Blog Post - 6

Drew Woodside
Professor Bolaski
English 100
31 July 2012
Portfolio Preface
My process of writing, once my Idea has formed, is not exactly brainstorming ideas, but rather just throwing them out on the paper. I just type ideas as they come, they don't even have to be complete sentences. Simple statements that I can go back over and form multiple sentences from. I write with a central point in mind allowing me to find points that correlate to the main topic in various ways. This enables me to find structure in my essays, which, so far that has been a style that I use and has worked for me in each of my writing assignments.
I found that some of the in class discussions provided a great source to pull from while I wrote the three assignments. Specific examples would be when we talked about opinion pieces and what the author used to convey his or her message to their audience. That helped me when choosing the types of rhetorical strategies that I would incorporate into my writing to help express my feelings on certain issues. I really enjoyed the in class discussions that we had before each of our assignments.
"Do you procrastinate?" The real question is who doesn’t. Probably on every essay that I have ever written I have procrastinated; don't ask me why I do it. I always tell myself that I will start on the essay right after it is assigned, but - let's be honest here - I cannot remember the last time I actually started an essay on time. It is just so much easier to put the assignment off till later, why would anyone not procrastinate - it is just so easy to do. It's like being addicted to drugs - which I'm not - and trying to stop; not such an easy task.
I definitely think that writing is both a private and public act. Each form of writing contains its own benefit to the writer. Writing in a public setting allows the writer to have somewhat of a conversation with the world allowing for the expression of ideas to be possible. Writing in private allows for a self reflection and a collection of thoughts. I had an assignment given to me a while ago that asked me to keep a journal of the day’s events. I found this to be beneficial in that it gave me the chance to go over things that I normally would have forgotten about. Also it allowed me to see small advancements in my writing - so I've got that going for me. Sharing my writing with others is a great thing opportunity to get some feedback that could not be done by me. After going over the same article multiple times having another set of eyes look at my work catches things that I would miss. Viewing writing as a "continuing, progressive act that we never quite 'finish' but that can always improve" sort of bothers me because I would like to produce a final piece of mastery but I know that even the smallest part can be revised to improve the paper. This is what I prefer to do instead of completing the assignment, receiving a grade, and moving on to the next task.
I chose to arrange my work chronologically just because it made more sense to me – which is a super lame reason but I just like the organization that is achieved when doing so. Arranging them this way also allowed me to show my progression as a writer from this class. The first essay that I wrote is the one where I received the lowest initial score and the last was the essay where I received the highest. This is the ultimate goal – to see my abilities in English improve throughout the course.