Blog #3

Writing in a group was something new to me.  I do not really remember writing a group paper before this.  I was interested to see how writing in a group would work out due to the different personalities and writing styles that people have. 

I actually ended up really enjoying working in a group, or with my partner, on the informative summary.  I guess that it was the luck of the draw when choosing my partner, but we got along very well.  We worked very well together and had very similar writing styles.  I think that we both took the reins and ended up writing a great paper. 

I liked that we were able to share our opinions about the article we chose, because I was able to see another person's views.  Instead of being by myself with only my take on the article or something in the article, I was able to hear her take as well.  There were things that she picked out that I would have never seen or thought of, and I did the same.  It was nice to have someone there to immediately begin proofreading, saying that something was great, and/or saying that something did not make any sense at all.  I would definitely do the group thing again, as long as I get a partner like I had for this one!

When writing my evaluative summary I did not have too much trouble deciding on whether or not the author proved and backed up their points.  I knew the stance I wanted to take and my thoughts came pretty quickly to me.  I was able to find things in the article that I wanted to talk about and that I had an opinion on.  This was made easier for me because I was able to see another person's way of doing this on the previous article I used for my group essay.  I was able to put the two techniques together for my personal use.  I believe that I did a good job of organizing and getting the point across. 

Blog #2

When I found out that I had to write an essay in class, on the first day of class, I was shocked!  I was not prepared for it at all.  It had been almost two years since I had written an essay.  I was very nervous about writing the diagnostic essay because of the time constraints.  If I had to do it again, I would try to be more relaxed and take more time to get my thoughts together and organized.

I enjoy writing when I am able to take my time to proofread and revise, revise, revise!  I also like to get my ideas written down, kind of like an outline, and then begin writing my paper.  Once I have my ideas I can write an organized paper.  I do not think that my diagnostic paper was very well organized.  It was just a lot of information thrown together to complete two pages!  If I would have had more than 45 minutes to write it, I would have gone back to make several changes.  I would have been scribbling out sentences, moving sentences around and choosing better words to use.  Time is something that I need to make a paper a great paper.

My strengths have to be that I am an organized writer.(When I have time!) Once I have decided what I want to write about, I can get to work and I can keep my thoughts coming.  The tough part, is deciding what I want to write about!  I have many opinions and I like to express them.  One of my weaknesses in writing has to be second guessing myself.  It is hard for me to want to sit down and start a paper.  I second guess myself on whether or not something is going to be good enough to write about.  It drives me crazy because I can spend hours going back and forth with myself about whether or not I should use something in my papers.

Blog #1

While reading the Introduction and Chapter 1 of the book "They Say I Say" I found a lot of very helpful information. In the Introduction the author brings up the traditional five paragraph essay. This is the type of essay that I remember writing and learning about all the way through High School. I do agree with the author that you do need more than just evidence that supports your thesis; you also need conversation to argue effectively. Being able to incorporate the he said she said and being able to argue or agree with those statements helps readers understand more of what you are arguing, as opposed to just showing your point of view and the facts as to why you chose that point of view.


One of the questions that is in the book is, "Do Templates Stifle Creativity?" Templates are a good source to use when writing a paper. Templates can help a person get their thoughts in order and can help sort out ideas to be put into a logical way that makes sense in a paper. Papers would not be robotic, because the words and information that are used in each paper would be unique and creative in their own way.

Quotations are very important in showing why you agree or disagree with something. Quotations can be under and over used in papers. I agree that you need to quote, but you also need to make sure that you are incorporating a lot of your own ideas into your paper to get your views across to the readers.

All in all, I agree with most of the information that is offered in the book "They Say I Say." I think that the information given will be very helpful to me while writing any paper that is required this semester and in the future.