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Journal/Forum Reflection At the beginning of this semester the overall class we were told we were going to talk about story-telling, I wasnt quite sure how we were going to make connections of writing in a college class and story-telling. But in the first forum when we were told to make a connection between a story, myth, or legend and I thought of Pocahontas. Also, the conflicts that she faces within herself, her family, and friends; and the way she handles them somewhat remind me of myself. This then gave me the idea that you can make a connection between almost anything. (January 11) My writing after this first entry opened up a lot of new ideas that I can write a lot about of different things and about comparisons and how to make comparisons to unordinary ways. Now in my papers I can compare ideas, objects and people to almost anything, for example in my Creative Nonfiction Essay I wrote Parties are like sparks, and that gave room for a whole new discussion. Another way my writing has changed throughout the semester was in the forum of Ancient Tradition & Contemporary Storytelling I read where I wrote, I think the writer of the movie had a story to be told and wants his audience to feel the emotions he went through. A purpose of storytelling that I'm familiar with is to either teach a lesson or express emotions. (January 30) I then thought it was only a couple things which made art, but throughout the semester I realized that art is expressed in any possible way and art is what you make of it. This journal didnt have that much effect on my paper but it did help give me a new view point on art. When working on doing research for my topic I didnt think that I could find any research on partying and then in the forum of Search Terms I wrote, I mostly found definitions of

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partying from urban dictionary and Wikipedia. I also found some other websites that just discussed liquor, marijuana, and how to talk to kids about partying and drugs. There were not any articles or websites that I could find that talked about partying in a positive connotation. The only other source I found that contained information about partying was Facebook. This forum made me realize that it is hard to find a lot of information about partying in college but going through the semester I realized for my paper primary research was one of the best choices since I had a lot of experiences and I could use a lot of strategies to improve my paper. Also, throughout the process of research I only found a few sources which mainly talked about Animal House, and Project X. (February 16) At the end of the semester I started focusing on editing my paper but when the forum of Revision came up, I had put, It wasnt something really that new to me. I liked my paper a lot so I dont really want to revise it unless there is something else that someone has caught along the way that didnt work throughout my paper, and then I would consider revising. A lot of things got in the way of my revising. I still feel quite the same about this but I still do appreciate having peer review and what not in class but what I read in this didnt affect me at this point in the semester. In the Captain St. Lucifer essay, the final draft is completely different, they had different beginnings and it had way more detail and transitioned better than the rough draft. I think for the final portfolio of my creative nonfiction essay I could just include a little more information from sources, but other than that I was really happy with how my paper was. In this I noticed that I needed to do these sorts of revision for improvement, but I wish I could have read this earlier in the semester so I could have a comparison to how I could have truly changed my paper. (April 11)

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In my process through the semester I have had a lot of changes in my writing and my perspectives on a lot of things. In my first journal it was about why we tell stories. I wrote about telling my mom a story about my roommate and what she was doing to make me mad, then why I told my mom about it. I had an aha moment in this journal when I wrote, Telling a story can tell a lot about a what kind of person you are, and telling stories are a part or our life every day. We just do it. (January 11) This made me think about my research and, what I could write about and what I would tell the audience so they were interested. I realized that I wanted to write an essay that would get through to my audience and leave a mark or a memory and it helped me realize I can tell a story about my life and become personal with the audience in a different manner but still make a connection. In the journal I was supposed to talk about my weekend and I wrote. We had a backlight party and there were so many people we had to start kicking people out. I got the best birthday present, my dermals which my roommates bought for me I read this and I think it gave me the insight to what my Inquiry Project Proposal was going to be about, partying. Later on this party was one of the parties I wrote about in my Creative Nonfiction Essay and it really helped to think about just having fun and why we partied and reviewing this journal made me think I still could have been more personal and descriptive with what was happening at the party. (January 23) When I had to write the journal about describing something or someone with all senses, I wrote about my Granddaddy. I wrote warm, wrinkly skin, smell of light cologne, raspy voice, his walk, the way he smiled, the way he ate his food. Ive developed my writing a lot more since then because I realized that I need to let the audience see the scene and use more detail so its a clearer image rather than just guessing what that person looks like. Ive improved and I definitely think that rereading this journal has helped me realize that my writing has improved and that in

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my Creative Nonfiction Essay I have included way more detail. (January 25). My biggest problem is lacking detail, in another journal about explaining in something full detail. I felt the more details I included, the better the audience would understand it. I saw in this journal where I didnt exaggerate about anything that I was doing or anything else. It was just short main points which left it boring and uninteresting. When I reflected on the forum which was pertaining to the journal about the time I was a tourist. My family and I were visiting everything in Charleston and Savannah and asking people where certain stuff was, because we were unfamiliar with our surroundings. (February 1) This writing lacked details and I didnt include anything about what I was looking at or doing. This shows where I could improve my writing by adding detail letting the audience see what I did and comprehend better. I think I accomplished this in my Creative Nonfiction Essay by improving on adding more detail in the party scenes so the reader can get a better picture in their head. Throughout the semester I did all the main projects and worked hard on them and have greatly approved in my opinion, but I realized that I have changed a lot over the semester but I have lacked class participation. I feel that I have not engaged myself in the classroom. I have not dont all the forum posts and I dont participate in classroom discussions, probably because I havent read the material. I think that I have changed in my writing since this journal because the classroom discussion has helped generate new ideas to include in my paper. Before it seemed as if I didnt care and now I am working hard to improve and associate more with my teacher and get more advice.

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