It was 12:30 am and I was sitting on my computer chair, looking at my computer Rereading through my first draft of my Research Project, I was on the fence about how I felt after completing it and posting it to my blog. I had 1200 words so I had completed my main goal, a thousand words. My second goal was to stay on task and to keep it relevant to the story. I thought I had done pretty well staying on task throughout my paper.
I woke up the next morning and went to school. I go through my only other class, Intro to Business, and continue on with my day until I get to my english classroom. We get to choose between getting into groups or individually presenting to the class. We chose to get into groups and my group only had two so I was put into a different group so we had more people to share with. He had also printed out a helpful questionnaire sheet to help us know what we needed to fix throughout the project. While sharing my story with my group Mr. Mangini stopped by our group to hear and help get the real answers. When he had stopped by I had just started sharing my project with my group and I had a very strong introduction but I needed to specify if the three good things gratitude process did or didn’t work. Other than that I was good for the other three questions that asked if the introduction had a hook?, did the project mention the three good things gratitude process? And if the intro included the TPS thesis statement? Knowing this actually really helped me on the revision part of the research project. But, it also gave me a better sense of what Mr. Mangini would want me to fix since he was in my group at the time that I was presenting and he was helping us get to the right answer so we didn’t sugarcoat anything. Unfortunately my findings section of my paper wasn’t as good as my introduction but, at least I have a good portion of my project done and something to build off of for my findings. I just had to fix some of the things that I was missing or didn’t give enough details such as a topic sentence that transitioned into the argument, I didn’t argue one point at a time, as well as not referencing specific journal entries and using them to help strengthen my research project. There is another part that I could add more information too and that’s explaining the specific ways that the three good things had changed my day, along with my thought process. I wanted to use this blog to reiterate the things that I would like to critique in my research project before I upload my final piece.
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Ok so for this blog I’m going to be talking about my research and what I did wrong. In my Literary Review section of my project I had written about definitions that were from a online dictionary. We weren’t supposed to get it from a dictionary site so I went and did more research. I researched 2 definitions and got better results from a more credible source.
My first source came from a blog that was posted on Stephen Joseph’s website. In the bog it says “Looking for similarities and differences across the six theoretical perspectives in how they defined well-being, he identified fourteen distinct and recurring constructs that are used to describe well-being: happiness means feeling happy and cheerful, vitality means feeling energetic/full of energy, calmness means feeling calm/relaxed, optimism means being optimistic and hopeful, involvement means feeling completely involved and engaged in what you do, self-awareness means being in touch with how you feel, self-acceptance means accepting yourself the way you are, self-worth means liking yourself, competence means feeling highly effective at what you do, development means feeling you are improving, developing, advancing, purpose means having a purpose and a mission in life, significance means feeling that what you do is worthwhile, congruence means feeling that what you do is consistent with how you see yourself, and connection means feeling close and connected to the people around you.” My second source came from a blog and video of Robert Emmons speaking posted on his website. In the post, he highlights 4 of the many reason gratitude is good for you. They were gratitude allows us to celebrate the present, it blocks toxic, negative emotions and grateful people are more stress resistant. Another topic he talks about is the effects that gratitude can have on someone. The first out of the three is physically it’s proven to improve the immune system, less bothered by aches and pains, lower blood pressure, people tend to exercise more and care about their health, sleep longer and feel more refreshed when awakening. The second is psychologically people have a better sense of positive emotion, they are more alert, alive and awake, experience more joy and pleasure, along with a more optimistic outlook and happiness. The third and final is the social part of people’s lives helping them feel more helpful, generous and compassionate, more forgiving and outgoing. This really helped me get the information that I needed to prove that the three good things gratitude process did help me. Research Paper: My Writing Process
For this week I had missed this Thursday's class because of unexpected car problems but I was in class on Tuesday. The week before Mr. Mangini had asked us to answer a couple of questions before this weeks Tuesday class and they were What is MLA?, What is an in-text citation?, What is a Works Cited page?, What is Plagiarism? And Why is it important to cite source materials in an MLA research project? Before I wrote the answers to these questions I thought about them for a little while beforehand so I could try and answer the ones I thought I knew. That didn’t get me too far so I looked them up online to try to find the answers and they very quickly popped up, right below my search I saw all of my answers. When I reached question number four I thought to myself “wait so for all the other questions I’ve been plagiarizing because I wasn’t citing my sources beneath.” but I continued on finishing my questions anyway. During Tuesday's class we talked about different ways people can cite information wrong and I couldn't help but think “there’s so many ways you can plagiarize.” After class had finished i went home and continued to work on my research paper and every time that I looked anything up I made sure that I kept all of the pages that I even read just in case if I reference anything or even thought of a sentence that was remotely related. I continued to answer the questions. I say to myself “What research showed gratitude doesn’t improve well-being?” I immediately went to my three good things journal and looked through the list for something that reminded me of the process not working. There was a couple of things on the list that reminded me of other bad things that happened through that week. I tried to describe the way I was feeling at the time, the best way I could with as little as background information as possible. In conclusion, I don’t think it worked that well. I didn’t feel any improved happiness. I did notice that I show gratitude toward my coworkers by buying everyone munchkins. Although, It could have been that I only wrote two good things per day instead of three. Either way, my conclusion is that it did slightly improve my well-being and I will always remember to think about the better side of things. This weeks post is going to be about my Research Paper. There weren’t any articles that we were required to reading or many guidelines other than to write about my research paper and how it was going so far.
I decided to started with the question part of the paper to build the body of the paper. I thought that I would be able to make the whole paper flow better if I knew what I needed to flow into. I copy and pasted the outline into my google document and read over all the questions before I started and thought it would be best to look up the ones that I couldn’t explain first. So far they were what is positive psychology?, what is well-being? and what is gratitude? While researching about these I realized that I am grateful for some of my coworkers since they’ve been getting more experienced. The day after I had bought everyone munchkins and I realized I was showing gratitude towards everyone but doing this small gesture. Without me writing it down and remembering I wouldn’t have realized that I was helping my well-being by doing things like these throughout my week. Just this past week I had bought my family dinner and took my father out to his favorite restaurant to eat. I’ve been trying to continue with my “three intrinsic goals” and improve my well-being. I personally think it’s been working because I’ve been focusing on the good rather than the bad that also happens. This weeks blogs going to be composed of a week of thing that felt good to me and made me happy. Before composing this I read a few articles What is Positive Pyschology & Why Is it Important? (Positive Psychology Program), Greater Good in Action: Science-Based Practices for a Meaningful Life (UC Berkeley's Project Home Page) and Three Good Things (Greater Good in Action).
Today’s blog post is going to be about me reflecting on the past 8 weeks that I have been in English Composition I. Before I started writing this midterm piece I was given a couple of links to help me be a better writer. First, I wanted to brush up on my reflective writing so I watched a video about Reflective Writing and after feeling like it didn’t help that much I read the next article I was given called Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection. Not too long after I realized I had to make either a video or a essay. I didn’t exactly know how to go about making a vlog and posting it so I read all the Articles that he had given us on his website. I chose to go through all of them starting with What is a Vlog? Then went to the rest How to Upload a Video to YouTube, How to Upload a Video to YouTube From your Phone , How to Embed a YouTube Video on Weebly Blog, YouTube Video Editor. After watching and reading all the articles and videos I decided that I would rather write about it than make a video.
I was sitting at my desk for about 4 hours or so on Thursday, starting just after I got done my Intro to Business class thinking of what I had actually improved on with my writing. At first I couldn’t think of anything, but then I remembered that I have 7 blog post that I could look at and think of what I had learned in class and out of class. There was only one way to remember all of the things that were going through my mind at the time and it was to make a rough draft for my Midterm Reflection. Starting a paper in the past was never an easy task especially for me. But as I wrote each essay, week after week it would continue to get easier starting these papers. I didn’t really pick up on this until I started Composing a Past Scene: Part Two, which was week six, that I noticed that I made the introduction and first paragraph in like 20 minutes. A normal Introduction and first paragraph for me came along within about an hour consisting of me thinking for about 40 minutes then, finally feeling like I had a nice first sentence. I started to think “maybe it was because I was never a big fan of writing so I never normally did it unless it was a class essay or a research paper.” Next, I thought “it could be that I was being to picky about the way I started.” But, no matter the fact it took me this long to realize it and made me think about what else could have gone unnoticed. Every week Mr. Mangini would give us a couple articles to give the class a better understanding about that weeks blog assignment. The third week we had to Compose a Present Scene. Then, a week later he had us rewrite it and include dialogue and symbolism to make a more meaningful story with background information. Having the time to go back and look at what I had written a week later made me realize that I had to get my thoughts out before they are gone. Since then, with every blog I write I’ve included a rough draft even if I don’t really have too many ideas. After putting them down on paper it gave me the feeling that I was in control of my thought and the way I could portray them to my audience, giving them a better understanding of the story that I want to show through my words. What are my three primary intrinsic English Composition I goals for the rest of this semester? Today’s blog post is going to be different. I will be writing in a style called Found Poetry and the genre I will write about is called Erasure. It takes the whole story and changes the way the story looks by making the main text a light grey. Then, you make the important things, the ones you want the audience to read, black. Before sitting down and writing this piece I had to figure out the genre of Found Poetry I wanted to write with. So, to get a better understanding I read What is a Found Poem?, Sample Found Poem and Visual Examples of Found Poems. After reading these I felt more confident in my understanding of what a found poem is and figured out a way how I could write one out of my Narrative Project Draft #1.
“IT’S FRIDAY MY DUDES!!” my little brother yells as he’s running down the steps, through the living room and into the dining room. Upstairs in the room next to his, I get startled awake, throw the blanket off of me and sit upright with the sun blinding me through my window with smoke pouring out of my ears from being awoken in such a obnoxious way. I think to myself “does it always have to be so annoying around here?” Not too long after, I force myself up and walk downstairs to the mouth watering aromas of bacon, pancakes, sausage and syrup. I scavenge what I can off of the plate that my mom serves the food on knowing that I'm running late, as usual. I dart up the stairs again changing my clothes, brushing my teeth, grabbing my backpack, running back down the stairs and up most of the block before I see the number eighty three pass by me honking as if she would stop and wait any longer than the three seconds it takes for everyone to board the bus. I answer my question from the morning in a sarcastic voice as I walk back home shamefully “nahhhhh it couldn’t get any worse than this.” Trying my hardest to forget that it was only seven in the morning. When I got home I had to awake the beast, my dad, in order to get a ride to school. As I open his door inch by inch it starts creating a high pitched and very loud creak like a scary movie. He awoke with a couple of grunts and moans then I say in the nicest way possible “hey dad, I missed the bus can you please give me a ride to school.” He quickly snaps back with “can’t I just be left alone to sleep for one single day without being startled by someone who needs a ride to tardy town.” Before he had the chance to finish his sentence I zoom back into my room to get away from anything else he can say to me. We get our stuff and he gives me a ride to school without saying anything else other than “see you at home.” When I had gotten to school I got my late pass, stopped at my locker and proceeded to my first block. I look at one of the clocks built into the wall, I was ten minutes late as I arrived at the door. I walk in and take my seat in my math class. “late as always, do you even set alarms in the morning or do you just wing it?” With a displeased tone. I chose not to answer and class resumed with no interference's. The rest of my classes were normal and I mostly paid attention to the clock, breaking down the amount of time left into fractions making it easier for me to get through the classes. I get through lunch and it was nice I sat with friends and enjoyed the little time we had away from classes. Finally, my last class history I didn’t mind it today’s lesson was about knowing where all 50 states were on the map. I had studied the night before so the test was pretty easy. Not to long after I hop on my bus and arrive at my house. I go inside, quickly say hello to my parents sitting on the couches, then go up the stairs as fast as my leg’s would go, into my room to the last place I remember leaving my stack of money. I saw nothing not even the twenty five dollar gift card and my heart dropped along with my stomach.. The worst part about it had to be that I know exactly who took the money. My older brother. He was always the worst like he was possessed by a demon doing horrible things and taunting us till we were filled with rage. I ran down my steps and told my mom and dad what happened. At first they shrugged it off thinking it couldn’t have been more than $20. Seconds after, I told them how much it actually was. Their moods changed abruptly and were sad for me. They said “we’ll give you the money back and make things right.” But, my brother was not home at the time and there was no telling when he would be back so I went to my room with an unsure feeling, not knowing when I would get my money back. My parents chose to not have the conversation around me because they knew it would get hairy. I could hear the yelling coming from downstairs later that night. “Where’s Dylan’s bracelet money.” Said by my mom with an angry tone “Why would I know?” Said by my brother. I was imagining him and seeing the smile on his face lying to my parents. “We know when you lie. We want that money back it’s not yours and it’s not fair to him.” My mom snaps at him “I can’t give back what I don’t have.” My brother yells back continuing to get louder. Nothing else was said after that. My parents knew they couldn’t do much else other than kick him out and that’s what they did. It didn’t work for very long through he came back within a half hour and the rest of the afternoon continued without a word from anyone. Just a week ago I had this same feeling, not having money. It was a taunting feeling that came when my friends would flash money at school, reminding me that I didn’t usually have much more than lunch money. So when I got to my house I started watching YouTube videos thinking of ways to make money. Later that day, I had an idea while watching a video about making parachute cord bracelets. I could make and sell them to my friends. Thinking that even if I sold one that would be amazing. So I told my parents, they thought it was nice that I was doing something other than play videos games and watch videos. I bought 3 different colors green, blue and neon orange. I made one green bracelet and a blue one to wear to school tomorrow. My one friend , Greg, comes up to me and asks “what is that it looks sooo cool.” I proudly say “yeah well I make them and if you want this one I'll sell you it for five dollars.” He shook his head in agreement and we exchanged his money for my bracelet. I couldn’t help but smile and think “my first customer.” I continue on with my day and go home with a new found love for making bracelets that night I had made six more bracelets hoping that tomorrow would make more money. Fortunately, I was right and the next day I had 4 people come up to me and buy bracelets. Then the next day I had sold out of bracelets because I only brought eight instead of 10 . This continued on for 3 school days, day after day making more and taking requests for other colors or multicolored ones to be made that night and given to them by the next morning. I had sold way over 50 bracelets and I kept close track of how much money I had earned $325 and a $25 visa gift card. All that was taken away because of a negative choice my brother made and how it affected me.
Composing a Past Scene: Part Two
Today’s blog is going to incorporate what I learned in class about My Mother Gives Me a Writing Lesson by Martin Lee, What You Don’t Know by Lulu Wang and My Name is Margaret by Maya Angelou. I’m going to retell a story about a scene that had happened in my past when I was younger. One of the most negative times of my life has to start back in 7th grade with my family. My father paid most of the bill's so my mother was the one that usually gives out the remaining amount of money to my four brothers and I at the time. One day I was going through YouTube and I saw a video showing how to make parachute cord bracelets and I thought to myself “well that could make me some money.” Soon after, I went out with my parents and they had bought the supplies I needed to make a couple bracelets. I make two bracelets and wore them to school. My one friend , Greg, comes up to me and asks “what is that it looks sooo cool.” I proudly say “yeah well I make them and if you want this one I'll sell you it for five dollars.” He shook his head in agreement and we exchanged his money for my bracelet. I couldn’t help but smile and think “my first customer.” I continue on with my day and go home with a new found love for making bracelets that night I had made six more bracelets hoping that tomorrow would make more money. Fortunately, I was right and the next day I had 4 people come up to me and buy bracelets. Then the next day I had sold 8 bracelets. This continued on for about two weeks day after day making more and taking requests for other colors or multicolored ones to be made that night and given to them by the next morning. I had sold way over 50 bracelets and I kept close track of how much money I had earned a little over three hundred dollars and a twenty five dollar visa gift card. I was never more truly happy then at that moment just the knowing that I had plenty of money to last me for a while. After some thought, I knew I wouldn’t spend it on just candy or another toy, but that I would invest it into a bank account and save it for something more important. Knowing that my parents would be busy with work until the weekend, I still had a two days to hold this money so I put it into the safest place I could think of… under all the shirts in my shirt drawer. After two tiring days at school it had officially become the weekend it was friday but it was time to make a bank account and deposit money for the first time ever. I get home go right up the stairs, run right into my room, into my shirt drawer and there’s nothing not even the twenty five dollar gift card. The worst part about it had to be that I know exactly who took the money. After taking just under a week reading and rereading thinking of things that I could rewrite to make my scene better. After all that thinking I decided that it was better for me to brainstorm and just write down what I could think of and see how it went. What I found myself getting annoyed with was how long the background information would take me to read. I also felt like it was taking away from the main point of the story so I decided to re write the beginning but other than that I liked the way that I built the story and was able to explain the way I felt after I didn’t find the money where I had put it. Today’s blog is going to incorporate what I learned in class about What You Don’t Know by Lulu Wang and My Name is Margaret by Maya Angelou. I’m going to retell a story about a scene that had happened in my past when I was younger.
One of the most negative times of my life has to start back in 7th grade with my family. My mom works two jobs, one is at a small business making good money but no benefits and the other was at a hairdressing shop also not making benefits. My father makes great money and has benefits but he can be bad with how he handles his money at times making my mother the one that usually gives out the money to my four brothers and I at the time. So being the entrepreneurial 13 year old that I was, I wanted to have money made by myself and use for only myself. One day I was going through YouTube and I saw a video showing how to make parachute cord bracelets and I thought to myself “well that could make me some money.” Soon after, I went out with my parents and they had bought the supplies I needed to make a couple bracelets. I make two bracelets and wore them to school. My one friend , Greg, comes up to me and asks “what is that it looks sooo cool.” I proudly say “yeah well I make them and if you want this one I'll sell you it for five dollars.” He shook his head in agreement and we exchanged his money for my bracelet. I couldn’t help but smile and think “my first customer.” I continue on with my day and go home with a new found love for making bracelets that night I had made six more bracelets hoping that tomorrow would make more money. Fortunately, I was right and the next day I had 4 people come up to me and buy bracelets. Then the next day I had sold 8 bracelets. This continued on for about two weeks day after day making more and taking requests for other colors or multicolored ones to be made that night and given to them by the next morning. I had sold way over 50 bracelets and I kept close track of how much money I had earned a little over three hundred dollars and a twenty five dollar visa gift card. I was never more truly happy then at that moment just the knowing that I had plenty of money to last me for a while. After some thought, I knew I wouldn’t spend it on just candy or another toy, but that I would invest it into a bank account and save it for something more important. Knowing that my parents would be busy with work until the weekend, I still had a two days to hold this money so i put it into the safest place I could think of… under all the shirts in my shirt drawer. After two tiring days at school it had officially become the weekend it was Friday but it was time to make a bank account and deposit money for the first time ever. I get home go right up the stairs, run right into my room, into my shirt drawer and there’s nothing not even the twenty five dollar gift card. The worst part about it had to be that I know exactly who took the money. Composing a Present Scene with Dialogue and Symbolism
This weeks post is going to be a present scene in my life about a college payment. Before writing this blog I have read How to Format Dialogue, Symbolism and Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway) to help me compose a scene that includes both dialogue and symbolism. I lay in my bed with my eyes closed for 20 minutes before starting my day. The whole time I was annoyed by the sun peaking through my window straight into my eyes. Soon after, I wake up, check my phone, see that it it’s just past ten on Tuesday the eleventh and think to myself “pay day.” But, this weeks different from most I not only from my job but my mom offered me some money but I know I not be able to get it till about three when she gets done working. Knowing that, I call her to make sure that we were going to go get the money and she answers and says “of course I’ll go to the bank and give it to you to pay for it.” So I continue on with my day binge watching Netflix, texting friends, and messing around with my pit bike until about three. Soon after, I drive to Charlie’s where my mom also works and enter from the normal employee entrance. “Hey how’s everything going so far today.” Said by me to my mom “Not bad we were pretty slow today.” My mom said I then said “You are ready to leave right.” She didn’t say anything back and continued to run dishes to the front area as if I didn’t say anything to her. So, I then go out to my car to sit and wait for her to get done. I play a variety of games for about 50 minutes and check the time and see that it’s three fifty-five and my mom is still inside. Four minutes later she comes out smiling and gets into the car. Before I had the chance to change gears I asked her “sooo where do we have to go.” she says “home.” Not a second later I quickly changed gears and pull out of my parking spot and drive home regretfully not saying anything. When I had gotten home I logged onto my computer and paid my college bill. |
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