Assignment#15- Final reflection

     Now that I had looked back at my first and seventh blogs I realized that I had improved my writing skills. I feel that I have achieved 50% in writing because when I compare my first paper to the last one there was a lot of difference in it. I felt that I have reached my goal in someway. I wanted to write essay in college level and choose the vocabulary which fits in there, I think I had done a good job in that. 

    My strengths are that I know how to write a main point and I know how to choose a college level vocabulary for essays. I would like to develop more on these strengths for further in writing. My weakness is that I still have trouble in writing a strong sentence for thesis or for a main idea of a story. I have been including some points in essays which are not necessary or I am not talking about it in later  in the essay. I still have to work on organizing the essay. Overall, I am satisfied that I had improved my writing in a way that I want. 

Assignment#14- Planning for revisions

 

     For my portfolio I chose to revise my literacy narrative essay. The strength of my paper is that I have well written the story. In the essay I have explained what are some conflicts during the writing process of an assignment and how I completed it. The weakness of my paper is that I gave too may details which I could write specific. In middle of the essay I could have included some information, but I didn't. 

   To be more perfect in the essay I will correct the weakness in my paper. I will work on including some information that was needed in the story. Also, there are some sentences which I have to reword them. There are minor mistakes of verbs and run-ons and those can be fixed as well. If I fix these mistakes I will have perfect essay. 

Assignment# 13: Analyzing and Writing Arguments



      I analyzed the aricle called "Don't Presume to Know a Pig's Mind". In that article the author has a strong argument. He started the article by explaining an commercial ad by Chipotle and argued what's wrong in that ad. Becuase of their ad the large buyer of bacon, McDonald's, took a strong decision which is not helpful to farmers. In that ad the author was supporting farmers and targeting Chipotle's commercial ad. He has done everthing well, but he should have explained how the pigs were treated in crowded building and why the farmers have to keep their pigs in buildings.This article taught me how I have to be careful in writing my argumantative essay. I have to give enough and clear information, so readers can be convinced and understand what I was trying to say. In my essay I have to stay more focused on my main thesis and be able to give the right amount of facts.

Assignment# 12: Thinking Critically About Evidence



     I was going argue about Should humans be vegetarian. I was going to argue that humans can live healthy with vegetables. I will explain how will vegetables helps us and what other foods that can help our immune system much better.

Logos:
     - Nutrition
     - Health

Pathos:
     - Obesity
     - Live longer
     - Less frequency to doctors
     - No dental issues
Ehtos
     - Religion
     - Spiritual

•  My strongest point is that I will provide all vegetable names or some rear vegetables no one heard about before and how they will help us. I will explain what is the use for example, control of obesity, have stronger immune system and etc. In my argument I'm going to prove that what do we need for our body to be healthy and how vegetables will function our body.
• My weakest point is that I will write about Hindu religion. I will explain why don't they eat meat and what do they to be healthy. I said this is the weakest point becuase some people might disagree with this religion bussiness, but I'm going make it as a strong point in convincing how hindus are living without meat and healthy. And I will convince that they living longer and healthier.

Assignment# 11- Patterns of errors

•      In my writing, the first mistake that I was constantly making was not knowing when to use in and on in a sentence. These kind of mistakes change the meaning of the sentence. When I'm not clear on what I want to say, then readers will get confused about the story. I know that it is very important to clarify to readers without confuse them and I will loose some points on it. In my old essays I found those mistakes invariable.  
•   The second mistake was thesis statement. In each of my essay I didn't have a strong thesis statement, yet it is acceptable. Thesis is the important base of the story and if  I couldn't convince the reader with my main idea, then the essay wouldn't worth full points. I know it is important to have thesis, but I always struggle on working with the thesis statement each time that I work on my essay.
• The final mistake was my conclusion. I habitually writing the conclusion very unfocused or it was not well restated my essay. Sometimes the conclusion seems unfinished which makes it unnecessary story. In essays it is very important to have introduction, thesis, body, and conclusion. I believe that it is very important to have these four things has to be clear for readers. I know that I still need to work on these in my current essays and 'till now I have been facing these problems in my essays.     

Assignmaent# 10- Thinking critically about Peer Review

     Peer Review is very helpful process in wrting assingments. So far in class we tried different peer reviews in class, but I think it should be improved. It should be improved by 2 people working on one paper. What I mean is that there should be only one writer and one reader, so they can focus on only one paper. Because I think it is very confusing or difficult to review two  papers at a time. I think we are not able to suggest better on both papers at time. My strength as peer reviewer is that I'm able to correct some mistakes or some suggestions that I want as a reader. My weakness is that I'm not able to concentrate on both papers at the same time. Also, when peer reveiw is done I'm not able to follow both suggestions from peers. One peer is suggesting is one thing and the other is suggesting the other. But when I compare it both peers have different ideas on the same concept and it seems like one is not agreeing with the other. I think peer review is helpful when the professor checks if the peers are suggesting the right thing for writer.  

