Most writing is creative writing, where you describe something that happened or you make up a story. Reflective writing gives me insights and can lead to further learning. It is like rewinding my life to past events and then thinking about how it affected my life, what you could have done differently to change the outcome, or what came out of the event.
Reflection is a mental process, it is contemplation or a long consideration on a particular subject. Thoughts or opinions that come to you while you are reflecting are called reflections. It is an interpretation of what is going on between learning and thinking. When you are writing about a reflection, there are factors that can affect how you express it. For example, I would ask myself “Why am I writing this?” “How do I feel about it?” “What is my state of mind while writing it?” and “Who is my audience, and how will they feel about the writing?” The growth I have experienced as a writer through this course directly reflects the contemplations on the things I have learned, and how I applied them. Contemplating the tools taught to me, and reflecting on my work afterwards leads to improvement in every aspect of composing. A student must reflect upon their work and see it from another perspective in order to achieve growth, and asking themselves such questions can offer them a different lens to view their work through.
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What I found to be most surprising about Writing Project #2 was how much more information and research had to be done in order to approach an Ethnography. A bit more preparation had to be done prior to writing to collect enough data on the subject to enable you to showcase a more in depth writing style. I think this was unexpected for me since I have never written an Ethnography before, and so the entire process was new to me.
The most challenging and frustrating part of composing WP2 was figuring out which information was needed for the paper, and where you would find it. After that was finished, I found it challenging to navigate through the many field notes and interview notes and make a decision as to what was going to be used in the writing, and how it was going to be used. I still support what I have previously mentioned in that the most critical part of the writing process is the preparation work done prior to writing. The data collecting, organizing thoughts, and finding a clear path and point to your subject begins with the brainstorming stage. Preparing to write a paper makes writing the paper significantly easier and less stressful, though I find the preparation work to be stressful to me since I am not used to approaching writing in that way until now. I support my previous response on my advice being given to someone on writing in that it is critical to find a way to organize your thoughts in a way that is best for you, and spend more time brainstorming and research before sitting down to write. The brainstorming stage is where everything is layed out for a clearer path down the line when you start to compose a piece of work. Reflective writing is valued in the WPA Outcomes because I feel it is a valued and critical part of becoming a better writer. One would have to reflect on their own work in order to improve on what was written, and to use that as a stepping stone to become a better writer going into the next piece of work. I feel very strongly after my two writing projects that reflection is an essential part of writing. I feel like grammatical errors in a professional piece of writing is almost similar to an actor breaking character. When am reading a novel, and I notice strange sentence structure, or even something like typos, it hits a nerve with me and I find it off putting. Its something unexpected, and causes you to stop to analyze the mistake. Thats when I get "pulled out" of the immersion of the work. One of my favorite parts of reading is the feeling of being immersed in it, like I am lost in the writing, and experiencing it like I am practically there. When errors in proofreading, grammar, or anything else surface, I agree with my peers as it is hard from that point forward to take the author or writer seriously in their work.
When different readers and writers think of proofing, formatting, and producing a final piece of work differently, the consequences can cause inconsistencies in what we hold as a standard. If we do not have a set standard on what is considered acceptable and correct, their would be no anchoring point for anything that is produced. How would one be in agreement that something is considered well done? Professional from amateur? In order for this to happen, a standard must be set in order for everything to be measured to. I feel at times I agree with some of my peers on things sometimes being acceptable in certain contexts, when in others it wouldn't be. Still, as a whole, I feel like the exceptions are few, and this is why we have a standard on proofreading. My peers responses to revision are very similar to how I look at revising. Approaching a piece of work from a different perspective, or from a perspective not your own offers a completely new opportunity to see your writing from another point of view. Considering the peer reviews given back on your paper, I feel it is critical as a writer to listen to feedback. Even when in the end it does not make you change much in the writing, just the fact that you’re considering other people’s views on it is a great step towards successful future writing where there might be a time that considering feedback improved your writing.
