Portfolio

Dear Class,

The paper that I have chosen to revise and put in my portfolio would be my Literacy Narrative that I wrote in the first semester.  I thought that my narrative had some good ideas as well as a lot of potential.  Also, I thought that this was one of my better papers, and I enjoyed typing it.  Organization and the development of ideas seemed to be what I struggled with the most when typing my paper, so those two traits of good writing will be the ones that I will focus most on when revising.  The comments that I received on my literacy narrative were not too negative, which is why I will use this paper in my portfolio.  Most of the comments directed toward developing ideas, which will not be difficult to do.  Also, I got a comment saying my organization could have been better.  These issues should not be difficult to overcome, as I should be able to come out with a good final product in my class portfolio.

            For my writing remix, I have chosen to transform a blog post into a song.  The blog post that I will convert to a song will be my post on Jane Goodall’s plagiarism.  I found this post to be easy to convert because I came up with a lot of things I could say about the situation in order to come up with verses and a chorus.  My song had 3 verses and the chorus was also repeated 3 times.  Once finished typing the lyrics, I felt good about what I had came up with, and I think that my song will be a success.

            Looking back at all we have done this year, it was tough to come up with two pieces that I liked most.  After some time of thought, I have come to the conclusion that my free post on hunting, and my free post on baseball would have to be my 2 best hits on the year.  I really liked these two posts because they are on my two favorite topics.  They were very fun to ride, and I thought that I did a good job with the detail within these 2 posts.  The two things that I would have to say are misses, would be my thesis paper, and my free post using vocab words.  It was not very tough for me to decide that these 2 pieces were my weakest.  I thought that my thesis statement was a little shaky in the paper, and in the vocabulary post, I forgot to use vocab words.

            As a writer, I would claim that I enjoy writing only one certain circumstance, when the subject interests me.  I could go on and on in a paper that is about duck hunting, football, baseball, or anything else that I love to do, or that interests me.  Also, as a writer I can get bored very easily whenever I am forced to write about something that I do not really care about.  When doing this, I find myself zoned out, and just typing in words aimlessly in order to fill in space, waiting to be done.  However, whenever I am writing about something interesting, I remain focused, and write to the best of my ability.

            I have a variety of different strengths as a writer, I find my strongest points to be organization, use of detail, and word choice.  I think that organization is one of my strengths because of my effort to block out an essay before I actually type it.  I try my best to paint a picture in the readers head, which adds detail to my list of strengths.  Also, I try my best to use wordly wise words in my writing, but if not, I often use the thesaurus for good word choice.  Although I have multiple strengths, I also have some weaknesses as a writer.  My weaknesses include punctuation, and grammar.  I often get confused on certain aspects of grammar including which form of a word to use, as well as the order you use when listing people (You and I.)  Punctuation is also a weak point for me.  I get confused whether to use colon’s or semi colons, and am very unclear on when to use each of these.  Also, I often mess up when using quotations or parentheses in my writing.

            To improve as writer, there are multiple things I will do.  Whenever I have a question, I can refer to my Norton book for my answer.  If this does not work for me, I will go to a teacher in order to improve. 

Sincerely,

Brennan Folse

Hits:  Free posts on hunting and baseball
Misses: Thesis paper, free post using Wordly Wise words

          

                                                  Analysis of Rhetorical Situation

I chose to change the formatting of my blog post about Jane Goodall’s plagiarism, into a song.  The audience for this song really could be anyone wanting to learn about plagiarism.  Although this song would be suitable for anyone, I think it would best be for middle and lower schoolers to inform them about the seriousness of plagiarism.  The audience changed from my original post because I am making the Jane Goodall situation as well as facts about plagiarism more understandable for younger people.

The members of the audience should have a basic understanding of what plagiarism is before hearing my song.  I think that this song is appropriate to communicate to them because it will educate them on plagiarism, and the seriousness of it.  As an outcome of the kids hearing my song, I hope that they will have a better understanding of plagiarism.  Also I hope that it will influence their future regarding writing, and keep them from committing this crime.

The stance I am taking within this song is against plagiarism.  Although I was against plagiarism in my original blog post, I focused more on what Jane Goodall did, and what I thought she has left to do.  In my song, I am focusing more on how bad plagiarism is, and how there are multiple consequences for one that is caught plagiarizing.

I chose to pick a song as my genre of writing because I felt that it would do a good job of reaching younger children.  My reasons behind this were because I figured that some of the lyrics would hopefully stick with them, and that the kids would remember them when they began to do more intense writing.  My strategy has changed from my original piece of writing because the first time around, I just focused on Jane Goodall.  In doing this remix, I am focusing more on plagiarism itself.

