... again I look back on some past writings, this time, the whole year's worth.
Wow, where do I start? The year is almost over, having passed in an unbelievable blur of action and emotion. There were essays, textbooks, sports, and friends to deal with, and many, many, blog posts to do. So now the question is: what the heck do I want to say in my final? There are so many different prompts to choose from, 11 of them to be exact. I suppose that, after some though, I’ll choose prompts, 11, 10, and if I have time, 5.
So what exactly are the prompts? Here, have a comprehensive list to go along with your reading:
5. What's my usual revision/editing process? How do I go from rough to final draft?
10. Where do I get my ideas for blog post topics? What inspires me to write?
11. How is the open-ended writing I do on my blog different from the more structured academic assignments I write?
Shall we continue?
So, I’m gonna be awful and go backwards, starting with question 11. My more open-ended writing is much like this post, more flowing and imbued with my voice (whether that is good or bad is neither here nor there). Whereas my more formal academic posts are stiffer, use more “big words” and tend to be (honestly) a bit boring. Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself:
“What does it mean to be college ready? I believe that it’s basically being able to function in higher-level classes, meaning that you know the basic skills for each subject you take, and aren’t afraid to put them to use. Plus you’re mature enough to get along with people you wouldn’t usually interact with, and able to schedule and prioritize. “ (from this post)
Now tell me my posts aren’t boring... and if you STILL disagree... well... then you’re weird. Anyway, what I’m trying to say here is that in academics, my voice becomes too formal and I lose a bit, or a lot, of who I am. I lose my humour, I lose... well, I’ve run out of ideas, but you get the point.
Summary:
My more academic posts and free posts differ in that one is more structured, with less of my voice and a more formal tone (academic) while the other posts are more... me. They have my sense of humour and a voice I think I’d actually speak in (free).
And so here I go jumping around again. Following question 11, we jump to question five:
What's my usual revision/editing process? How do I go from rough
to final draft?
I tend to follow a more unconventional writing process. For posts such as this one, where I need to have various quotes and such, I start with the filler, then the commentary, THEN I go back and add in my quotes. After all of that, I got back and tweak it here and there before proclaiming it acceptable. Basically, I work better backwards. I can use this post as an example, I started with my questions, my basic skeleton, then I added in what I wished to say about my writing, before adding connecting paragraphs and now I’m adding in my quotes. Until I add my quotes, in my drafts, you usually find this:
“(insert quote here)” (example in this post)
What happens is that as I write each post, and the commentary, I have a quote, or section of the book in mind, and until I say what I want to say, I don’t know quite what quote I want, what section of the text I need. Usually, after I find the quote, it all flows quite well and I’m happy with it.
And for my favorite question, #10, what inspires you to write?
Well, a lot of things inspire me to write. Though I don’t have any particular quotes from my works on this blog, I do have some examples for you.
I write about anything that comes to mind, be it something from class discussions, like my post on Evolution... or something like articles I found online. Now, these two are very old posts, posts that I actually mentioned in LAST semester’s final, I talked about them being sloppy and unprofessional. Which is ironic in some ways, because in this post, I’m talking about making my speech LESS professional and more me.
Some more older posts that come to mind when I think of various inspirations are posts like the one on writing style, or the one about movies. Both came from some everyday observations I made. You know, observations are most commonly where I get my inspiration, sometimes, when I’m by myself, or my friends are talking to other people, I sit back and marvel at how people interact with each other, how we talk, walk, everything. People are fascinating, So commonly, it’s people that inspire me to write.
Something else that I actually find hilarious, is what inspires the titles of these blog posts. Some of them are seemingly random, having no rhyme or reason to them, other than that fact that I was lost as far as titles and named them after the first thing I saw.
Such examples include: Oh Look, The Bird's Eating Again and The Cat With The Crossed Paws.
Both are definitely random, and not necessarily my finest moments.
In some other posts, I’ve complained about class discussions, drama, substitutes, and even religion. Most, if not all of the above posts relate to the school discussions and goings-on in some way.
And, my most favorite post of all, my post on the prisoner’s dilemma.
And right about here is where I should wrap all this up.
