This is an introduction to my last required blog post for my English Comp 1 class with Professor. Mangini. For this blog post I was asked to compose a reflection about my experience in this class. I was given the option to do a top 10 list of commodities I experienced in the class and not just talking about grades, but rather specific assignments. I was also asked to do the assignment in third person which I am now great at due to the multiple blog posts in the past scene categories.
Top 10 List
Number nine on the list is most important and meant the most to me. I made it to every english class and for me that’s a personal goal I achieved. In high school you could miss ten days of class and get five latenesses per quarter without any consequences. I used every lateness and absence I could because I didn’t like waking up early and going to sit in a school for eight hours. In this case however, I am only at DCCC tuesdays and thursdays so I wanted to get myself to make every class since I’m only here two days out of five. I did awesome for the most part. I only missed three eight a.m classes and made the rest of my classes and I’m very proud of that.
1 Comment
I just finished my research project and I found something interesting. I really dove deep into why the “three good things process” didn’t work for me. After researching and finding out that it was because I didn’t do it long enough, was annoyed by it, and didn’t understand it fully, it made me think to myself “Maybe I should give it another go.” First off, after doing a whole research project on the process, I can now say I understand it fully. Secondly, I won’t be annoyed by just having another assignment since it will be my choice and I can do it at a time that’s convenient for me. Lastly, I would do it for longer than a week. Personally, I feel a week wasn’t long enough to come to a proper conclusion for the process working or not. If it still doesn’t work for me after doing it longer than a week, so be it. Thanks for reading, go check out my first draft of my research project.
This is my introduction to my research project. I attempted to follow all guidelines and gave great effort. I am very open to feedback on how to improve it. Thanks in advance.
Can the “three good things” process have a positive impact on my well-being? Let’s start off by discussing exactly what the “three good things” gratitude process is. Each day for at least a week, you have to write down three things you did that went well for you. Dr. Seligman says “It changes your focus from the things that go wrong in life to things you might take for granted that go well, and focusing your attention on things that go well breaks up depression and increases happiness.” Based off this quote, one could tell themselves by doing this process they could achieve the happiness they’ve been pursuing and longing for. I myself have participated in the process. I’m glad I did because I’m always open to new experiences and especially open to try things that could improve my well-being. However I do not think the process improved my well-being. I did like though how on one of the days I found an American flag in my closet that I meant to hang a while ago. Then after I hung it I wrote about hanging it and that made me feel accomplishment. I don’t think that’s enough to say it improved my well-being though. The three good things process did not have a positive impact on my well being because I saw it as just another thing to do, did not do it for long enough, and didn’t fully understand it’s purpose. I was assigned a research project by my professor Sabatino Mangini. He asked me to do research on the question “Can the “three good things” gratitude process have a positive impact on my well-being?” If someone were to ask me this question just to hear my quick answer I would say sometimes. This is because the question asks if the three good things process can have an impact on my well being. I do think it can for people but at the same time I think it doesn’t necessarily always have that impact on people. For example, the three good things process didn’t improve my well being but after hearing what my classmates shared in class, it seemed to work for some of them.
I am in the finishing stages of my research and am almost ready to write my paper. I think the introduction will be the easiest part simply because you just have to include topic context, the research question, and the thesis statement. This should not be difficult to do since the question is in the prompt so your just copying it, then just make your own thesis statement and explain it a bit. The literature review is the next subheading and part of the paper. In the prompt it asks to answer “What is positive psychology? What is well-being? What is gratitude? What research suggests gratitude improves well-being? What research suggests gratitude doesn’t improve well-being? What research supports your data and experiences?” After extensively researching based on these questions I have been able to frame out how I will write this section according to these questions. The findings subheading is next and it’s what I think will be the hardest to write due to one of the questions. Explore the whys or why nots that support your answer. I think it’s going to be the hardest to do because like I said earlier, I think it’s both because I answered sometimes to the projects research question. I guess I’ll just have to pick one or try to find a way to explain how it could be both. The conclusion section asks these questions, “Will you continue with the “three good things” gratitude process? What are your main take-aways from your research project? Questions for more research?” I will not continue due to the fact the process did not improve my well being and I’m not going to do something that doesn’t work for me. I will find out my takeaways after I finish the previous sections. This goes for the questions for more research as well. This research project reminds me of an eighth grade research project for science. The project asked the question “What is a quark?” I feel as if this project is along the same guidelines as that project by basically saying answer this simple question. I will attempt to answer this question honestly and to the best of my ability through my research and findings. Stay tuned to my research project tab on weebly for my first draft. In this blog post, I will be writing three good things that happened to me each day for the next week. I think the focus of this blog post is to make you feel good about yourself and have self confidence. I used 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) to help me with this post.
