fashion can detail how designers became popular, what makes a designer or piece of clothing unique, changes in trends, and fashion’s impact on the world, positive and negative.

Notable authors in this genre are Anna Wintour, Andre Leon Talley, Robin Givhan, and Carine Roitfield.

This genre is mostly directed towards fashion consumers and creatives who have a direct interest in the industry itself

The most well known and most successful person to document fashion is Anna Wintour. Considered one of the fashion industry’s most influential figures, her editing and publishing work for Vogue Magazine gains her massive attention in fashion media, and her documentation of younger fashion designers (i.e Alexander Wang) is often credited with helping jumpstart their careers.

Step 3:
The main message of the examples chosen is change. Fashion articles are generally meant to reflect change, movement and progression in the fashion industry. The reasons cited for this change differ from article to article; some change can be motivated by unsatisfactory prospects in the future, some can be motivated by nostalgia, and some motivated by a simple feeling of dissatisfaction to what was in style in the past.

Not all fashion articles have the same message. Some take on a sunny, nostalgic tone, a few contain an extremely positive message, and some serve as a warning.
Every article that I have looked at so far has a biography to it. There is always at least one part of these articles that discusses the past. This part generally is meant to show the buildup to the things discussed in the article, the history of the creatives or trends discussed and the possible reasons behind the topic at hand.

As far as language and words are concerned, there are no real constraints in that area. Fashion journalists will say whatever they must in order to get their point across. However, I have noticed that many of them rely on using an influential figure in pop culture to justify or cement something in fashion, and tend to drag it out through the entirety of the article.

These examples are directed to fashion creatives and passionate consumers in the industry.

The only explicit difference between the examples I have shown is the length. Some examples are formatted to be very short and straight-to-the-point (typically the ones documenting something that has just recently surfaced in fashion), while others can be multiple paragraphs.

Step 4:
Example: Virgil Abloh Responds To Plagarism Critique and Discusses His Design Philosophy
Author: Jeff Yeung for Highsnobiety
The message of this article is to discuss the creative mind of Ghanian designer Virgil Abloh, and serves to reaffirm his talents and capabilities amid the large amounts of criticism that he receives

This article is directed mainly to creatives and fashion consumers. The particular consumers that this article is geared towards seem to be older, because they are the people most interested in the person that Virgil Abloh is behind his clothing.

This text is important to fashion creatives and consumers because it discusses one of the most distinctive fashion designers of the modern era, the ups and downs of his successful career and the complex process behind the simple styles of his art.

Step 5: Model the text

Considered a modern icon of the fashion industry and known for his representation of Asian culture and the LGBTQ Community, San Francisco born designer Alexander Wang has grown into an extremely prolific figure at a very young age. His pieces, basic in their design but detailed in their construction, transcend the changing trends of the fashion industry and remain a testament to his undeniable tailoring skills.

Alexander Wang was born in 1983 in San Francisco to parents of Taiwanese Descent. His interests in fashion began with a design program at Central Saint Martens in London, England and continued after a move to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design. Once in New York, he began holding internship roles at many large companies, including Vogue and Marc Jacobs. These roles increased his knowledge of the fashion industry, and once knowledgeable enough, he dropped out of college to pursue his career as a designer.

Wang began his eponymous label in 2005, initially focusing on knitwear. His line would eventually evolve throughout the years, and eventually turned into a brand consisting mainly of women’s ready to wear. The line would continue to expand at a fast rate, receiving reward money of $200,000 from the CFDA and garnering the attention of fashion journalist Anna Wintour, who was key in introducing Wang to a wider audience. His list of achievements continued to grow over the next few years; Swarovski named him their Designer Of The Year, and GQ named him their Best Menswear Designer Of The Year. In 2011, Wang opened his flagship store in SoHo, Manhattan.