In conclusion, this year’s writing has been interesting, to say the least, varying from class works to impromptu writings on whatever happens to cross my mind. My writing style is a little, well, a lot, all over the place. And my style changes a lot depending on the subject, and how tired I am at the time. So that’s it... perhaps I’ll see you all over the summer or something, when I finally get bored enough to pick up writing again. It shouldn't take too horribly long for that to happen.
So what exactly are the prompts? Here, have a comprehensive list to go along with your reading:
5. What's my usual revision/editing process? How do I go from rough to final draft?
10. Where do I get my ideas for blog post topics? What inspires me to write?
11. How is the open-ended writing I do on my blog different from the more structured academic assignments I write?
Shall we continue?
So, I’m gonna be awful and go backwards, starting with question 11. My more open-ended writing is much like this post, more flowing and imbued with my voice (whether that is good or bad is neither here nor there). Whereas my more formal academic posts are stiffer, use more “big words” and tend to be (honestly) a bit boring. Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself:
“What does it mean to be college ready? I believe that it’s basically being able to function in higher-level classes, meaning that you know the basic skills for each subject you take, and aren’t afraid to put them to use. Plus you’re mature enough to get along with people you wouldn’t usually interact with, and able to schedule and prioritize. “ (from this post)
Now tell me my posts aren’t boring... and if you STILL disagree... well... then you’re weird. Anyway, what I’m trying to say here is that in academics, my voice becomes too formal and I lose a bit, or a lot, of who I am. I lose my humour, I lose... well, I’ve run out of ideas, but you get the point.
Summary:
My more academic posts and free posts differ in that one is more structured, with less of my voice and a more formal tone (academic) while the other posts are more... me. They have my sense of humour and a voice I think I’d actually speak in (free).
And so here I go jumping around again. Following question 11, we jump to question five:
What's my usual revision/editing process? How do I go from rough
to final draft?
I tend to follow a more unconventional writing process. For posts such as this one, where I need to have various quotes and such, I start with the filler, then the commentary, THEN I go back and add in my quotes. After all of that, I got back and tweak it here and there before proclaiming it acceptable. Basically, I work better backwards. I can use this post as an example, I started with my questions, my basic skeleton, then I added in what I wished to say about my writing, before adding connecting paragraphs and now I’m adding in my quotes. Until I add my quotes, in my drafts, you usually find this:
“(insert quote here)” (example in this post)
What happens is that as I write each post, and the commentary, I have a quote, or section of the book in mind, and until I say what I want to say, I don’t know quite what quote I want, what section of the text I need. Usually, after I find the quote, it all flows quite well and I’m happy with it.
And for my favorite question, #10, what inspires you to write?
Well, a lot of things inspire me to write. Though I don’t have any particular quotes from my works on this blog, I do have some examples for you.
I write about anything that comes to mind, be it something from class discussions, like my post on Evolution... or something like articles I found online. Now, these two are very old posts, posts that I actually mentioned in LAST semester’s final, I talked about them being sloppy and unprofessional. Which is ironic in some ways, because in this post, I’m talking about making my speech LESS professional and more me.
Some more older posts that come to mind when I think of various inspirations are posts like the one on writing style, or the one about movies. Both came from some everyday observations I made. You know, observations are most commonly where I get my inspiration, sometimes, when I’m by myself, or my friends are talking to other people, I sit back and marvel at how people interact with each other, how we talk, walk, everything. People are fascinating, So commonly, it’s people that inspire me to write.
Something else that I actually find hilarious, is what inspires the titles of these blog posts. Some of them are seemingly random, having no rhyme or reason to them, other than that fact that I was lost as far as titles and named them after the first thing I saw.
Such examples include: Oh Look, The Bird's Eating Again and The Cat With The Crossed Paws.
Both are definitely random, and not necessarily my finest moments.
In some other posts, I’ve complained about class discussions, drama, substitutes, and even religion. Most, if not all of the above posts relate to the school discussions and goings-on in some way.
And, my most favorite post of all, my post on the prisoner’s dilemma.
And right about here is where I should wrap all this up.
In conclusion, this year’s writing has been interesting, to say the least, varying from class works to impromptu writings on whatever happens to cross my mind. My writing style is a little, well, a lot, all over the place. And my style changes a lot depending on the subject, and how tired I am at the time. So that’s it... perhaps I’ll see you all over the summer or something, when I finally get bored enough to pick up writing again. It shouldn't take too horribly long for that to happen.
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