Journal 2

The beginning of the reading began with how to understand the demands of writing in college or at the college level. It listed a variety of ways about what writers are expected to do; from stating claims meaning the thesis statement to documenting sources like the works cited page. The book goes on by discussing a writers "aim" which essentially means how you want to accomplish your writing tasks.
Understanding rhetorical situations was the next part of the reading. This subjects states that communication involves the interactions of 3 things: The writer or speaker, the audience, and the subject. The book shows a nice diagram of how those 3 items should be used correctly. By persuading others with the 3 appeals of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos a writer can learn to gain the attention of the reader.
I really liked how the book gave you an on track off track look at writing. It is always easy to read what good writing is, but we usually never get too see what exactly off writing would be perceived as. The book also gave many examples of essays different people have written involving reflections. The keys to writing a reflection were listed along with examples of exactly how to accomplish those key ideas. Also a list of things on how to write a reflection was given. 1. Choose a subject, 2. develop A response, 3. write a draft, 4. revise, revise, revise, 5. submitted version. Along with the list examples were given for each idea as well.
Over all I feel that the reading was very helpful especially with reflections. Once again this book gives multiple examples and guides to accomplishing a writers goals.

Reflection

After writing the literacy narrative it was sort of difficult to decide whether I liked or disliked the assignment. I liked the assignment because it involved me, and of course I know myself best. I disliked the assignment because I found myself not knowing what else to write. Reading and writing has never been a big part of my life, so it was difficult for me to write much about literacy.

I feel like I completed the assignment to the best of my ability. In my opinion I think my essay was average. I barely made it to three pages, but I feel that what I wrote about within those three pages pertained to exactly what the essay was supposed to be about.

For now I think I will set aside this essay and wait to see what the other topics we will be writing about entail. I think I need to work on how to add more to my papers without repeating what I have already said. I do think that the peer reviews help, because other people who look at my work notice things that I may not notice. Insight is always helpful, if your willing to listen to other opinions, which I am.

I still feel that I need help with transitions, and maybe even paragraph organization. I think I did an alright job placing my paragraphs in order, but when I think it is right it ends up being wrong. As the class goes on I'm sure I will become more and more comfortable with writing. It will probably take me a little bit to get to that point again considering I have been out of the English department for a while now.