The Last Thlog - A Time of Reflection

This week was a little emotional, not going to lie. I even got a hug from Zack, that was pretty cool. I did not get that hella cool Adidas shirt but it is what it is. I don't exactly know what to reflect on this week, so I will reflect on the whole class. Thlogging was probably my favorite thing about this class. I had always wanted to start a blog and this class gave me a head start, or at least some blogging experience. The whole class was a really cool experience. Zack is totally unlike any teacher I've had before. I mean, you don't usually walk into a classroom and see a cool Jesus-looking Adidas-and-Birkenstock-wearing dude. It was pretty awesome. The class started out pretty mellow. It seemed pretty standard. Some reading. Some writing. But then, BAM!!! FABULOUSNESS!!! Zack introduced me to a side of writing I had heard about but never tried myself, which is creative writing. Of course we had some REALLY challenging assignments *cough, cough WP2 cough,* but we also had WP3 which is by far the weirdest writing assignment I've had in the history of my writing assignments. That one was by far my favorite. I am really surprised that I started enjoying writing more. I actually really like writing now, although not exactly academic writing. Essays still aren't my favorite, but I think I have significantly improved. I have learned a lot, but my favorite thing by far is first order thinking. Although it is something I was familiar with, I didn't really know what is was called. It was so interesting to learn that there were terms for things I have been doing ever since I can remember. I hope I am not rambling, but there is so much to talk about. I think the main thing I really loved about this class is that it was so unconventional. I really enjoyed the laid-back vibe. It got pretty stressful at times, but Zack always seemed relaxed. He walked us through all the assignments and made sure we had the ability to be successful. If we weren't as successful as we wanted, Zack made sure to remind us that there was always room for improvement. I'm glad he made sure to not talk down to us. He treated us all equally and made sure we felt like we all had the same opportunity to succeed in his class. Writing 2 was just an awesome class-- it honestly made writing seem a lot more meaningful. It also made READING more meaningful, which is not something you'd expect from a writing class. I'm really glad I experienced it, and I will definitely miss it. The only thing I won't miss is the bike ride to class!!!

THLOG #9 #9 #9 #9 or is it 10?

This week was incredibly short. I came home on Tuesday after my Earth 10: Antarctica class, so really, it felt like Monday was my only day of instruction. Monday was, however, packed with a TON of material. I don't exactly mean to make my Thlogs sound like journals, but they always seem to end up sounding that way. I feel like they wouldn't be as interesting if I didn't go over what happened a little bit in detail. Monday felt super busy. My group was a little over the place last week, and we all had super different schedules so we didn't end up meeting a second time until Monday morning, where we went over our presentation one last time and added the finishing touches. I feel like we ended up doing a pretty good job even though we didn't use as much humor as the other group. I was extremely nervous when we were practicing and I was still nervous as we were going up, but I feel that I did pretty well considering how terrible I am at public speaking. At least I didn't cry--I've done that before (multiple times, unfortunately).  I'm getting better at it so presenting wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. I have a tendency to forget what I am going to say so thankfully I made a flashcard ahead of time (whew). The other groups' presentations were pretty engaging as well, which, as most of us know isn't usually the case. I personally really liked the first group. It was super engaging and that "joke" activity they started us off with both confused me and got my attention. The video they used was pretty funny, especially because I really don't like Donald Trump. The skit was also pretty cool, especially because that one guy did a pretty good impression of an old lady. Sorry for forgetting your name, friend. Altogether, Monday went pretty smoothly despite the stressful days leading up to it.

Thlog #8 - The Thlog I Slept Through

Well, evidently, sitting on your bed at 8 p.m. on Saturday night doesn't really lead to productivity. Although, this week certainly was productive. WP3 was turned in, group presentations were worked on, and I even participated in a fundraiser I helped organize. I broke through! I spent hours working on WP3, which, to be quite honest, I thought would be more fun. After two terrible WP scores, I spent more time worrying than being happy about WP3. Creating my adult piece was definitely more fun than the usual writing assignment, but ultimately I ended up stressing out anyway. I feel guilty that I've been feeling this way about my assignments because it feels like no matter how much I try I still mess up. Writing doesn't really come naturally to me, but I doubt it comes that easily to anybody, so I guess I'll just have to keep working on it. Class feels a little different lately, too. Everything feels pretty final which is both nice and scary. I feel good almost having made it through the quarter, but I also feel a little weird leaving the comfort of the classes and professors I've become accustomed to. What is my next writing professor makes me write title pages?!?!