In 2012, Wang was appointed creative director of French fashion house Balenciaga, succeeding Nicolas Ghesquire. His first collection for the brand, debuted later that year, received very positive reviews and boosted his already large profile as the lead of two iconic fashion brands. His time at Balenciaga lasted until 2015, when he exited his contract to re-center focus on his own label.

Alexander Wang has become a coveted designer since the start of his career, among both everyday consumers and celebrities. Many notable people have been spotted in his clothing, including Trina, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Beyonce, Karrueche Tran and Nicki Minaj. His prominence continues to grow over the course of his career, and it doesn’t seem like his momentum will slow down anytime soon.

Sources:
https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/dries-van-noten-marble-collection-buy-online/

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/lvmh-and-rihanna-to-launch-fenty-maison

https://www.gq.com/story/90s-airport-style-is-forever/

https://www.complex.com/sneakers/2019/05/adidas-signs-kid-cudi

https://hypebeast.com/2019/5/virgil-abloh-vouge-plagiarism-critique-design-philosophy-interview

Portfolio

Leave a reply

Writing Reflection:

An experience I have had with writing would be when I first read a book. I placed my hand on a book and I felt fascinated to learn new words. In the third grade, I switched middle schools and I ended up in a catholic private school. In this third grade classroom there were many books. I was amazed on how many books there were that I decided to read all of the books in the classroom. I picked a random book every day, no matter what type of genre it was. It was always a different day for me once I picked up the book and went home with it. 

Going home, I always took the bus and once I got on this bus, I found an empty seat, opened my backpack, and entered my new world of imagination. My bus reaches the stop and I’m forced to get off and stop my imagination for a few minutes. Once I reach home, I return to reading the book and after an hour or two, I finish reading the book. My mother comes over and starts asking me questions about the book. I audibly answer her questions about the book, giving her a vivid explanation of what I read through my imagination. 

However, after voicing out my thoughts to my mother about the book, I was informed from my mom that I was supposed to write my thoughts down on paper. I was discouraged. As a child, I was very fond of reading stories, however, writing stories wasn’t my strong suit. I felt like writing stories was impossible. Obviously I had some help from my teacher and mother to formulate an effective summary. 

We got ideas on how to formulate a main idea, how to organize it, and how to support the main idea with information from a paragraph. My first step was to see what was occurring a lot in the story, then I decided what the main idea was, and find the text clues to match it and confirm it. To continue getting the information revolving around the main idea, I had to look for supporting claims  

Considering how hard I worked to create a summary, creating essays are still difficult to this day. Going from middle school to high school, the transition of writing drastically changed for me. Paragraphs became longer, multiple paragraphs turned into essays, essays turned into papers. This change is very normal for people since our brain potential increases every grade. Encountering every grade, I always had one motto. That one motto was, “Do your best to pass, or end up in last.” 

Genre Essay: 

When you go to a movie theater with friends or a girlfriend, you probably plan to watch a horror or comedy genre movie. For me, I’m more of the thriller/horror genre movie type. I love the feeling of staying on the edge of my seat and the reaction of friends that I bring along. Horror films, in my definition, would be a movie that tries to find out how to scare you for pleasure and amusement purposes. 

Horror is an important genre in our society because what activates after seeing something worth being called horrific.  You get a feeling of tension, then to add more to it, they add elements of mystery, suspense, gore, terror, and shock. Many things people fear in horror films would be death and others. Once you encounter fear, your brain starts a chain reaction and you end up with a fight-or-flight response. A fight-or-flight response is an acute stress response that stimulates your adrenaline.  

You tend to get fight-or-flight responses when you experience fear, which is also in horror movies. A movie that is very memorable in the horror film industry would be “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” from 1974 which dropped five children into a place which created a nightmarish hell for them filled with cannibals. The fear factor in that movie would be to not die from their own kind. There can be many other ways to react to the genre of horror. 