Tuesday, October 30 1. Found a flag: I found this barstool American flag that my sister gave to me a while ago and I forgot to hang up in my room. 2. Did my study guide: I did my Introduction to Business study guide for test #4 on chapters 10 and 11. 3. Hung out with my dog: My dog Chase is usually home alone all day when I'm at school. When I got home I let him outside to do his business then pet him and hung out with him for a while so he was happy and I was happy. Wednesday, October 31 1. Helped mom: I went to Wawa for my mom and filled her gas tank all the way up. 2. Helped dad: I bought firewood and brought the fire pit from outback to out front for my dad so he can have a cozy fire while giving out candy. 3. Hung flag: I hung up the barstool American flag that I found in my room. Thursday, November 1 1. School: I made it to school on time. I was well rested and participated in my classes today. 2. School Work: Besides this assignment I had work to do for other classes. Even though the assignments are not due for a while, I did them instead of procrastinating. 3. Packed up: I packed my clothes and prepared for the long ride I'm taking to Altoona, Pennsylvania tomorrow. Friday, November 2 1. Helped friends: I drove my friends and I up to Altoona, PA. 2. Helped friend: I brought some items to my friend who lives up here already after getting the items from his dad. 3. Helped friend: Took my friend to see his girlfriend to comfort her after her uncle passed away. Saturday, November 3 1. Breakfast: I took two buddies and myself to get breakfast. 2. Pick up: I picked up my buddy at his girlfriends dorm. 3. Blanket: I gave my buddy a blanket to use when he was sleeping. Sunday November 4 1. Home safe: Drove my friends and I back from Altoona. 2. Family: Came home and saw my family. 3. Groceries: Helped family bring in groceries. Monday November 5 1. Pick up: I picked up the Chinese food my family had ordered. 2. Homework: I worked on some homework I had to do. 3. Family: I spent time with my family at the dinner table and talked as we ate.
This blog post is a reflection on my 2nd draft of my narrative project where I changed the pov, tense, decision, and outcome. I used What is Fan Fiction -- and why is it making people nervous? (Stephen Downes) and Rewinding and Rewriting: The Alternate Universes in Our Head (Hidden Brain Podcast) to help me with this. Check out my narrative page to read my drafts.
The focus of this blog post was for me to record myself (vlogging) talking about my English Comp 1 course and not just talking about the course but to talk about specific assignments and texts and how they reflected upon me and my writing. I can definitely say this assignment was crucial to my self reflecting.
This is an introduction to my Found Poem. A found poem is using words from a text to make a poem. I used What is a Found Poem? | Sample Found Poem | Visual Examples of Found Poems to make my found poem. It is now fall and I found it convenient to make my poem about fall.
The Leaves Leaves in the day, I was too excited. “Come on Jim.” the leaves yelled like a rowdy obnoxious generation z crowd. “Alright.” I said as I drank my water bottle. I walked over the leaves, “Aye we’re here” the leaves yelled like hooligans. The leaves were on the ground, on the gate, and on the brick wall. I was disappointed and went into a deep sadness for walking over the leaves. Embarrassed of this, I went home to rest. “Well your home early.” my mother said surprised. “Yeah” I said with total awkwardness. I went to my room to get away from reality for a while. My poem is Free-form excerpting and remixing: Poets excerpt words and phrases from their source text(s) and rearrange them in any manner they choose Do you think the narrative provides enough descriptive language to create a compelling found poem? I think my narrative does provide enough descriptive language to create a compelling found poem. That being said, I could put a bit more in my narrative. If not, how do you plan to revise the descriptive language in the narrative? By replacing commonly used descriptive words for more complex ones. Do you think the descriptive language more so creates a setting or delivers the subtext of a theme? I feel in my narrative descriptive language serves as creating a setting. Ex: smelly, crusty bus. In revision, will you focus on using description to develop more of the setting or more of a theme? I will focus on using description to create a setting and try to also incorporate a theme. In this blog post, I will be editing and revising my post from blog post #5. I have read My Mother Gives me a Writing Lesson (Martin Lee) and My Name is Margaret and will use these pieces to compose my scene about a specific event that had a negative impact on my life.
