Session 1: Home in living room at 1 ish. My mom in and out of kitchen.

Dogs in house, and in room with me. Blackboard is open on my

computer. My Phone is on vibrate in front of me.
1-5: Open assignment, Look at questions. Open a blank word
document. Re-read questions and instructions. Confused and a bit
stressed out. Try and gain a better understanding. Looked down at
phone because it vibrated. Started typing while having pauses and
thinking and analyzing in my head.. [RD], [RQ], [GP], [Ph], [WS]
6-10: Start typing, then I erased some of what I wrote. Analyze.
Moment of silence used to analyze. Anxiety about how my paper was
going. Mom was in kitchen making noise. Typing again. Revising what I
wrote. Mom was calling her dog. [O], [S], [FAM], [WS], [EDEL], [PET]
11-15: typing, and analyzing my work. Stretching. Backing away from
work because Im a little stressed. Sleepy. Reading the next question
questions. Thinking about why I started to write and thinking about my
time in private school. [WS], [BR(-)], [ZZZ], [RQ], [Q]
16-20: Typing, Wrote something irrelevant and caught myself. Typing
my thoughts on one of the questions. Moment of silence. Analyzing
and thinking about the question. Stressing tapping fingers on table.
[WS], [EDEL], [TWW], [S]
21-25: Reading the next question. I am typing and going back to the
question to analyze it again. Didnt understand it well enough the first
time around. Messing with hair. Stressing out. Left to make food. [RQ],
[RQ], [WON]
26-30: Gone making food. [BR(+)], [EAT]
31-35: Got back with food. Dog sneezed. I got distracted. I read the
question again since I left to make food. Took a bite of food. Wrote a
little. Read question again. [EAT], [PET], [RQ], [WS]
36-40: Finished my sandwich and had to re read the question again
and think about what need to write. My phone vibrated and I looked
down once again. It was my cnn app. Began typing again. [EAT], [RQ],
[S], [Ph], [WS]
41-45: Mom passed by. Got distracted. Typing. Revising a couple things
I misspelled and writing more. Reading the next question out loud and
trying to make sense of it in my head. Also thinking about how to fit it
in my story. Reading question again. [FAM], [WS], [RE]

46-50: Talking what I am typing. Dogs started walking off so I called her
back. Also called the other one. Reading questions aloud. Reading
what im writing out loud. Talking about how I like to finish my paper the
same day I start it. I am thinking of words to use in my paper to make
it sound good and understandable. I am reading over what I wrote and
checking for errors, and then I revised what I found. [TWW], [PET],
[ROL], [TWW], [C]
51-55: Going back and fixing the part where I talk about when I
started writing. Im fixing a couple things, and adding some in other
places. [R], [EADD]
56-60: silent moment. Typing. Reading making sure I went over the
topics and reading over my assignment. [S], [RD], [RQ]
61-65: Mom in kitchen cleaning dishes. I can hear the dishes hitting
each other. Im checking blackboard online to see my grades in all my
classes. [FAM], [LTT], [SM]
66-70: Reading over my final assignment and fixing any errors then
posting it online. Hoping its good. Slight anxiety on pressing the submit
button. [C], [ROL], [R]

Autoethnography
My writing process is a lot more complex than I thought. I used to
think I didnt have many rules or problems with my writing but now I
see the kinds of issues I have been facing that I didnt even notice. I
find that now that I know of these problems, I can now find a way to fix
them, and improve my over all writing process.
I began writing my essay feeling pretty nervous. I had a lot of
anxiety. I was afraid I would not understand what I need to write about
and not be able to fully expand and make it interesting. I was also
nervous about the grade I would receive. When I began writing I was
trying to start by understanding the questions and writing interestingly
and in a form that seemed logical. I was sitting in the formal living
room, the room not too far from the kitchen. My dogs were with me, as
they usually are. They arent too much of a fuss; they normally jut sit
and sleep wherever I am. I noticed that a couple times I was distracted
by having to call them because I was worried they would wander off
and go pee on my moms carpet. Where I sat to write is probably the
best place in my house that I could write, because its a big table
where I have plenty of room to write and type and charge my laptop if

necessary. I did look down at my phone once or twice and that affected
me negatively because I was thinking about my phone and what was
on it then the paper, causing me to lose my train of thought.
While I was writing I seemed to revise the little things a lot. I
actually noticed that when I am stuck is when I seem to revise. Its a
small scale type of revision, so it doesnt take much thought its just a
revision of spelling or maybe some sentence restructuring. So when I
felt that I was stressed out id try and perfect the rest of my
assignment. I think this affects me positively only because it helps me
relax and it seems to reassure me about the rest of my paper, which
helps ease the tension on the rest of my paper. I think one of the really
important details is I need to understand the question and the
directions thoroughly, before I begin.

Ive been taught a couple of things in the past but I just havent
had to write too many papers. I really dont have many practices
drilled into my brain. Everything I wrote in my portrait of a writer,
seems to be semi accurate. It isnt as much of an understanding as
what I have now. I see that I do have some rules. Even though I do not
have a lot I also see that I revise a lot during my process.
During my autoethnography coding and analyzing process I
realized that I should to take breaks more often. I think that I sit and I
try to rush everything instead of taking my time and spreading it out

over time and resting and coming back. My anxiety takes over and all I
want to do is finish and get it over with. I need to take time to reflect
and I think brainstorming would help me out quite a bit. I normally just
get an assignment and get started I need to take time to look over
what is being asked of me and reflect. I think my strength is that I
dont get to easily distracted where I am. I sit and I dont get too
worried about other people or my pets because I am just focused on
finishing.
From the other articles I have read, I have learned a lot of
different things. I learned that there are many different ways of writing.
People mess up in many different ways. I think that I have a problem
with not having enough structure. I need to have more rules.
Sometimes rules can be too much, and they can affect your writing
process in a negative way. I think I have too little. Which can be good
when you are going to start learning more. I need some more
structure rules and I need to try to brainstorm before. I think that
would be helpful for me because that way I can have a more clear
understanding of what I am writing. I need to write out my thoughts so
that way I can have my thoughts out on paper and everything can be
more clear. That way I dont have to lose my train of thought going
back and fourth to the question.
Writing a outline of brainstorming has never been
something that I have done and I think that leads back to how I jut

want to get things done. I need to take my time and think things
through more clearly because I noticed that a lot of my video was me
re reading questions and trying to understand and comprehend the
question.
In my next paper I believe I will have a much better outcome now
knowing what my problems are. I hope that over time I can learn how
to fix it, and how to better structure my paper.
This assignment has helped me immensely in figuring out what
kind of writer I am. I did not think that video taping myself and writing
what happened during my writing process would be of much help in
helping me with my writing. Im glad I learned about my weaknesses
and my strengths so that, I may fix my weaknesses and improve upon
my strengths. I hope to become a better writer and have more
structure and rules in my papers. Because that is something in which I
am lacking. Over all this is just one of the many steps I have to take in
order to become a successful, and good writer.