Assignment# 9- A choice in topics

     I found the literacy narrative much easier to do because I can write about my experience in writing. First, I thought the literacy narrative essay is the harder assignment because I didn't know what is it and what to write about. After reading the assignment sheet and reading the stories in the book I kind of got it what to write. Then I wrote about my experience the experience in learning the two languages at the same time. Later I found out it's not the story to write about, so I changed my story later on. This time I wrote about my first experience in writing when I didn't know how to write a full sentence when I first came to Chicago. This is easy because I know what I'm going to say and I know what I want to write.

     The difficult assignment was ad analysis essay. I did explained very well about the ad and how it was displayed. I think I didn't analyzed the ad that much. It is kind of difficult because writing about the ad for someone who never saw that ad before. If the audience know what ad I'm writing about then it will be easy for them to understand what I'm saying. I did my best in that, still it is a difficult assignment.       

Assignment# 8: Thinking about Arguments

     Don't Presume To Know a Pig's Mind is an article about a Chipotle Mexican Grill ad. At Grammy Awards they showed their video of ad for Chipotle. In that video, at beginning the pig's were happy and were free in farm, but later the pigs and cows were placed indoors, which is in crowded buildings. While the pigs were in buildings they are pumped with antibiotics and later were sent in cubes. At the end the farmer decides to get rid of the factories and free the animals in farm. Now the pigs are happy and healthy they were sent to Chipotle Burritos. So, basically the Chipotle Mexican Grill is arguing that they use only happier pigs for their burritos. On the other side, the article is also saying that how can they measure the happiness of a pig. There is no way to read a pig's mind, so how can they conform that the pig is happy. In the article it also stated that McDonald's will create more space in crates for pigs rather than in small crates where they fight for food. 

     I chose this article because the title did catch my attention to choose this article and even before reading the article I saw the video. Then I was interested in reading the article further more. I chose it because I think I will have easier time to write an argument on this. I may be able to include my personal story in the essay. I'm a vegetarian and I never had eaten meat in my life and I don't like to kill an animal just to fill my hunger. I strongly believe that animals should treat fairly equal to a human life. When they said they use only happier animals I was not satisfied with their argument because any way those animals will killed later to make food.     

   

Assignment# 7: Reflecting on Progress

     When I look back at my first blog assignment and compare it to today writing I found many mistakes in my first blog writing. I had missed some words between sentences and it's not clear what I'm talking about. I did improved a little bit in choosing word choices for college level. I feel that my writing still the same as before, I don't see any progress because when I checked all my writing I always miss some rule in writing. Since we don't learn grammar in this class I'm still struggling to write perfectly. I think when I see an example of writing for certain topics I might improve my writing. That's what I had done in my last three writing work shops. It helps me a lot when I see example of some essays. Peer review helps me a lot where find mistakes in my paper and how can I improve it in better way. I liked the peer review sessions and I enjoy learning something new each time when we have a session.  As I stated before, in class there should be examples of writings when we are assigned a writing topic. I think it gives an how a paper should look like. Now I can revise my own paper and I do find mistakes when I revise, but I'm not totally perfect in it. No, I don't think my writing as improved and I know it takes time to learn, but I'm not satisfied with my writing so far. 

Assignment# 6- Rhetorical Situations

Purpose: The purpose is different in both literacy narrative and ad analysis papers. In literacy 

              narrative, we write about experience in some situation and we can see the purpose

              based on the story. But, in ad analysis we write about the purpose of the ad which is 

              not our idea. We have be able to write what is the ad company is trying to tell us and 

              why have buy their product.

              The main similarity between these two papers is that we have to be able to explain why

              we are writing these papers.

Audience: There are two different types audience in both papers which is that in literacy narrative,

               we know who we are writing to and will know how much we need explain our story. 

               But, in ad analysis the audience will be who are trying the product and how they are

               convincing us to buy the product. We need be able to convince our audience if our

               audience never seen the ad before.

               The only similarity between these two papers is that we have to give certain amount of 

               details which can convince audience.

Genre: In literacy narrative, we write our personal experience which we choose to write. In ad

          analysis, we have to write the genre that they had in the ad. The writer doesn't have any 

          choice to pick a genre for this. 

Tone: We have a choice of tone when we write our paper. It can be serious, happy, sad, etc. 

         As I mentioned before there is no choice in choosing a tone for an ad analysis because we 

         have to be able to write the tone which is in the ad.