My goals appear to share a lot in common with my peers goals and purposes, and always looking for ways to improve or rearrange your work in order to get across your vision in the best way possible. You want your writing to be meant in the way you intended it to be written, and revision on a piece of writing paves the way for someone to make sure this ultimate goal happens. Sometimes even rearranging multimodal elements used in your work could strengthen an essay, or altering the images to something more affective in enhancing your primary insight. This is significant for any writer that desires to get better with every new piece of writing they do. What do you see? Describe the objects, colors, shapes, patterns of movement.
- My previous journal describes the objects, colors, shapes, and movement patterns of this space What do you hear? Describe sounds, music, and any patterns you can hear. - I hear rock music playing from the ceiling speakers/coffee grinding in coffee grinder/ovens beeping/cabinets opening and closing/conversations amongst each other/metal pitchers hitting the counter/safe beeping under counter/timer going off for tea/ What do you smell? Describe any food or environmental smells. - Smells observed are fresh ground coffee/sandwiches cooking in ovens/sanitizer gives off slight ammonia smell/faint smells of customers cologne or perfume What do you touch? Describe what physical parts of the environment you are in contact with and how they feel. - the counters are smooth and cold/a lot of physical contact is bumping into other baristas because of tight space/stainless steel milk pitchers, food tongs, containers/cold sanitizer with wet rags What do you taste? Is there anything in the environment that you can (or should taste)? If so, what does it taste like? - Coffee is available to taste/some taste fruity, full bodied, nutty, herbal, spicy How do people move through the place? How do they help to define the space? - People move in a very deliberate, faced paced way/a sense of panic and urgency amongst the baristas/they are set in certain positions through out the work space occupying particular places Describe the actions of the people in the place. What are they doing? - Some are brewing coffee/steaming milk and making lattes/warming food/writing in books/stocking items/opening cabinets/talking to each other/talking to customers Do you observe any special patterns of behavior among the people you observe? Do people seem to be doing certain actions in certain ways at certain times or in certain specific places? - The patterns observed are repetitive motions/they follow a repeatable routine either set forth by a timer or in cadence with other objects getting produced Do you notice any special patterns of speech? Are people saying certain things over and over? Are they greeting each other in particular ways? - Urgent questions are consistently being asked from the bartender/repetitively asking for supplies/baristas asking supervisors questions on how to do certain tasks or recipes for drinks/communicating with each other on where they are going and what they are doing What else jumps out at you as you observe people in this space? - They appear to all communicate with each other and help each other out/focus is customer based/action is taken from baristas when a line forms/tasks stop and attention is focused on getting the drinks to the customers as fast as possible - Overall color tone of the bedroom is blue
- Shades pulled down over the window but open for sunlight to come through - Only light source present is the light from outside the window - Walls covered in papers, photographs, and posters - Black posters with skulls and crossbones are on the ceiling - Police line tape is adhered to the wall in an X shape - Pen/marker graffiti and scribbles on the blue painted wall - Electric guitar lays on the bed of blue sheets - Studded belt under the window - Teenager named Rhiannon, 14, Darrel, Scotland - Caucasian female - She wears her hair in a Chelsea style Mohawk with short, blonde colored hair on the sides with front pieces hanging past her ears, long red bangs, long purple mohawk that becomes red towards the front - Profile view, she looks at the viewer with a side glance - Not smiling - Pierced bottom lip - Black studded leather jacket left opened - Jacket is covered in silver studs, patches, buttons, and spikes - Black T-shirt - Neutral gray background behind her The place I chose to observe to develop an “ethnographic eye” is Starbucks Reserve Bar, the place I work. When I approach the store from the outside the charcoal exterior with the name “Starbucks” is illuminated by cool blue backlights. In contrast with the typical stores that lack these refined features and color selection, it gives the impression that it is a different type of Starbucks, one that might be defined as high-class, stylish, and exclusive. Walking in, I see the ceiling is set very high, with an industrial design allowing the air ducts and structure beams to be seen from the café. The furniture is carefully arranged, with leather seats, tables, and a long hard wood conference table available. The