Hi, this is the third installment of my blog for my English Composition I class. For this post, i read A Fable for the Living and then write a letter to my author self and connect the theme from A Fable for the Living to my letter. I wrote my letter with the mindset that it maybe a letter that I would stick in the ground to see if I got a response from my author self and if I did get a response what he might say in return to my letter. To understand this blog better I recommend that you too read A Fable for the Living.
To Whom it May Concern, This is a letter to the part of me that is considered my author self, he has been beat down and tormented for over 30 years, and now he may have a glimmer of hope, a small chance to be let out of his dungeon of loneliness to make an appearance for this English Composition course that I have thrown the two of us into, so I can slowly tear open the door to let my author self come to life again. To you I would like to apologize for treating you this way and not really using you for much over the years. I didn’t have a lot of use for you then, but now because I’m taking us on this adventure through an English Composition course, I hope we can work together to grow and develop what we didn’t have for decades, a relationship that benefits us both. Me reading and understanding what we have to write in the blogs and projects for this course, and you helping me with my ability to write in a manner that I would be proud for anyone to read. My plan is to work with you get over my fear of writing for other people to read, which as you know has been hindering us for years. I’ve always been self conscious about what I write for others to read and I think it’s because I thought others wouldn’t like or understand what I wrote. Next the ability to write and use the vocabulary that we know we have, but when we’re writing, the words escape us and I settle for what comes to mind easiest and not search for a word or words that fit with what I’m writing. Therefore, I will try to get my vocabulary up to where we need it to be, so we are able to write like we should be able to. Also, to get my thought process, when I am writing, to be more like that of a writer. All three of these things should help us on our journey towards the end of this course and beyond. I hope you can forgive me for the time you were silenced and sitting alone in the dungeon of my mind, hopefully now you will be able to see the light of day more than you have in the past. It would be remarkable if after all this time we could be reacquainted and work together to be much better than we were before with each other and work together to write more than before. Please accept my apology and I hope to here more from you in the coming assignments. Sincerely, William
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Hi, this is the second installment of my blog for my English Composition I class in which I will discuss a few things, mostly dealing with the creation and design of this web site, and also the subject of multimodal and how it could be applied to our work in this class, but mostly on our web sites. Most of the material that I used to write this blog can be found in the web sites that I have linked below.
I am creating a multimodal website to create a portfolio using process and product for a holistic assessment of my writing. This post could also help inform readers how to use the information in the websites I referenced to create a multimodal website of their own. Ball and Charlton define "multimodal" writing as any combination of the five modes through which meaning is made, makes a multimodal text, every piece of communication that a human composes, use more than one mode." Thus, all writing is multimodal. The idea of all writing being multimodal is an idea that I agree with, because if you think about the five modes through which meaning is made, you use two or more every time you write anything. The five modes through which to make meaning, arranged in order of importance:
Another pair of writers, Borton and Huot have a different list of criteria for assessing multimodal composition. The criteria are: BORTON AND HUOT: SAMPLE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA The composition conveys a specific purpose. The composition identifies a specific audience—either explicitly or implicitly. The composition employs a tone consistent with the designated purpose and audience. The composition is organized around an appropriate controlling idea. This idea is clear to readers/viewers/listeners. The composition uses transitions to guide the audience effectively from one set of ideas to another. The composition synthesizes relevant information from research efforts with composer’s own ideas and arguments—in a way that increases the rhetorical effectiveness of the whole. The composition uses detailed description, examples, sound, music, color, and/or word choice to convey ideas in an effective and appropriate way to the audience. The criteria that Borton and Huot have proposed sound almost the same as criteria used to assess a traditional print essay, except for the last one, which talks about the use of sound, music and color to convey ideas. These obviously cant be used in a traditional print essay because there is no way embed sound or music in a print essay, not like you would do with anything having to do with a modern multimodal assignment. As to the design aspect of this blog, we were asked to read “It's All C.R.A.P: Four Principles of Design” and to explain what C.R.A.P. stands for so here it is:
Hi, and welcome to the first blog of many for my English Composition class. This first assignment is a questionnaire known as the Proust Questionnaire, which has its origins in a parlor game popularized by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. I found this a little difficult to fill out due to the intrusive nature of some of the questions, but it was interesting to have to think about some of them, I discovered some things about myself because of these questions. Things that I normally wouldn’t have to think about.
The Proust Questionnaire __1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? My idea of perfect happiness would be to wake up every day in a different state at a different drag strip with my mobile home pulling my two-car trailer traveling around the country drag racing, without the pressures of life weighing on me. Also, the resources to live freely without the hassles of having to work for somebody else and the worries of not having money to do what I need or want to do. __2.__What is your greatest fear? The thing I fear the most is being broke and homeless, with no chance of rebounding from whatever situation put me there. __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? The thing I deplore in myself is my shyness around people I don’t know and not being as outgoing as other people. __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? Most people I’ve encountered in this part of the world are always quick to want to argue about whatever the subject maybe. Most aren’t hospitable, most think there is an ulterior motive to a stranger speaking to them. __5.__Which living person do you most admire? Anyone who has the drive and desire to work for themselves and is successful while doing it. __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? My greatest extravagance is my Race Car. I bought it in 1997 finished building it in 2000 and have been racing it, fixing it and updating it ever since. __7.__What is your current state of mind? Calm but with an underling feeling of anxiousness. __8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue? For me it would have to be friendliness. __9.__On what occasion do you lie? I don’t normally but on the rare occasion I do it would in a situation where I was trying to keep the peace. __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? Right now, I would say my weight, if I lost about 20lbs I would feel a lot better about myself. __11.__Which living person do you most despise? Donald Trump __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? Humor __13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman? Honesty __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? I don’t know __15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life? Cars and making them fast. __16.__When and where were you happiest? There are a couple things that I’m the happiest while doing. One is racing my car. Speed is like a drug to me it puts a huge smile on my face. Two is traveling to places I haven’t been before. __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? There are three talents I would like to have one would be to write with confidence, to draw and the other would be to play the guitar __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? The biggest thing would be to be more assertive. __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? Building my car from the ground up with information that I read in books and magazines. __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? A car __21.__Where would you most like to live? I don’t have a specific place just anywhere there aren’t a lot of people and my nearest neighbor is far enough away so I can’t hear or see them. __22.__What is your most treasured possession? My car, I have a lot of blood, sweat and tears in it. It took me over three years to build it and it’s the one thing I can say I built myself. __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Being homeless, jobless and feeling like there is no way up from there. __24.__What is your favorite occupation? Metal fabricator. __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? Using my hands when I talk __26.__What do you most value in your friends? Honesty and trust __27.__Who are your favorite writers? Don’t have any. __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? Spiderman __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? Haven’t really thought about it. __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? First responders, and those who gave their lives for our freedom __31.__What are your favorite names? Never really thought to much about it. __32.__What is it that you most dislike? People who steal, weather it be identity or material. __33.__What is your greatest regret? My biggest regret is that I didn’t go back to school sooner than this. __34.__How would you like to die? Happy and wealthy and the last of my family to go. __35__What is your motto? Life is short, live it like every day is your last, because it could be. |
Bill LewisThis is where I try to make meaning with the assignments for my English Composition class. Archives
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