                                

• Purpose: Metro shoes are best for kids. The shoe makes kids happy and comfort for feet. This ad is arguing that their shoe is safe for kids and they will be able to play well and will have more fun. I can tell that by looking in to the kids face and how happy they are.
• Audience: Those kids age might be between 7-10. Kids are main target for this shoe company. Also, the feature of the shoe will defiantly attract kids. The text in this ad shows the will be happy to wear this shoe  "Happy Feet Make Happy People". 
• Genre: There are many other shoe advertisements which persuade audience to buy their product. Metro shoe ad did the same thing by showing their shoe feature which is very convincing for kids and parents.
• Tone: The boy and girl who are sliding from the shoes are very happy which show a happy tone.    

Revision

• I started my rough draft by jumping right in to the story. In peer review session I saw mistakes when my peers told me what I did wrong. As a reader they explained me want they want in my story. In my final draft I offered background information in introduction. Later on the story changed a little bit.
• I made a major revision by offering background information and I corrected fragments as well. This is a major revision of my paper because readers will know me much better and they will be able to see how hard it is for me to learn a new language and why I had difficulties to learn a language. This major change is very important in my story because this will give readers much better view of me. 
• After revising my paper I found mistakes which I need to correct for final draft. I found that I have problems with wordiness and fragments; on the other hand, I have problems with verb tense too. In final draft corrected those major mistakes.
• Peer review session helped me a lot and it gave me a chance to improve my writing. I was able to extend my paper in a better way. When I revise my own paper I usually don't find many mistakes in my paper. Even after revising sometimes what I wrote is right, but when someone else reads my paper they will find many mistakes what I was not able to see before. I think peer review is a best way to improve our writing. 
• My strongest aspect in my paper would be I explained very well what are some difficulties to learn a new language. My weakest point is that I think I gave too many details about it.

     I think any kind writing is writing, but we just need put it in order. A paper can be graded C because that paper might not have followed all the rules. This means punctuation, grammar, verbs, tenses and others. In a C grade paper maybe there are fragments. Fragments can make a paper miss its attraction. For example, 

     - The requirements before registering for classes.- Fragment

     - I have lunch yesterday, but not today. - Here the verb tense is the problem.

These types of mistakes can lower the grade of the paper. Another reason is the paper may not have connected its story. It needs to be in order and organized. 

     When we are grading an A paper we will see how well it was organized. In that paper we can find college level vocabulary, followed the rules of writing and it is attracting the reader. For example, sentences are very clear in the paper; the requirements are take placement test before registering your fall classes.

     -I had lunch yesterday, but not today.

 In A paper there should be a grabbing point and must go through its story until to the end of the paper. Sometimes the paper has to convince the reader. When the paper is attracting and convincing the reader it is an A paper.  



     A topic that I can write about is drawing. I might be able to write a page paper explaining how got interest in drawing and what I did to learn how to draw. The pros for this topic are I can write about my own experience. I am very confident that I can write more than I thought. At the same time another con is that I may not able to explain very clearly step by step about what are some struggles that I went through during learning how to draw.

     Another topic that I can write about is learning a new language. English and Spanish these are my second and third languages. This is another best topic for me because I know how I struggled when I'm learning a new language and I know what are some conflicts that I had faced while learning how to speak a new language. Even now I don't know how to write perfectly in a different language. The pro for this topic is I can explain why I'm still not perfect in these two languages.

     The last topic I chose to write about what is my writing process. The pros for this topic are I can explain in order what do I do about choosing a topic and how do I start writing. In this process I can explain what takes me long to write and how I can change it. The con for this topic is that I had already written about it many times and I don't know how to expand it more. One thing I don't like about this topic is that it might be boring for audience if I expand the original writing. I think this topic might not be interesting to everyone, but I would like to write creatively which gives interesting to every audience. If I can write it creatively than I'm good at writing essays.

      

      My first assignment is about why we are taking English 101. Well, it is a required class for every student in NEIU. The reason I'm taking this class because I want learn how to write perfectly.  No matter what I have to write essays, research papers, and answers to the questions all through my college years. Even after college I have to write when I work some where or when I write letters to someone. I think it is another way to express our feelings. Sometimes it's hard to talk what we feel, but we can same feelings in writing. For example, I can only express my feelings in writing rather than in speaking. Over all, grammar is very important in writing. 

     Another reason is that I want to know the rules of writing. So, when ever I write essays it will help me a lot to write perfect and I will get a good grade for it. So far I have written many essays and I got good grades, but my only weakness in writing is that sometimes I'm not using right tense and verbs. In this class I want to improve my revision skill and  I want to know how to keep tenses in right order. Most of the time I feel very shy to show my paper to others, except to the professor because I know that there will be mistakes in my paper. That's why in this class I want to learn how to write in right way. Once if I write correctly I don't have to be to show my paper to others. Finally, learning how to write is very important in our daily life.