coffee culture seems very prominent in this space, as the walls are covered in brewing method illustrations, coffee agriculture illustrations, multiple shelves featuring a diverse selection of coffees from all over the world, and brewing devices for sale. There is a separate bar set to the right of the entrance, with a mahogany wood counter that wraps around in an “L” shape, cornering off this area as something exclusive, and separate from the rest of the store. The café is filled with a diverse range of people, and the baristas behind the counter are all wearing black aprons, not the standard green aprons seen in other stores. The high ceilings and populated café creates a vast, loud mix of conversations that seem to become one, and make it hard to speak to someone at times, and the conversations are difficult to separate from one another. The town appears to have a large Korean population, and although the primary language heard in the café is English, a large portion of people are also speaking Korean. The age ranges from small children and adults, to elderly, and seems to have a broad range of age groups that frequent the store. Some people are wearing suits and ties, dresses, blue jeans, t-shirts, and jackets. The use of laptops, tablets, and cell phones are in almost every persons possession sitting in the café, with students doing school work with their notebooks out, or business people on their laptops doing work. The store has a large amount of outlets to accommodate the heavy use of techonology, finding the outlets stationed under every table, and along the underside of the conference table. The dress of the people overall tell me this is an affluent town, with the majority of customers appearing to work in an office type setting considering the business attire they are wearing. They use the space as a social gathering, with some sitting with friends or bringing in family members to sit and talk. Others use this space to get work done, whether it be school work or business purposes. Most people would feel comfortable in this place, but for non-english speaking customers, I could see the English written menu and language barrier could create an uncomfortable environment for them. Blue collar workers would stand out slightly in this space, as most of the customers seem to have white collar jobs and wear a different attire than those that are blue collar. The story this place tells me about this community is that it is a social gathering space for the people in town and surrounding towns. They all seem to know each other, and frequent the store on a daily basis, which shows me this is a store that is built for the community, and embraces the social aspect of a local coffee shop.
I am a shift supervisor and Coffee Master for Starbucks Coffee Company. As a team leader I have influence on how the store operates during my time on our sale floor, I set the tone and energy for the team, and I direct them in what positions they need to be in at certain times of the day. A person in this position can certainly create a positive or negative atmosphere in the way these aspects of the day are handled, by their word choice, tone of voice, day plan, time management, and recognition in the teams performance whether it be for praise or for correcting behaviors. As a Coffee Master, I am in a position to motivate and inspire my team with the many aspects of tasting coffees. Similar to a wine sommelier, I teach barista’s how to engage their senses, effectively describe the taste profiles of our coffee selections, and make recommendations to customers based on that knowledge. This position allows me to expand on what drives our business, and can make work more fun by making them feel involved with something they can pride themselves on with craft. For me, this can be very rewarding at times, to be able to see growth in people, and watch them develop themselves beyond their initial expectations. I have had many fulfilling times because of these dynamics in my position. It can also influence me in negative ways as well, where the stress of being a leader to a team of people can sometimes be overwhelming, or the fast paced environment has lead me to a day ending in frustration and exhaustion. It has strengthened my abilities to make quick, informative decisions in moments of uncertainty, and has given me the tools and mindset to manage my time in my personal life more effectively.
As a supervisor, there aren’t many places I am not allowed to enter or participate in, aside from accessing the Store Managers part of our computer database. The café is public, and the customers can sit wherever they choose. Behind our counters is only available for the employees, and the back room is for the manager and employees only. What I found most surprising about the process of composing was how much I have learned since the beginning of taking this course. I see a vast improvement in my structure, and making use of examples to further strengthen my point. I also found writing to become less laborious the more I do it, and it was less intimidating than previous times I have had to write a paper in my younger years.