Writing Remix (song)

                                                     Goodalls Plagerism

Jane Goodall is a scientist that made a bad decision.  She plagerized, that’s not okay, she’ll have to live with it.  She didn’t give credit, she didn’t’ ask permission, she got to carried away just trying to complete her mission.  It’s one thing if she were to ask, it’s one thing if she were to cite, she didn’t do either of these things, which is why she got the bite. 

Don’t plagiarize, it’s not cool.  If you do it, you are a fool

There are consequences, failing, fined, and behind metal fences

Don’t plagiarize, it’s not cool.  If you do it, you are a fool

There are consequences, failing, fined, and behind metal fences

Although she did mess up, she did her best to fix it.

She apologized, she sympathized which made it a lot less wicked.

Although she can’t take it back, the best she can do is apologize

She probably still feels terrible, which is why you shouldn’t plagiarize.

Don’t plagiarize, it’s not cool.  If you do it, you are a fool

There are consequences, failing, fined, and behind metal fences

Don’t plagiarize, it’s not cool.  If you do it, you are a fool

There are consequences, failing, fined, and behind metal fences

Lessons Through Literacy

I was six years old and suddenly diagnosed with a terrible bacterial infection in my left knee. The infection put me in the hospital for many days.  My mom used to always tell me to never take anything for granted, I used to just nod and respond with an “okay” or “sure mom” and not really think too much of it.  My careless opinion of her short statement changed after that first miserable night at Our Lady of the Lake.  Once the pain had calmed down a little, I had surgery and was confined to the hospital bed with tubes of antibiotic drugs in my veins for another several days.  During that time I was very inactive and really took up reading as well as a lot more praying with my mom.  I began to realize the truth and significance of her statement.  It occurred to me that reading was relaxing and that it could help me pass the time while I was healing.  My mom also got me into some good books in the hospital as well as once I returned home.  These books started to give me enjoyment for the first time and for once, I began to read in my free time.  At only six years old, I began to pick up on some small, but important lessons from the children’s books I had been reading.  From this, I learned that when people open up their minds and decide to read, valuable lessons could be taught through books. 

I continued to grow as a reader and further understand the significance of my mother’s teachings as I took a step back and learned to be more thankful for what I have. I began to appreciate what I have even more after reading Same Kind of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.  This is the story of a wealthy art dealer named Ron and a poor, homeless man named Denver.  The book describes each of the character’s lifestyles, Ron’s wonderful life full of loved ones as well as a high level of wealth.  On the other hand, whenever it would describe how poor and lonely Denver was on the streets, it made me feel very grateful for what I have and that I should not take anything for granted because any of us could have been born homeless and in those dangerous conditions. Ron’s wife, Deborah, is diagnosed with a cancer, which turns into a very life threatening illness towards the end of the book.  She was very loved by Ron and this made me think about how I would feel if I were in their shoes.  Ron’s wife passed away toward the end of the book.  This also made me feel very thankful for my health and to enjoy every day because you never know what might happen to you. I learned to enjoy all of the time I have with my family as well as my friends because I might not have them all one day and hopefully I would have no regrets about not spending enough time with them.  Reading this book helped me appreciate blessings, and have compassion for those in need.

 This book did not just teach me these lessons, but I also learned that reading can teach you other valuable things in life.  Many different lessons can be taught through literacy and often explained better than lessons taught by friends, adults, or even your teachers.  Lessons through literacy can be taught better than just when they are told because when you are reading a good book, it truly makes you feel like the character and puts you into his or her shoes.   Other lessons in readings can be taught as well as the one that my mom has always taught me.

I have started to look at books in a new way, and have began searching more in depth for the moral, or lesson in each story.  As a reader overall, I have improved because of this and get a lot more out of each book.  Every story has an important lesson worth learning, you might just have to look a little bit harder in some books for it.  I have grown so much as a person as well as a reader since that first night in the hospital.  Another lesson I have learned throughout reading is that if things in life don’t kill you they make you stronger, and I definitely found that to be true due to my infection.  I also think that reading can make you a better person because the more books you read, the more lessons you learn, and the more lessons you learn, the better of a person you will become.  I think this has happened to me because I have learned all of these morals by putting myself in the characters’ shoes to really feel what it is like, and learn something new.

Literacy can help you in life, not just to achieve a better vocabulary or to learn something new about a past event, but to improve you as a person.  At the time I was miserable to be in that hospital, but looking back on it, I am glad that it happened.  Without those days of boredom in the hospital bed, I never would have began to focus on reading, as well as to begin paying attention to those lessons. Reading can enlighten you with wise teachings that only can be found through literacy, which has gotten me to love it.