“Come on Jim we’re heading to the train!” My buddy Ed yelled. It was the day of the concert and I was too excited. I could not be more happy then I was that day. Prepared to be surrounded by friends and good music. “Alright.” I replied as I put a water bottle of captain morgan in my pocket. Ed and I had drank the whole handle but I took the last bit to save for later. It never crossed my mind as being risky or wrong. A lot of people drink under the legal age and I was never caught or got in trouble so the consequences of doing it never really occurred to me either. So as I had done before I grabbed the bottle and went on my merry way out of the house. “Aye we’re here!” Ed said excitedly. The train ride went as quick as a snap of fingers. “Who are we seeing first?” I asked as we walked to the Ben Franklin Parkway. It was decided we would see the artist “gunna” first as we arrived a little after the first performance. We proceeded to the gate where security presented themselves like a brick wall to pat people down for anything not permitted in the concert. Ed was in front of me in line and while we waited I moved the bottle from my pocket to inside my nike shorts. “Next!” the security motioned towards Ed to come forward. Ed was patted and cleared. It was now my turn. I walked up and a man patted me down from top to bottom with his rough hands. I thought I was in the clear but I wasn’t. “Spread your legs.” the man said to me. I did so and the plastic water bottle hit the ground. “Another one.” he said to a police officer as he pointed to me. The officer gripped me on the arm tightly and a rush of nervousness shot through my body as he walked me to a holding bus. There I was, sitting in the back of that smelly crusty bus so enraged that I was getting in trouble for such a stupid reason. I was just sitting there questioning myself “why did I try to sneak in that bottle, why today, why me on a day that was supposed to be filled with fun and excitement.” After the anger left my body I went into a deep sadness. Not the type of sadness you have after you lose a family member, but the type of sadness you feel when a loved one says “I’m not mad, just disappointed.” I was disappointed, disappointed in myself. In this blog post, I will be composing a past scene in first person and past tense. I have read What You Don't Know (Lulu Wang) and My Name is Margaret and will use these pieces to compose my scene about a specific event that had a negative impact on my life.
I have recently made a decision that had a negative impact on my life. It happened on Sunday, September 2nd, 2018. I was sitting in my room the night of September 1st, playing Fortnite on Xbox One with some of my pals. In between dying in the game, I would check snapchat to see what everyone was doing at the time. Most of what I saw was snapchat posts of people at the Made In America concert that was happening that weekend in Philadelphia. I was so jealous I couldn’t go because I had gone the previous two years and had a blast both times but I had work. I then checked what time I had to be in work on Sunday but to my surprise I wasn’t even scheduled. I quickly went online to see how much tickets were for Sunday but I could only find package deals that were selling two tickets and I wasn’t paying for two if I was the only one going. So, I went on snapchat again and my buddy Ed put up a post asking who wanted to go to Made In America on Sunday and I contacted him. We talked it over and I bought the tickets with my debit card and he gave me half the price in cash the day of the concert. The day of the concert I woke up early to begin drinking (pregaming) before the concert. Ed and I along with other friends met up at our friend Paul’s house to do this. Together we drank a handle of Captain Morgan but I put the very last of it in a water bottle which turned out to be a costly mistake. We then walked to the train station where we waited for the train. The train picked us up at the Primos-Secane station around the time of the first performance of the day. I remember just having a blast being on the way to a concert with my friends. We got off the train and walked to the Ben Franklin Parkway where they were hosting the concert. We got in line to get searched for anything not allowed in the concert and I put the water bottle of Captain in my shorts. The security patted me down and I thought I was good but then they said “Spread your legs.” I did so and the bottle fell out of my shorts. A police officer then grabbed me and put me in a bus. Being eighteen at the time they gave me an underage drinking citation and I was not permitted into the concert. I attended court for the citation and I have to pay $200 and attend a class that ranges 2-4 hours. This will make the charge able to be expunged but it’s still on my record as of right now. Luckily my license was not suspended but in the end, yeah, bringing that bottle to the concert was definitely a decision that had a negative impact on my life. |
JamesI will use this blog to write about the written word and the world! Archives
December 2018
Categories
All
|