Self analysis

The way I now see myself as a writer has changed dramatically over this course. When I was in high school, I saw myself as a good writer. I didn’t think I was over the top or anything, but I did well on my papers and such. After a few weeks in this class, I viewed myself totally different as a writer. The way my college instructor expected us to write was different than anything I’ve ever had to do. Mr. Ware had us look what we were writing about in a whole different perspective. At first, I felt helpless because writing never used to be that much of a struggle for me; however, as time has moved forward in this class, I feel just a little more confident in how he wants us to write. If I look back at my post from September 11, 2008, entitled “Diagrams,” it is written very differently than my post from December 7, 2008, entitled “Little Bracelet.” The way we progressed through this course changed slowly, but by looking at one of my first posts and my most recent one, one can see how much this class has been taught about looking and writing about objects in many different ways.

My attitude about reading and writing has changed. I now know more about pathos, ethos, and logos, and I can incorporate them into when I am reading a document or listening to a speaker. When I am writing, I know when I should tie those elements into my work. When I am writing about something for this class, I know to look at it in all different directions. We learned to take our subject apart and look at it all aspects of it. Writing like this is more difficult than just writing about an object itself. I can’t say that I like doing it, but that’s mainly just because I don’t feel like it’s a strength of mine.

I liked it when we did peer reviews on each others’ assignments. It helped me because the questions gave me guidelines that helped me write the post. Also, it made me read and judge one of my classmate’s posts, and it made me pick out the good and bad about theirs. Even though the peer reviews may have taken a while to do, I am glad that we did them because it made me think deeper about my own assignment.

Some knowledge that I have applied to places out of the classroom is the terms ethos, pathos, and logos. In the speech class that I am taking, we had to know those terms. It was very helpful when I was already familiar with them. We had to watch a recorded speech and pick those qualities out of it, and because I learned about them in this class, I felt confident in my answers.

An area that I’m still working on as a writer is the fact of not writing in a narrative view. Writing a narrative is much easier than what we are supposed to be doing, writing through an object and connecting it with other related objects. I try do this, but I think I still try to find a way to be narrative about my subjects, just because that is what comes naturally to me. In my next and last assignment, I will have to work on this tremendously, and hopefully finish this course successfully.

Little Bracelet

It sits on my desk, aside from my other jewelry. The bracelet that my Aunt Linda gave me for my thirteenth birthday means the world to me. Since she does not live close by, she sent it to me in the mail that special day. The sight of that little box wrapped in a brown paper bag still lurks in my memory. After I opened the package, the bracelet was on my wrist in a flash.



The red, green, and brown beads picked up different colors in the light as I twirled my wrist a little. The silver beads in between the colored ones shined for me to gaze at. This bracelet was unlike any bracelet I had owned before. Other bracelets were from stores of lesser value, like Claire’s, but not this one. I was not sure where this bracelet was from, but I was certain that it was not from a store like Claire’s. The way I felt when I wore that bracelet was different. Once I put on that red, green, brown, and silver bracelet, I felt like more of an adult. No longer did I feel like the rest of my friends who were wearing plastic bead bracelets or necklaces because I had a nice bracelet.

The face that it made me feel older could have been because my Aunt Linda had one similar to it. Hers was much nicer, of course, but at that time, I thought they were of the same value. It gave me pride to know that I had jewelry like my aunt, a grown-up woman. I still have that bracelet. The beads are not quite as glittery in the light, and some of the silver somehow specked off. However, no matter what it looks like, it will always make me feel like a grownup while I am wearing it.