Journal Entry #4

The number one party school radio article was an interesting investigative report. It was informative with facts about Penn State and drinking but it was also interesting to hear all of the perspectives heard in the hour long piece. Regarding the questions in harbrace, the writer defines the issue in a way that does make sense to the audience. The audience is fully aware of what is happening throughout the piece because there are interviews and good descriptions of the various events on campus. The reason why the issue needs to be investigated is because drinking is a major part of the culture at Penn State. It said in the article that half of the students here at Penn State regularly binge drink. Alcohol can lead to injury or death in the case of one student, and it was also proven that the residents in State College can get fed up with our crazy actions when we are drunk. It is evident in the article that the issue affects different groups of people in different ways. Residents of State College don't like when students are loud and sloppy when they are drunk. I didn't believe that a student was in a woman's house sleeping in her daughters bed. We can be reckless and cause harm to ourselves and others while intoxicated. However, the issue affects the businesses here at Penn State in a positive way. For example to owner of the popular store here called McClans. had to buy another building because of the business from Penn State students. The interviewer quotes a variety of people. College students are quoted as well as older residents at Penn State. Alumni and business owners are also represented in the article. The piece covered a variety of people, but coaches of the teams here at Penn State did not have their perspectives represented. I think the writer wanted the conclusion to be that drinking at Penn State is part of our lifestyle. It has negatives aspects but it also has some positives too. It doesn't seem to be changing in the near future either. Personally, I like the article because it was interesting and not boring to listen to. They did a good job interviewing a variety of different people to get a lot of different points of view on the subject. I think interviewing college students worked because it gave the students a chance to give their perspective on the issue. However I thought they interviewed too many drunk students. Although it was funny hearing students talk when they were drinking, I sometimes thought that it made the piece look bad and repetitive. I would have liked to hear more students being interviewed when they weren't drinking to see if their point of view is different than when they are drinking. I also like the prologue of the two people just watching what happens on a typical weekend night here because it set up the article nicely and got you interested in what they were going to say in the rest of the article

The chapter in Lamott's book about first drafts was very informational. I could relate the piece to my own writing because for me, starting out the first draft is the hardest part of the entire essay. Sometimes I feel like I sit at my computer for hours just trying to find the prefect first sentence or attention grabber. The chapter made me realize that I was stressing about all the wrong parts of a rough draft. The rough draft should be easier and not so structured. It shouldn't matter if I use the wrong word or don't get my attention grabber just right at first. It was comforting to know that even the best authors have trouble writing their first drafts and that they don't just spew out pages of their novels like a fountain. (which it seems like in with their finished products). In the piece Lamott said that she trusted this technique more or less when writing her first drafts. I think this is because it is hard for anyone to write something without any restraints or real order. She explains that you can't have any filter when writing your first draft and just focus on putting anything down on the paper. I don't believe this is personal just to her because it would be hard for anyone to write without thinking about their finished product in mind. The chapter of her book illuminated that writing a rough draft should be a lot easier than I make it. When I am writing my first draft I try to make it perfect so that writing my final copy will be a lot easier. By reading this chapter, I realized that I could be missing out on a lot of great ideas just because I am worrying about the conventions and organization of my essay. Now, I will approach my rough draft differently. Instead of sitting at my desk and pulling my hair out to find the perfect word or sentence structure, I will just try to put my ideas on paper so that I can work with what I have later. The piece is important because I think many people go about writing their first draft just like I do. They are worried about making their rough draft sound exactly like their final draft, when really they should be worried about getting all of the ideas in their head down on paper. In the chapter, Lamott said that the fist draft was the down draft, meaning just writing your ideas down. The second draft was the up draft, or the draft that you clean up and fix. Finally, the third draft should be more like your final copy or finished product. The chapter was really helpful to read before I start writing my first draft so that I can practice this new way of writing. I hope that it helps writing my first draft of the memoir.

Journal Entry #2

I read the "Tour of Duty" personal memoir. Thank you for sharing your personal memoir, it was very interesting to read. Both this personal memoir and the one in the harbrace helped me to understand what exactly a personal memoir is. The memoir used many elements that were introduced in our reading. For example, there was dialogue used sparingly in the memoir. It was used to describe the club scene when all the people were yelling for the band. It helped the audience become part of the story because it helped visualize the club in my mind. I also like when it was used in the argument between yourself and the EX- Models. You paused in the story to reflect on your feelings during the tour. You also paused to show how you became part of the tour after the hook of the first paragraph. Many descriptions were used throughout the memoir to pull the audience in. I think the club scene in the beginning to the memoir was very detailed. I could envision exactly what the club sounded and smelt like. The memoir also jumped from scene to scene so that it wasn't a continuation of events. For example, in the beginning the scene jumped from being at the club in Manchestor to you being back at home on your couch in Akron. The subject of the memoir was the tour of your boyfriends band that you decided to be a part of. It was relevant because that was an important part of your life. The intended audience could have been girls in their teens. It could be written for them because I think their was a lesson of the memoir saying that sometimes you have to make your own decisions even if that means being separated from someone you love. Ethos were used because by saying that you were dating a band member. This proved that you had credibility to write the memoir about the band's tour. The pathos used in the story made you feel bad for both you and your boyfriend because of the draining effects of the tour. I think one of the most prominent uses of pathos was when you described the physical appearance of your boyfriend while you were eating at subway. He seemed so tired and exhausted from the tour.

Journal Entry #1

Writing has never been an enjoyable task for me because it has always been challenging. I always have trouble starting my essays and getting my point across of what I am trying to say. This makes it frustrating to start writing. That being said, I usually am able to get good grades on a writing assignment if it is for school, and after I organize my ideas or make and outline my writing usually starts to flow. I know writing is important in school and outside of school because it is a way to express yourself and make a statement. I find writing easier if I am writing for fun rather than for a school assignment because in school assignments you have to pressure of your work being graded. The strengths of my writing are my organization and my focus. The organization of my writing usually helps the audience understand rather than hinder them from understanding. I also rarely stray from the prompt and my writing stays to the point. I also have weaknesses to my writing. Grammar and conventions always seem to be one of my weakest points when I am writing. Proofreading more thoroughly and examining my grammar more closely should help with my conventions. I also have a very safe style of writing. My sentence structure tends to be the same and I don't use a variety of vocabulary. I am bad at transitioning from point to point and my work tends to sound choppy. I am hoping that English 15 will help my style or writing. It should help me use better transitions so my writing flows and has better style.

Mystery books inspire me to write because they are so compelling and keep you enhanced in the storyline. James Patterson is my favorite author because he has written so many books and all of them are fascinating to read. He inspires me to become a writer that can keep the attention of an audience. He impresses me because all of his many books are different and he never seems to run out of ideas. One of my favorite books of his is Kiss the Girls, but I love almost all of his novels. Poems and song lyrics inspire me because they make a point with such a small amount of words. Lyrics to songs inspire me to write because they are written by the singer from the heart. Rascal Flatts is one of my favorite bands because their lyrics always come from the heart. My favorite song of their's is God Bless The Broken Road. The lyrics inspire me to become a better writer and rhetor because they produce such a strong message. Lyrics of a song can convey such a universal message for people with different backgrounds and they inspire me to become a better writer because they show how powerful words can be.