The challenging aspect of the writing process for me was the drafting stage, and learning to allow myself plenty of room for mistakes, and knowing that this is a work in progress, and to be treated as such. I experienced a slight confusion with being able to insert a multimodal element into my work since it is not something I am very familiar with, and challenging trying to find which of the multimodal choices would best enhance my work. The most critical part of the writing process for me at this point and going forward is brainstorming, and navigating my way through my ideas and how they connect. Formulating a path to my paper and how it is going to be mapped out so that it flows in the way I would like it to requires planning, and giving myself the ability to allow revision. The pre writing phase is where I see the most opportunity for growth, which will make my writing more planned out before I start a piece of work. If I were to teach someone else something about writing, I think it would be to make sure to know the reason why you are writing this piece of work, and what the take away value is for your audience. I have noticed after reviewing some of my peers works, at times I find as a reader not being able to understand the direction of the writing, and lacking a conclusion at the finish. As a reader I look for an ultimate point and finality, and it is something often missed. I would also teach the importance of planning, and brainstorming, and how vital it is to a well structured piece of writing, and will strengthen only with a solid foundation. Allowing more time in the planning phase of pre writing instead of rushing to get to the writing itself I feel is often overlooked. I think the reason why the WPA Outcomes and this course value Reflection so much, is because it gives you an opportunity to look at things through a critical eye. Only through reflection are we able to learn from our mistakes, notice our strengths as well as our weaknesses, and improve upon our work. Using rubrics are very helpful at teaching us a type of criteria to start off with, and soon we are able to ask ourselves these kind of questions in our own writing, reflecting on what we just produced, if it is or is not successful and what we learned from it going into our next piece of writing. I feel that drafting is similar to a lens getting brought into focus. At first, the ideas may have no singular path of thought, a collection of ideas getting brought together like unclear puzzle pieces. Trying to make sense of them and finding a direction where they all work together to bring you to a specific place in your presentation is how I see the drafting phase. Writing is bringing these thoughts, ideas, facts etc. into focus so they are getting to a point of finality. The precision in your words, sentences, and structure is what is going to affectively communicate your point of view to your readers. I have a tendency to almost go from start to finish, as I have an issue with having a piece of writing "not put together." I know that this is something that works against me at times, and through this course I am working very hard at allowing myself to brainstorm and draft with lower expectations from myself. I notice through these lessons why it is done, and why it is more affective at creating a successful piece of writing, but it requires practice. Navigating your thoughts and ideas can be challenging at times, especially when you do not have a clear direction with the subject or intent. Brainstorming seems to work for a lot of people, using lists, or scattered notes and somehow finding the connection within them all. I have noticed that the brainstorming part is something I am able to do, not well, but have seen improvement since I started English Composition. Typically my brainstorming would just be done in my head, but I am starting to utilize a pen and paper for this approach now, and it has made a stronger foundation or structure for the actual writing phase. "Zero Drafting" was made a bit more clear after reading the article "From Topic to Presentation" by Beth L. Hewett, and seeing her examples of a draft paragraph to a later refined one brought clarity to what the bridge between the two look like.
I notice my peers share similar challenges with "letting go" in their drafting phase, and the concept of accepting something that's "good enough" is hard for people. It seems personal expectations hinder the ability to accept something as incomplete, somehow we struggle to draw a clear line between the two. A great example brought up by one of my fellow students was the comparison to a sketch compared to a finished drawing. This hit home for me, since I was a professional oil painter through out my twenties. I would never expect a sketch to be considered a final work that I would present in a gallery exhibition, though at times sketches speak volumes within themselves. It would show the creation part of the artist, and how they bring something into focus, expand on an image, and ultimately have a body of work for all to see. Reflecting on this, I think a lot of us as readers never see this phase. We purchase books, magazines, newspaper articles, etc. in their final form, always seeing the end product. It leaves us with a mystery to the writing process, and gives us the naive impressions that these writings were done from start to finish in a single phase. Only with further knowledge do we learn this is not the case, and practicing is the only way to get better as writers. |
AuthorI am 33 years old and residing in NJ, just starting college courses toward a degree in Fisheries Biology. ArchivesCategories |