 People’s reactions towards the horror movie genre tend to vary. A few side effects of horror movies would be restlessness, anxiety, and desensitization. A quote from an article by Farhia Osman, called ‘Psychological Effects of Horror Movies’, says, “People may have trouble sleeping or toss fitfully all night due to the residual fear and anxiety from watching a scary movie.” These movies poke and prod at your senses, increasing your adrenaline, your heart rate, and breathing and either cause distress or just pleasure from the adrenaline. 

Many of the general fears of people in society would be psychopaths, serial killers, and etc. The fear comes from realizing the characters from the movies filled with blood lust are actually real life people that would do the same thing as people in the movies. Once portrayed in film, people still get the effect of fear but lessened since it’s not actually happening. Horror films are designed to frighten and make people panic. However, it does captivate the viewer and entertains you at the same time. This is the same feeling that keeps the viewer from looking away from the screen and makes you continue watching. 

Horror films have many elements that make it scary, such as: fear of death, the dark, insects, dismemberment, suspense, and really scary music. The reason that these elements are so scary is because people compile their fears and the most common one comes into play. The list goes on and on, and it will continue to expand as centuries pass by. Another reason these films get a physical reaction on people who watch is because of how the director filmed it. 

The viewer gets introduced to the director’s game. The director uses aural techniques and toys with your sense of hearing. No one generally likes creepy sounds, and hearing them activate our primordial senses in our brain. The director also uses visual techniques. This is essential because the suspense rises more when one character that isn’t introduced surprisingly jumps at the screen, or when a blind spot is in play. Editing techniques also play a part in the director’s farce. The director speeds up the clips, making the viewer confused and uneasy, stand-still clips cause suspense and tension, close-ups create a sense of intensity. 

Bibliography/Reference Page 

 Osman, Farhia. “Psychological Effects of Horror Movies.” Edina Zephyrus, edinazephyrus.com/psychological-effects-of-horror-movies/. 

 Weinberg, Scott. “The 75 Best Horror Movies of All Time.” Thrillist, Thrillist, 30 Oct. 2018, www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/best-horror-movies-ever. 

 Celtx. “How to Scare People: The Elements of Horror Movies.” Celtx Blog, 14 Nov. 2016, blog.celtx.com/the-elements-of-horror/. 

 

 

 

Genre Part 5: My Own Take on Horror

On a normal sunny day, the sound of ringing goes through the air. Followed by it turning off and the sound of someone falling right after. A woman looks up from the ground after turning off her alarm  in pain. This woman’s name is Jane, she’s a secretary of the CEO at Cytech Industries, one of the companies that help out with the most general of technological issues. She got up from the ground, went to the bathroom, did her daily routine of putting her clothes on and making her breakfast. After finishing, she got in her silver coupe parked outside the garage. She drove to work and signed in like any other person would. When she sat at her desk, a certain man walked into the office. This certain man wanted to talk to the CEO. However, Jane told him, “You cannot talk to the CEO without a reservation. His schedule is very full nowadays.” The man was very frustrated after hearing those news. He took his anger out on the nearest object and walked out the office. The office and Jane continued normally as it was, even though of the random occurrence. Jane walked back to the parking lot and realized a paper on the windshield wipers on her coupe. She picked up the paper and flipped it over. She gasped and started to panic. On the paper it was titled, “Have you seen me?” And it had a picture of Jane underneath it. She looked around and saw no one around her. The parking lot was empty, so there really wasn’t anything to look at. She then shrugged and stopped her abrupt panic. She now thought of it as a prank from the people down in IT tech. She got in the coupe and drove home. She got home safely and parked the coupe out front. As she locked the door, she saw the same paper outside the door. She got angry and removed the paper. She unlocked the front door and walked into her house. She felt a slight breeze after she closed the door. She tried turning on the lights and the lights didn’t respond at all. She started to breathe heavily and she walked into the kitchen. That’s when she really started to panic. All over the walls of the kitchen were the same flyers. She then screamed, but it wasn’t long before the scream silenced from a blow to the head from a blunt object.

 

Extras: