Miscellaneous

CLASS NOTES

Theory of Writing Draft (The old one LOL)

Experiences of life and how they form an identity in the writer. Revised 3 pages

It has been possible to confirm that there is a very large relationship between writers and their messages to be transmitted.  Since it doesn't matter if it's expository writing, personal narrative, or fiction, all three reflect many aspects of the writer. Therefore, in this way we can confirm that the piece that the writer creates speaks more about the writer than about the writing itself.  It reflects his perspectives, his experiences, the way he idealizes whatever aspect he is talking about. Tony Scott mentions this in his writing, “Writing is always ideological because discourses and instances of language use do not exist independently from cultures and their ideologies” (Scott 48). That's why, the writer evolves, and his works are a reflection of what he has lived up to that moment.  If he suffered a loss of a loved one, if he received some trauma as a child, if he is a person of faith, or if his life was inspired by another literary work.

A clear example of the latter is the butterfly effect created by 9/11, which despite being an event that is considered tragic, caused all kinds of impacts on the lives of many people.  Among them, a chubby boy named Gerard who really liked reading comics and music, who worked near where the Twin Towers were located, and he had to prevent the suffering and death of hundreds of people in his own flesh.  Because of this, this boy found himself in need of seeing a psychologist, who advised him that in order to cope with his situation, he should be distracted by music, that he would try to form a band.  Because of this, this guy gathers his group of friends, and they form My Chemical Romance, which is currently one of the most important punk / rock bands accompanying millions through their death.  Among them a young lady named Stephanie Mayer, whose favorite song was Vampires will never hurt you, and on one occasion when she fell asleep listening to it, she dreamed of a girl falling in love with a vampire, and decided to write about it, creating the famous saga of twilight, which due to its great success was adapted to the cinema and is among the highest grossing films in history.  Almost completely changing the perspective that was had on vampires, and inspiring other people to create fiction.  Among them, a woman named Ericka Mitchell, who was captivated by the story, but she wanted to further explore the toxic and sexual side of the relationship of the protagonists, concluding in creating her own story.  This story is currently the famous saga of Fifty shades of Grey. 

Therefore, with the domino effect created there it is evidently that “Writers are always doing the rhetorical work of addressing the needs and interests of a particular audience, even if unconsciously” (Roozen). This effect is just a reflection of how these authors adapted each other's work to their reality. From there, it can be seen how the feeling that one feels when reading is probably different from that of the author who is writing, and it is perfect. It is one of the wonders of writing. However, the common constant is the initial work, from which everything that follows is born. 

Therefore, with the domino effect created there it is evidently that “Writers are always doing the rhetorical work of addressing the needs and interests of a particular audience, even if unconsciously” (Roozen 17). This effect is just a reflection of how these authors adapted each other's work to their reality. From there, it can be seen how the feeling that one feels when reading is probably different from that of the author who is writing, and it is perfect. It is one of the wonders of writing. However, the common constant is the initial work, from which everything that follows is born. 

Then, the adapted final work is evidenced, the author demonstrates how, despite creating a work inspired by another, his perspective creates an identity and makes his work different. For this reason, in writing the writer has certain types of standards, which make what he reads or inspires him to be molded to his character, and “writing serves as a key means by which we act with and come to understand the subject matter” adapting a piece to our own “beliefs, values, and interests” (Roozen 51-52). The style of a writer can also be betrayed by his culture. There are examples such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or Cervantes' Don Quixote de la Mancha, where the way of writing and the scenarios of the stories, even though fictitious, are a very close representation of the environment where they lived, and “carry any number of political identities, identities that reflect particular ideological predispositions”. (Villanueva 57) with the inclusion of elements “such as gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical abilities…” and “experiences that both attract and influence identity” (Yancey 52).

However, history has shown that evolution is part of writing.  As the writer lives and gets older, his identity matures and changes.  Therefore, the way of expressing oneself socially or literarily also changes. We can see this in the aforementioned Shakespeare. Although all his literary works have characteristics that are symbolic of his, it is impossible to deny that there is a change in passion and the type of feeling that he wanted to convey through his stories. Nonetheless, in writing the strategies that an author has “used before when approaching a new writing task” (Lunsford 54) could result in “not working well in the current situation. Therefore, writing, like identity, is a process that the person builds little by little through experiences and time. Then, as time goes by, the writer, thanks to experience, realizes that “...writing strategies useful in one context, such as using explicit transitional words to signal organization or using illustrations to develop an idea, will work well in many different writing contexts for many different purposes”. (Rose) and begins to create a style that is more versatile and moldable for different types of writing that he can create.  Understanding that a research paper should not be written in the same way as an email, and separating his different writing techniques for the different types of work that he intends to create.  However, all these works, formal or informal, real or fictitious, will belong to the writer, they will always be created according to what he is feeling, seeing or living at that moment.

