#doitwrite

[erika-marie-blog1]

Tweets about history!

[erika-marie-blog1]

Tweets about work!

[erika-marie-blog1]

Tweets about Style and Images!

[erika-marie-blog1]

The Problem With Schooling: A Process Narrative

So, This is a short paper describing how I wrote the previously posted paper “The Problem With Schooling.” It is written in the form of a letter to my professor.

Dear Tim,

My process for writing this paper was actually fairly straightforward. Writing the initial draft actually didn’t take long at all, probably somewhere between an hour and two hours. That draft I wrote straight through, just getting my thoughts on paper and making the connections between the text and my experiences from high school. After getting everything out on paper, I went through and checked for errors and to make sure everything I said actually made sense and was relevant to the paper.

The final draft was a bit more difficult in that I really combed through the entire paper changing grammatical mistakes and adding things that I hadn’t previously thought about. Then I went through and added transitions and cleared up my introductory and conclusion paragraphs. I also rearranged some things and put them into an order that made more sense and flowed better.

In terms of suggestions people made, I really took the time to think about them and decide if they would improve the paper or not. I ended up using most of Sarah’s corrections, with the exception of adding specific examples. I felt that examples would actually detract from the paper. I know that seems a bit odd, but to me, the piece is not about the details, it’s about the feeling it evokes and the generality of the high school experience, not did I add more about college for the same reason. Nhu and Teras’s suggestions were pretty much the same as  Sarah’s and so I used the same reasoning with them. I corrected the grammar and other technical mistakes, but I did not elaborate upon the acquiring and discarding of knowledge like Teras suggested for the same reason I did not elaborate upon what Sarah suggested I should.

-Erika Polka

[erika-marie-blog1]

Tweets about schooling and being a teenager

[erika-marie-blog1]

A Response to “Credentialing vs Educating”

Today I chose to read Credentialing vs Educating by Jane Jacobs. The title of the essay intrigued me and I figured it would be interesting to read. Little did I know that it would be interesting due to its complete lack of evidence or explanation. Now, you may think I am being a bit harsh in my criticism of the piece, but I honestly do not believe I am being overly critical. The essay contains no evidence to back up the author's claims, nor does it even actually address the issue the title implies it does.

My first major issue wth the piece is that the author does not actually distinguish the difference between educating and credentialing. She states that "a degree and an education are not necessarily synonymous" yet she does not explain how they are different and why that would be the case. This is extremely irksome to me because, as the title of the essay states, that is the focus of this paper and if your title does not match the content of the paper, you quite obviously have a problem.

My second major issue is the fact that most of the content of the essay seems to have no correlation to the purpose of the essay. Granted this could just be me not seeing the correlation, but I highly doubt that is the case and that again stems from the fact that the title does not correlate with what is actually written in the paper. The content of the paper suggests the trend that Universities value credentialing over education and then suggests that this trend stems from the Great Depression. While that is interesting to read, it has absolutely nothing to do with what the difference between credentialing and educating as the purpose of higher education. in the United States.

[loganwoodard-blog1]

Portfolio Letter

Logan Woodard

Dr. Shea

English Composition

4 May 2016

Portfolio Letter

           My semester has been an extremely eventful one ranging from reading “In Defense of Food”, to writing my three papers. The topics that I chose were also part of the variety and the diverse requirements of the class. The essays that I wrote about were an image analysis on the 2009 Yankees and their championship run, a position paper on why you should enjoy a family meal with your loved ones, and finally I wrote a proposal on the drug testing process and consequences in collegiate and professional sports. Throughout the semester I learned a great deal about myself and my writing style; I learned many things this semester from my writing partner and from having a helpful and understanding professor. My main focus this semester was to become a better writer and I can confidently say that I have. In my opinion, I had a lot of growth throughout the semester because I never felt that I was a good writer but I had it in me all along, all that I had to do was figure it out and it was easy sailing from then on out. For someone who doesn’t see a lot of growth needs to do some extra things away from the classroom. For example, if you did not do so good on an essay then you should meet with your given writing partner and also you should go to the writing center. At the writing center they are only there to help, they will not bash you for things they will only try to aid you in realizing a mistake and fixing it.

           The memories that I have experienced throughout the class will last forever. From, the Monday mantras, to the countless free writes on whatever topic we choose. I think that my favorite memory from this semester was writing the actual essays, because they were the most enjoyable and I was able to learn a lot of new information on my topics.  These examples helped me focus on writing and they helped me mature as a writer. When I look back at some of my earliest free writes I notice something, and that is that I used to write informally a lot. Also, that I didn’t have well structured and developed ideas. Another thing that I noticed was that my writing style wasn’t up for the college level at the start but with a lot of work, I feel that I achieved that. As far as class goes we did some pretty amazing things. The mentor texts that we did in class were extremely helpful in learning about old history and artwork. The multigenre project was also another great project that we did and I feel that it should stay in the syllabus for many years to come because it helps people who have to learn to work with others.

           This course as a whole was a dream in my opinion. Dr. Shea is the perfect Freshman English Composition professor because he understands that not everyone is a great writer and he doesn’t expect you to be until the end of the semester when you have to reflect upon yourself. English Composition seemed like a boring class that would kill time and give me three easy credits. The class was so much more than just three credits, it helped me shape myself as a writer for the years to come when I have to take writing and advanced composition courses. In the class we had to participate as part of our final grade, the one aspect that I struggled with the most was reading aloud to the group and it wasn’t because I am shy, it was mainly because I thought that sometimes my free writes were not mature enough for a college class. But, now I see that this is not the case because no one will judge you for what you write. My strengths for the class do outweigh the negatives in this case which of course is a good thing. I myself became much better at working with others, responding to my peers, and most importantly researching.

           I cannot attribute this success solely to myself because that is simply not the case, I had a tremendous amount of help along the way. I had Dr. Shea, our T.A. Hannah, my writing partner Angela, and finally every student in the class. Everyone around was able to help me become a better writer because no matter who it was they were trying to help and support me along the way. I hope that I was able to influence someone else in some way too, because it is important for everyone coming out of this class to have confidence. I feel that my work this semester has given me a B+ or an A- because I have met all of the goals under the A category of the class except for two of them. I feel that the two that I did not meet should influence my grade by either a half-letter grade or two half-letter grades because the two that I missed could have easily been avoided and I would have an A instead. I missed the checkpoints on attendance and reading my pieces in class so punish me as you please because they are probably the most avoidable ones in the grading system.

           The mini lessons that we had throughout the semester where extremely helpful because they helped us understand the common mistakes that are made in writing and how to avoid them. My favorite mini lesson this year was by my writing partner Angela and her topic was on descriptive language. She made the activity fun and enjoyable while still being able to teach us something. The interaction that I had with my writing partner was impeccable. The reason I bonded so well with her was because he brother is a close friend with a friend that I made here at Millersville so we always had this like friendly connection. The only frustration that I had working with my writing partner was with myself because it was a common theme throughout my papers that I would have run-on sentences through the whole paper. One thing that you could ask your students Dr. Shea is their grade received in their high school English class. This class definitely changed my outlook on food, because I never thought that I could write a paper on food in any type of way. It really goes to show that you can truly write about anything if you have the right mindset and research.    

[road-to-greatness-achieved-blog]

"I am me." Things I've learned through writing this semester. #doitwrite

T.K.B Twitter