On another note, I feel like this week has been extremely stressful. I also feel like I say that in every Thlog I write, but the stress seems to intensify as finals approach. Hopefully Thanksgiving Break will be a nice getaway from the stress of college (which I seem to keep falling victim of...)

As for my improvement check, I don't exactly know where I stand. Sometimes I feel really good about where I am as a writer, but lately I feel like I might have gotten worse, if that's even possible. Sometimes I feel like I am writing too hard to develop a style and not trying hard enough to work on my content--sometimes it feels the other way around. But writing is a process, and I've come to terms with that. I hope that by the end of the quarter I will have found a balance between the two.

THLOG 7- TT&T

To put it shortly, this week was about Translating, Transforming, and TEARS. It was a very short week but it felt very stressful. In terms of personal growth, well, we win some and we lose some. This was a very self-defeating week considering the fact that I got a 6/10 on WP2. I realize that it is my fault but I have to come to terms with the fact that writing maybe just isn't my thing. I'm still trying and I don't know where this course will take me, but that's beside the point. I'm still feeling pretty hesitant about WP3 which I feel completely went in one ear and out the other and then right over my head. I am still struggling to grasp a lot of contents but I am hoping that somewhere along the way I'll figure out what I'm doing. Another thing that is kind of freaking me out is the group presentation. I still have no idea what it's about or what is even going on, to be honest I don't even remember who is IN my group so that's a little scary. I should probably check. I'm still feeling pretty self-defeating at this point but I have to put my big girl pants on and move on from that terrible grade and try to do better next time. I am hoping that things will start making sense soon and that the group presentations will be a nice break from all the writing we've been doing. I realize it's a writing class, after all, but like anything, sometimes it gets to be too much. At least the readings were pretty decent this week. All the talk about comic books and choice of creativity got me pretty excited for WP3, even if it is still confusing me. One thing I did like about this week, even though I got a 6/10, was that Zack commented that he heard my voice in my paper. I'm not much of a writer, but that made me feel good about something, even if it was small. I am hoping that I will be able to accomplish this for my WP3 and the rest of my work this quarter. It feels like it is all coming down on me right now, and finals are quickly approaching. Let's hope next week is a little better.

PB3A - Brainstorming!

While brainstorming for WP3, I had a hard time thinking of a topic to even search for my scholarly article. Then I decided to think about something that I love and could somehow convey to both a younger and older audience: animals! I searched dogs, cats, and finally just animals. Upon searching, I found an article entitled “Animal Symbolism in Folk Narratives and Human Attitudes towards Predators: An Analysis of their Mutual Influences.” At first I did not think much of it, but after rereading the assignment, I realized that this scholarly research piece had many possibilities. The paper focused on:

            “the symbolic aspects of folk narratives involving animals considered to be 'harmful'. Its main focus is a study of narratives collected by Chilean schoolchildren concerning eight endangered animal species. These narratives are analysed as cultural models and as educational tools for environmental purposes” (Benavides).

Simply the abstract description made me consider the assignment. The scholarly article itself dealt with conventions, not of a genre, but of a topic—which I had never even fathomed before. The article focused on predispositions we have on animals based on aspects such as their likelihood of being domesticated and social constructs that history has imposed on us. Both children and adults are exposed to these predispositions or “conventions” of animals, so translating the scholarly article would be simple. I brainstormed some more and later remembered that the topics don’t exactly need to be related, and while writing WP3 we have a tremendous amount of freedom and room for self-expression. I tried to think outside the box in terms of how to “transform” and “translate” the piece I selected into one suitable for a younger audience. Since our discussion last week, I wanted to do something that I could incorporate my art into. My first thought was a comic book or a children’s book, but after reading the scholarly article I found I felt that a good way to appeal to a younger audience would be a personality quiz. The scholarly article continually illustrated the relationship between animals and humans and how those relationships have affected the ways in which we see animals, so a personality quiz seems like it would be a good way to describe these relationships in a different way. For example, it could be something like “what do you do on your free time? Which one of these 5 words would you most likely use to describe yourself?” and if they chose “Being by myself” and “Fierce” they could get a test result like “Wolf.” For a more mature audience I was thinking of transforming my piece into a horoscope kind of deal, sort of like “Your favorite animals and what they say about you.” It sounds childish but I have seen so many of these on ADULT magazines. Most of the time these personality quizzes I have seen on adult magazines are about alcohol, something like “Your favorite cocktail and what it says about you,” or “Your drink of choice and how your night will go based on that choice,” so I was thinking of incorporating something like that into my work directed towards a more mature audience.

            I am still unsure as to where I want to go with this and if I will even keep this topic going but I would love to hear some feedback. Are any of you doing anything similar and do you have any comments/suggestions/concerns? I would like to see someone else’s approach on something similar to my idea. 

Here is my scholarly article:

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8c3115bd-d5e1-4ec4-9608-8311832c3749%40sessionmgr120&vid=11&hid=107

THLOG 6 I THINK

To be quite honest, this week was very, very weird. It mostly felt really stressful because of WP2, which I messed up on pretty badly. At first I thought I did a good job, but then I started to feel bad about it. At this point I am just stressed out about it again. The peer reviews definitely helped, but for some reason I just didn't think it would be necessary to refer to the reader (stupid, I know). It was not explicitly stated on the instructions but I should have known better than to do whatever I wanted. I just wanted to give the paper more of my own voice and all of the information we had to include made it very difficult and overwhelming. At this point I am just hoping that the rest of the content of my paper will help me out a little bit. Other than that this week was also pretty interesting. We talked about our group presentations white a bit on Monday, but I still have no idea what is going on and what the assignment even really is. I do not know what is being asked of us other than the whole "make the presentation engaging" part. We also talked about WP3, which is still confusing even after reading the assignment several times. There are so many options and so many ways to go about those options that even though it sounds interesting, it also sounds extremely overwhelming. The creativity factor of WP3 is putting a lot of pressure on me, especially since I feel like I have go think extremely out of the box. Hopefully the more we talk about it, the better I will understand the assignment. The best part of this week was the online class. It was sort of stressful too, but it went better than expected. The chat was definitely one of the best parts. It seemed like it had way less boundaries than talking in class, so everyone was being random and using curse words (which is always a good time). The discussions were fun but the time constraints made it a little difficult to say everything I wanted/needed to say. I tried my best but at times it really was stressful. Other than that it was pretty refreshing to be in a new setting. It's good to change things up!

Bob Ross/Disney Response

Both the Bob Ross and the Disney videos had many things in common. Both were extremely soothing (and somewhat creepy). They focused on self expression and uniqueness. However, the Disney video focused more on what would be more "aesthetically" pleasing, while Bob Ross simply told the viewers to express themselves and enjoy themselves while doing so. Bob Ross encouraged the viewers to please themselves, but the Disney video pushed for achieving something more than inner peace.
Both Bob Ross and Walt used a soothing voice and relaxing shots in general.
They both encouraged the artist to develop their own style, but only the Disney video showed different artist's views.
Much like last class's framing activity, the artists in the Disney video focused on different things about the trees. They compared the trees to different things and viewed the tree differently. Their views ultimately changed the way their art looked. Some focused on the tree, some on the trunk, and some on the surroundings of the tree.
All of the pictures of the trees looked different and focused on different details. They kind of made the process of painting seem complicated, while Bob Ross just focused on doing whatever makes the artist happy. He achieved very realistic paintings by using simple techniques that could be achieved with some practice but could look good even if a beginner tried them.
Some of the moves they used were using the paint spreading thingy rather than a brush. Some used white paint to make their paintings 3-dimensional. One of the artists viewed the tree as architecture and his tree ended up looking like some sort of jaggedy sky scraper. One of the artists focused on the bark and therefore put all the detail he could into the trunk.

Different thinking processes = Different art styles. Cool!

ONLINE CLASS!!! COOL!

Q1. So, in the end, how’d your WP2 paper go?  What were you happy with?  What weren’t you?  Why? Be specific! (Remember: this is fodder for your end-of-quarter metacognitive reflection)

My WP2 went okay, I guess. My first draft was way better than my first draft for WP1, so revising it wasn't as horrible as last week. I felt more prepared and I overall feel like my essay was much better. It felt like I couldn't really add as much as my voice, though. There was so much information that I feel like maybe my voice was lost. Hopefully it is okay, though. Also the directions weren't very clear so I think I may have messed up super bad...

Q2. Which 2 or 3 comments that you received yesterday were the most helpful for you?  Why?

The most helpful comments I received were the one regarding my thesis and the one about the econ/climate article I used. I didn't even realize that I didn't even HAVE  a thesis. And the econ/climate article really helped me see how my audience would better understand my writing.

Thlog #5: A Thlog With Style

This week was all about style. The best part was probably the fact that we got to listen to Sublime in class, which I doubt happens very often in other writing classes. We discussed style as a whole, which I had thought about before but never too in depth. I've been thinking about it a lot and maybe my writing style is also non-denominational hipster garbage, but I think I like it so I'll try to make my writing as mine as possible (does that make sense?) The weirdest thing about this week was the way that moves and style changed meaning for me. They are two words I use constantly but had never stopped to consider. It was a pretty cool learning experience because it made me think a lot about my own writing style and moves I use. I went back to my high school writing assignments and noticed that a lot of the time I start out papers with a personal first paragraph, a quote, or a question. It is weird to think I had never noticed this--I guess I kind of knew that I had a writing style but it had never hit me that I had actual moves that I've been unconsciously for years. I know this thlog sounds a bit like rambling but that is exactly how my brain feels, too! Looking back at my previous work kind of blew my mind (both because of the moves I found and because of how bad it was). One of the things that really stuck with me this week is how style is developed. I even remembered a little thing an artist I like once explained; someone asked her "How do you develop an art style?" to which she replied "Just pick a style you already like and fu*k it up as much as possible until you make it your own," or something along those lines. I realized that my style may not be completely unique to me but is a compilation of writing styles I have been exposed to and have picked apart and combined to make my own. I also realized my style is constantly changing but there are little moves here and there that have stuck around, and they are what make my style my style. I am looking forward to seeing how my style will change this year... Maybe it already has. 

PB2B- Watch My Every Move

Moves—dance moves, karate moves, basketball moves. Have you ever wondered what the heck a move is? Apparently I am the only person who had never thought of it until now, but guess what? I’m using my moves on you as you read this. Now you’re probably thinking “is this supposed to be funny?” and the answer is yes. I just used another move on you and you are either smirking stupidly at your computer or really annoyed and possibly shaking your head at what you’ve just read. Either way I have your attention now, which is what I intended to do with my slick moves.

            A move, as defined by dictionary.com, is an action toward an objective or goal; step. However, when we think of moves, we don’t typically think of “writing” moves, or perhaps we do, but we never even stop to think about it. Often times we find ourselves going back to our writing and changing things here and there so that it becomes more interesting to our readers—or maybe more “academic” so our professors will give us higher scores. Whether or not we realize it, we are constantly making moves in our writing and in our daily lives in general. We have a specific audience to cater to, and that leads us to make specific word, subject, and style choices. Moves help students and professional writers alike make their writing as effective as it can possibly be, and these moves can be as small as using a certain word or as big as writing ten pages on a specific subject.

            As I previously stated, a move can be using a certain word. In the case of one of our readings, Writing Spaces by Losh and Alexander, the main move was turning the reading into a comic book. Although it seems obvious, some of us probably did not even realize it was a move at first. If you are anything like me, I’m sure when you saw that the first assigned reading was a coming book, you probably thought something along the lines of: “Sweet!” Just my reaction, and perhaps yours, gives you a good indication of why the authors decided to turn the reading into a comic book—it made the reading fun. Without the illustrations and the very strange situations depicted, talking about rhetoric might have become dull, and that would be especially obnoxious considering it was our first assignment. The authors used this “comic” move to keep the content fun and relevant to college students. The authors approached their piece in a very modern way. They made sure to include relevant topics such as texting, the Internet, and the Human Rights Campaign while introducing visual literacy. They went above and beyond interesting their audience by using a “relevance” move. In other words, they kept it real. The move that most caught my attention was the “alternating” move they implemented. Every several frames, rather than throwing more information at the reader, they included a humorous frame to ease into a new topic—something I’d like to call the “break” move.

            Losh and Alexander, in addition to their “comic,” “revelance,” and “break” moves, used several moves widely practiced by the writing community. They used the I Say You Say “Standard Views” move to introduce widely accepted ideas. For example, while discussing visual literacy, Writing Spaces introduced a widely accepted idea by saying: “Our culture has taught us that depicting closeness or distance in an image might suggest something about the intimacy between the people shown” (12). The authors also used the “addition” word move. They often introduced new ideas and examples by using transitions like “in fact” and embedded voice messages by starting the sentence with phrases like “I often” (9).

            Another move I noticed while revisiting Writing Spaces was that they included conversations throughout the writing. This “conversation” move was between the characters but sometimes included the reader (me) in the comic but gave the piece a fun and conversational vibe, which consequently made me more interested in the piece (example on page 11 on page 9 of reader). Much like Writing Spaces, Kerry Dirk, author of Navigating Genres maintained a conversational tone throughout his piece. However, Kirk introduced a new move: the “scenario” move (see page 24). Kirk put the reader in extraordinary situations, such as a kidnapping, in order to illustrate his point—genres. Kirk also included some of the You Say I Say moves on his piece, such as “Agreeing with Disagreeing Simultaneously” by using phrases such as “I will admit” when stating his opinion, which helped him successfully state his opinion while also incorporating humor (19). In order to smoothly include more sources into his writing, Kirk used the “Signaling Who Is Saying What” move. On page 18, he introduced other writers’ experiences by stating: “some writers admitted that they did not know anything … and others went as far as to admit ignorance” (18).

            There were many more moves included that I did not examine or possibly even notice while revisiting our past readings, but one thing I realized was the importance of moves. Some moves are universal and some unique to certain writers. By using moves, writers are able to cater to a variety of different audiences and successfully get their points across. Moves give paper character, and they also help build the reader’s knowledge. Without moves, papers would be dull and difficult, and neither writers nor readers would ever accomplish anything, as brash as that may sound.

Even Spoopier: Thlog #4! #why #hashtag

Week four of class: Moving up in the world of writing!
This week felt totally different than last week. I was still kind of anxious the whole week but this week was more about self-discovery than "rules!" We did so many activities that I felt were helpful to my development as a writer. My personal favorite was the "moves" activity. Not only did I love hearing about AJ (so dreamy!--pic?), I also loved the moves activity. When we were asked to define what a move was I honestly had nothing to say. I was so perplexed at the fact that Zack asked what a move was. At first I was like "Is he serious? What are we, like 5 year olds?" but then people's other definitions blew me away. I know that people all have different definitions for things but that one was just out there. This week I also rediscovered the love of my life: italics. Like I said in class, all throughout high school I wanted to incorporate italics into my writing because I always thought italics were great for emphasis, but teachers only ever wanted italics used for titles and whatnot. I felt so restricted but now I know that italics are good used in moderation-- like little butterflies spread throughout the paper. This week has been one of my favorites. The activities made it feel so much more fun than usual and I definitely enjoyed how many f-bombs Zack dropped this week. This week was so engaging and it actually felt like I improved, even if it was only a little. Reading wise I thought it was kind of boring but next week's reading will apparently make up for that. I really hope that we have more weeks like this, it felt nice to have such a fun and uplifting week after the shock of seeing my first essay grade. Seriously, I've done bad before but never that bad. Actually, yes I have. Funny story: In 10th grade I was put into the "hardest" honors english class at school. I was freaking out because I was barely fluent in English and the class turned out to be as hard as expected. My teacher had some weird way of making herself feel like she helped us improve by giving us Ds on every essay and then asking us to rewrite it and giving us an A without even reading the paper. I am glad that Writing 2 is actually helping us improve rather than making it look like we are. More interactive activities, please!

PB2A - SCIgeneric vs. SCOOLarly

You type the word “also” into the search box on Thesaurus.com. You then furiously scroll down and through 3 pages of synonyms, but you don’t find anything. The mustardy yellow of the website irritates you and you finally decide to just use the word “also.” Scratch that. You erase the whole sentence and decide to integrate the information in a different way. You look at the time and realize your paper is due in two hours and decide to start it all over because it just didn’t sound “scholarly” enough. You look at the clock again and realize it has been half an hour and you still have nothing. Finally, you decide to look up “how to write scholarly paper” on Google. Success. The first thing to come up is a “Step-by-Step” guide to writing a scholarly paper. There are apparently sixteen steps to write a scholarly paper so you try it out. You finish within in forty minutes and your paper sounds fancy as hell, but for some reason it still sucks. Your paper sounds like a robot wrote it but it will pass through peer reviews and maybe even fool your professor. But how does this happen? It is all thanks to genres and conventions. Conventions are the unifying traits of genres. Conventions can make your paper fit into a genre, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will make it good or convincing.

A website that is better than you at so-called “BSing” papers is called SCIgen. SCIgen can turn you into the published author of a fancy gibberish research mess with the click of a button. SCIgen papers make no sense—that is easy to see—but how can a website possibly generate a paper that could go as far as fooling someone? The answer is easy: genres and conventions. Through careful use of the conventions of a research paper, SCIgen can “write” a paper that will fit into the genre of a research paper.

In order to find out more about the conventions of a research paper, I found an actual research paper that studies the effects of stress on the brain. The paper looked much like I expected. Simply accessing the paper made it feel like a research paper. I had to go through a library database to find it, which I was only ever required to do for AP Chemistry laboratory reports. The article appeared similar to SCIgen. They were both aesthetically similar—they were presented in a boring manner, on a boring website, in a “formal” font, and in a seemingly reader-friendly format. Both SCIgen and the research article I found started out with an informative title and a quick overview of the content of the paper. Both also contained a conclusion, and of course, they included fancy “jargon,” lots of names, impressive transitions, and page after page of data.

The scholarly piece, despite its many similarities to the SCIgen article, made SCIgen look like what it is: a whole lot of BS. The scholarly piece, unlike SCIgen, actually had a point to make. It was filled with research and names, but again, unlike SCIgen, the scholarly piece had data that you could actually find on the works cited and maybe even read it if you had the time and interest. Under the titles of both, you could find the authors, although on the stress articles, a number linked to similar articles and author affiliations followed each name. In that sense the actual research article appeared more trustworthy than SCIgen. Both SCIgen and the research article were broken up into different topics pertaining the subject, but only the scholarly piece’s organization seemed to make sense. SCIgen appeared as more of an experimental process, while the article on stress was neatly broken up into human and animal research as well as some further results of the study. Furthermore, the scholarly piece went above and beyond the expectations of a research paper. It expressed the many aspects of stress, but in the end, the scholarly piece actually discussed stress and the fact that it is not always a bad thing. A person evidently wrote the scholarly piece, which is what SCIgen could not simulate. It is hard to explain how this was evident, but one of the main separating traits of SCIgen and the scholarly piece was that I could see and feel the effort that went into the scholarly piece. The scholarly piece seemed almost passionate when compared to SCIgen, which at the end of the day, seemed like someone slapped a keyboard for two hours and the result was a bunch of autocorrected nonsense. Just because something fits into a genre does not mean it will have the same effect as another paper of the same genre.

http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v10/n6/full/nrn2639.html#a2

http://scigen.csail.mit.edu/scicache/870/scimakelatex.31533.Nat+Politron.Gaby+Flores.Tiffany+Velasquez.Grecia+Jimenez.html

Thlog #3 - A Very Spoopy Thlog

As I get farther into the course, I get scared. This week in class we started to step away from the "Fabulousness" professor and got to know the "Rules!" professor. Well, not completely. I feel that we experimented with both, but the strict writing definitely came into the picture this week. We talked about our writing process and the things we should look for in our papers. We discussed having a working thesis that passes the "arguability" test, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like--although blogger tells me arguability is not a word. Basically, there needs to be another side to your argument--there has to be some sort of opposition. Even though it sounds easy, thinking back on my WP1, it almost feels like I didn't pass the arguability test. WP1 was very challenging for me, and therefore scary. I felt a little out of place while writing it. I didn't exactly know what I was doing even after reading the prompt OVER and OVER again. I feel like it had most of what the prompt asked for, but it was missing part of me. Our peer reviews were helpful but they basically reassured my notions-- my paper was and is not good enough. The reverse outline we completed in class was definitely more helpful than my self-criticism. It allowed me to see how I could further connect my paper, and I also loved seeing all the colors coming together and overlapping from time to time. It gave me a better sense of what WP1 was looking for but still not enough. I hope that I at least gave my group members good enough feedback for their revisions. I feel like I tried to give this week my all but it didn't translate into my paper. The whole process was very stressful for me and at times I didn't even want to go back to look at my paper. I felt like the pressure of the course finally dropped on me. I hope that this is a sign that I will improve. I am definitely looking forward to working on WP2 because this time I will be able to use the tips and tricks we learned in class earlier in my writing process and be able to revise my paper more times than I did this time. 

WPs are very scary. 

Thlog #2

This week I struggled more than the last--both academically and emotionally. I enjoyed learning about audiences and how they can change writing, but somehow the concept of genres and conventions became more complicated than at first. I am not exactly sure at what point I lost notion of how conventions played part in genres. I guess the many conventions of a convention itself jumbled up my understanding of what I learned last week. I feel like I simply did not give my all, which might be why I struggled to understand the concepts we learned in class. I did, however, enjoy our assigned reading this week. In high school I was taught to be formulaic but subtle at the same time, while college composition has only encouraged creativity and being as explicit as possible. I am not sure if my writing has improved thus far, but I do know I have enjoyed my experience much more than I ever have before. I learned how to analyze rhetoric while still keeping my writing "fun." Again, this week I discovered more about my own writing process. I have continually examined my first thoughts and how I come across them--and also how I even get to putting them down on paper or, in this case, on the web. Learning so many things in such a short amount of time almost feels like it is pulling me back. Every time I learn something new about genres and conventions I feel like I am back at square one. To put it simply, as my Antarctica professor said last week: "when you get to college you realize you don't know anything." That is exactly how I am currently feeling. Now I am mentally preparing myself to write a super long paper on something I was stupid enough to think I understood, but now I realize I do not. I hope that next week will feel different than this week. Good vibes = good writing? 

Genre Generator

Genre, as defined by dictionary.com is "a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique, or the like." Genres can be anything from mystery novels, letters, to even texts of Twitter posts. Almost everything we see, read, and perceive is a genre of its own. This definition can make genres sound like meticulous and strict groups of identical items, but if we really take time to examine genres around us we are able to discern the vast variety of possibilities within one genre. Because of the flexibility of genres, the internet has been flooded with "genre generators" that can pretty much generate just about everything within a genre without necessarily wandering out of the genre's conventions. These "genre generators" can help the ordinary genre novice to learn more about genres by allowing him to examine which conventions prevail throughout the randomly generated genres.

In order to understand more about genres and their conventions in relation to genre generators, I visited four different genre generators. The first genre generator I visited was SCIgen,(pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen) which is a website that can supposedly publish a research paper "written" by you or someone else by simply entering your or any other name. Now, just because it generates a paper doesn't necessarily mean it makes any sense. Through not so careful examination, it's easy to see that the generated paper, well, makes no sense. However, at a quick glance it could fool just about everyone. But how is this possible? Well, when you think of a research paper there are several things that come to mind in terms of what it should include and what it should look like. When someone thinks of a research paper they probably think of an extremely long paper with countless so-called "big" words and an extensive list of sources and just as many authors. This is exactly what SCIgen provides you with. It generates a "research" paper with a fancy title, the "authors," plenty of "big words," many, many pages, and a lengthy list of sources. So, if to the regular onlooker this paper looks like any other research paper, then these expectations might represent the conventions of the genre of a research paper. This is not to say that research papers are by any means simple, but that by meeting certain expectations or conventions, anything has the ability to pass of (at least for a short period of time) as a certain genre.

The second website I visited was pandyland.net/random. Pandyland is a website that generates a random and probably ill-humored comic strip by randomly assembling three random pre-drawn images including the same two characters, Simon and Finlay. Seeing these two average looking dudes on the same, monotone, purplish gray background again and again can seem boring, but the combination of terrible jokes and awful facial expressions makes it a worthwhile experience, at least for some. While I did not find all the generated comics humorous, certain combinations made me chuckle. After generating many of these comics I realized that not much about them changed. As previously stated, the three pictures always include Simon, Finlay, or both plastered on a monotonous purplish gray background. Both of them are always wearing the same boring outfits. Finlay wears a green long sleeved shirt and jeans and Simon wears a burgundy long sleeved shirt with khakis. All these traits sound awfully boring, but add some crude humor that somehow makes fun of modern society, funny facial expressions, and bam-- you have created a hilarious comic at the click of a button. Pandyland didn't always turn out funny, but the conventions of a comic strip were always present.

The third genre generator I visited was memegenerator.net. MemeGenerator required a bit more effort than the previous, as I had to choose an image and then caption it myself. I was too lazy to make my own, but by looking at the already existing memes I was able to decipher the conventions of a meme: a funny picture, a not always funny caption, and the uncomfortable feeling of having seen the meme (just kidding, or maybe not, judge this yourself).

 The final genre generator I visited was http://www.everypoet.com/haiku/, which generates a random haiku at a click of a button. Much like SCIgen, this website generates a Haiku based on the conventions of a haiku: "seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world" (google.com). Again, much like SCIgen, the haikus don't necessarily make sense, they merely follow a pattern.

Genre generators don't always generate something that makes sense, but by giving the generated genres a second look it is easy to see that these genre generators work because they all do one thing in common: they all meet the conventions of a genre.