In expository texts, many students tend to think that by expressing themselves in formal language and trying to be as biased as possible, they isolate their identity from their work. However,this is completely the opposite. Writing is completely transparent. It is important to learn and recognize that writing is an action that reflects the path the student has followed up to that point, but also serves to “draw on personal knowledge and lived experience in creating new texts”. (Lunsford 54).

Literacy Narrative Draft

My track record through English grammar is very short compared to most people my age living in the United States. I was living in Mexico for 12 years, my parents decided to bring me to live in the US. an August of 2016 when I was about to enter 7. I had already had very basic exposure to English, but honestly everything was very basic. When I enter 7 I consider that it was when I really began to learn. With effort I began to understand how a piece of writing had to scarry structures to be functional, and as well as a certain type of continuity so that it becomes enveloping for the reader. How it was important that it always have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion, and how these structures provide continuity to the writing when it is written and read. I also learned the importance of complete sentences, and how the use of them not only gives a certain solidity and formality to the writing when it is read, but also speeds up the writing time. During that year I also learned to rely on conjunctions, which are the key for the writer to take bigger steps when writing, connecting sentences, and making their sentences more descriptive. I learned the importance of the use of commas, because although I considered myself someone with a well-grounded knowledge of grammar, there is a certain difference in the order of punctuation in Spanish compared to English. In general, the basic rules of grammar. As the year progressed, the teachers discussed a test called STAAR, which lasted 3 hours. Being a newbie to writing and reading, that name couldn't be scarier. There I learned the importance of the writer to recognize an audience, and know how to address it. That many times this detail is ignored, a clear example is currently social networks, where many people decide to write ignoring the audience to which they direct the message, causing conflict. For the writer it is very important to recognize his audience, and understand or at least have certain notions of how to approach it. In my case, my teachers explained to me that the essays that were part of the exam could have topics that I would master, but it was important to know that it was not going to be graded by someone my age, or someone close to me, that the essay was completely directed towards a person of the 3rd age who worked as a teacher, but earns income from evaluating that exam after retirement. Even though it sounds exaggerated and funny, understanding that was the best thing that could have happened to me in order to be successful in writing at that level. Being able to understand the perspective of the person who evaluated it helped me to be able to structure my writing so that it would be understandable to someone in that age range. And in the end, it worked, for my first year exposed to the language I got a 3. I consider that the rest of my journey through middle school was similar in evaluation in terms of expectations, but my averages did improve. 

When I entered Highschool, I came across the use of resources to reinforce a statement, and how there are different formats to write. The importance of knowing how to be a writer who relies on the knowledge of others, knowing how to subtly use evidence expressed by other minds to reinforce the strength of the message that the writer wants to convey to his audience, and knowing how to distinguish between support and plagiarism , which share a very thin line that distinguishes them, which although it is easy to distinguish when reading, is difficult to explain when writing. In order to achieve this, I learned the use of citations, which are a very important tool to be able to make that fine line one that distances the essay from plagiarism.

Through reading, especially fiction books, I learned to break down the author's intentions, and therefore to understand how the order in which a sentence is structured through the paragraph establishes the message that wants to be conveyed. In readings like Harry Potter and Macbeth, beyond being stories completely out of reality, understanding that they have such a raw and human message is what makes a reader a better writer. Understand how the writers of these works of art order the words in a certain way so that the meanings of their respective stories penetrate the reader's consciousness, and arouse different types of feelings.

Finally, now that I'm in college, with English 1304 I learned the most important step in writing, which must be number one, but nobody taught me during my twelve years of studying. This step is to HAVE FUN. Being able to get into the writing and live the message that is trying to be transmitted, the importance of the writer being his own judge, as it is essential that the writing be pleasant for the writer, so that it can later be transmitted to an audience. That in order to create a connection from the writing to the reader, there must first be a connection from the writer to the writing because in a reading this is perceived, if the reader is truly involved in what he writes, or if his thoughts are not match the written words. Unfortunately, I understood it now as an adult, where I think I enjoy writing the most, where whether it is fiction, or the exposition of a subject, I always try to write what my heart speaks.