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Weekly Assignments

Week Three: 2/15-19

Due by Wed. 2/17 @ 6PM:

READ:

WRITE:  In this article, Carroll discusses the term genre at length, and describes how writing with genre in mind shapes what you write and how you write it. This week, I want you to write a post of at least 300 words describing a genre that you interact with a lot – it could be subway advertisements, comic books, YouTube vlogs, anything. The key is to choose something you know well. With that genre in mind, discuss what the conventions of that genre are – think about length, tone, language, medium, humor, etc. What makes your chosen genre the genre it is?

What genre is Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”?

*Note: No class Monday 2/15 because of the holiday weekend.*

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Weekly Assignments

Shitty First Drafts

After reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Draft” my way of written the first drafts is the opposite.   I would put a lot of time and effort into developing a first draft. The process takes a lot of time and can be stressful.   After reading “Shitty First Drafts” Lamott’s have changed my approach when written my first draft.  Lamott points out our first draft does not have to be accurate or professional.  Lamott encourages us to write down the first thing that comes to mind in our first drafts.  At first, I was a little hesitant with following this concept for my first draft.   However, this technique does have great benefits when creating a draft.   For example, Lamott’s method allows us to write down all ideas good or bad to formulate a shitty first draft.  From that drafts, you can work on creating a better draft, and you will have a variety of ideas to work with.   I agree with this concept and from this point on I will implement this technique when written my first draft.  I believe this will give me more ideas and direction in my first draft and reduce the stress of trying to create a good first draft.

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Discussions Weekly Assignments

“How to Read Like a Writer”

Mike Bunn means that throughout the course of our life we either have or will have written many different pieces and or genres of writing, therefore turning ourselves into authors. Personally, I don’t think the things I write are of much interest considering I mainly write for school. Assignments given to me make up most of my portfolio of sorts, though I do write for fun, albeit not very often. I use words in many different ways on a day to day basis, the most common being for either vocal or text-based conversations, as well as when I’m reading, which I do quite often. These pre-existing experiences will make sure that I can complete work of either average or slightly above average work throughout the course of college. I don’t expect it to be phenomenal but I do know that I have very good basics which makes it a lot easier to improve or learn new styles or methods of writing.

I noticed his reasoning or the lens/mindset he viewed writing through/with. I plan to adapt that into my own style of writing. Seeing words as building blocks and turning those blocks into a stable structure. As well as thinking more analytically as if I were the author themself and map out the block’s placement and reasoning to create a better understanding of the text. Focusing on my reactions as well as what specifically made me think or believe what it did is the final piece I plan to thoroughly incorporate. My reading and comprehension are shallow when it comes to the usually boring texts I get from school but now I realize that even those boring texts have at least something to offer me.