Wrap-up Reflection - Cooper Tesch

After comparing my theory with the other two members of my group we each had a different view of what writing means to us individually. The uniqueness between what we wrote only solidified my theory more to me seeing as I talked about how writing is unique and creative to each individual person. Having a theory of writing is useful because it helps you understand why it is yourself or others may be writing and the reasons behind certain pieces of work. I can say now that as a writer I feel confident in what it is I know about writing. I connect so much with my theory because everything I do is tied to my emotions and creativity. I firmly believe that we as writers no matter what it is always put a little bit of ourselves into our work. I characterize my writing through science fiction and supernatural and fantasy writing. I am a very creative and imaginative person and my writing is how I let it out. It’s very hard for me to adhere to one singular identity seeing as so many encompass who I am. I believe that most writers shouldn’t try to label or characterize themselves because it can hinder the creative process because it’s like you’ve placed yourself in a box. Writing is meant to be free and imaginative. I am a free and creative writer.

Step 5: Wrap-Up Reflection - Mitchell Rossini

In comparison to my classmates, most of our theories of writing seem to have one thing in common; they are almost all focused on the purpose and feelings of each individual author. My theory for example, focused on the the creative aspect of writing and the sense of self that can be discovered while writing or creating a text. Having a theory of writing is helpful in the fact that it brings a sense of purpose to whoever is writing. Writing as a way of thinking and as a creative outlet allows for a person to be more open to their own ideas. Seeing their own ideas and thoughts in a physical or digital form allows for one to have a better understanding of themselves when they reread these things. As a writer I have definitely grown in a lot of ways and because of really great teachers I can now write in multiple "genres".  Even though I prefer to write in script format about fictional topics, classes focused on language or nonfiction works have helped me with all forms of creative writing. I would still characterize myself as a relatively well rounded writer the predominantly focuses on creative script writing. 

Journal 2 - Juan Rodriguez (Word Cloud)

The five key terms for writing were Understanding, Physical, Ideas, Facts and Imagination. In my word cloud the most frequent word was writing which is not surprising because the key terms are meant to explain writing. The most surprising aspect of the word cloud was that the five key terms were not the five most common words in the original journal. For example, interpretation was a key word in the journal which actually makes a lot of sense because the interpretation of written works is basically the most important aspect in reading. There is a connection between the key terms and the word cloud because the key terms were meant to explain what the word cloud is about. The word cloud does make me rethink the key terms because it makes me feel like I should add interpretation. When it comes to interpretation in writing this concept is key because the whole point of writing is to interpret what you are reading and think about what the author was trying to convey.

Writing is a form of conveying information. The key to writing is understanding and interpretation, because when you read a work written by an author the ultimate goal is to understand what the author is trying to tell you. His ideas are meant to be understood by the reader by using facts and his imagination to appeal to the readers senses. When is comes down to writing an author is trying to tell the reader information in a clear way, the author could use facts and imagination to let the reader fully understand his message.

This activity as a whole has enhanced my idea of writing by showing me different aspects of writing that I have never really thought about before. For example, when I began this activity I never really thought about interpretation as an important aspect of literature and writing. I also never thought of the reader as an important aspect of the writing process because I used to think that the author only writes and the reader reads, but honestly the author writers for the reader and he is trying to send a message through his writing. Interpretation is key here because the readers interpretation of the authors work may not be the same as the authors interpretation of what he wrote. Most readers spend their time trying to interpret or decipher the work and understand what the author was trying to say with it. In the discussions another aspect of writing came up and it was creativity. Authors, especially fiction writers, are extremely creative. They can use a weird and interesting story like the rabbit and the tortoise to teach an extremely important lesson in life. They can come up with different world like Alice in Wonderland or different characters with crazy life stories that come together like Romeo and Juliet. Creativity is one of the most important aspects of an authors work.

Wrap Up Reflection

I think this activity was helpful in allowing me to get a deeper and more thorough understanding of a lot of vocabulary words I had previously known. Having a theory of writing might be useful in allowing me to go back to that when I'm struggling to find a purpose or meaning in my own writing. It can help remind me what I should be focusing on rather than going off track and writing meaningless things. Reading other people's theories helped me shape and rethink mine, although they were all similar it was interesting to read what other people thought for their theory of writing, and what they wish to focus on in their writing for the future.

in class activity word cloud

I saw a little bit of a connection between my word cloud and key terms, specifically the word creative came up in both in many forms. I think this is because in order to write, it takes some degree of creativity no matter how simple the writing is. Another connection I saw was the word expression, because writing is used by many people to express themselves and what they are feeling. After looking at my word cloud, I would add the word powerful to me key terms, because not only is writing a powerful form of communication, but the emotions that writing can give to people is also very powerful. I would also like to add the word reader to my key terms, because the purpose of writing is for an intended audience and if there was nobody to read everything that is being written, nothing would be written. My theory of writing would be writing is a form of communication, that can be either very simple or very complex. More creative people are able to have more complex writing pieces, more likely these pieces will give more powerful emotions to the reader.

Overall, after this activity my theory of writing has evolved. I originally thought writing was just a normal everyday thing, but now I have a new appreciation for writing. After meeting with my group my theory of writing has changed because myself and my group had vastly different theories. I now see writing as more of just a means of communication, but as a way to fully express however I feel in my own unique way. Having a theory of writing might be useful because when a person sits down and starts writing, they know in their head the limitless potential of what that piece of work can be. I now see myself as a more interested writer, as someone who used to not be interested in writing this activity has changed my opinion of writing, and I now see writing as a unique opportunity to express how I feel. I can connect to my theory well because I fully agree with it and I think in the future my new writing theory will help to define me as a writer.

Encompassing, Expressive, Symbolic, Insightful, Necessary and Complex were my original key terms for writing. Yet looking at the terms listed in the word cloud I have noticed that the majority of may initial terms are not listed. This is most likely because I was thinking about the concept of writing as a whole when I was formulating my list of words in the beginning yet for the world cloud I was focused more on the successful writing aspect. Even though my word cloud does not exactly match my list of words I will stick to my list because I still believe they describe the theory of writing as a whole. Writing is an expression of ones inner thoughts, ideas, feelings and emotions which are being expressed for others to see. I believe writing is not confined to words on a page, writing can be a painting, or a picture as well. Anything symbolic or moving that causes the audience to react in the manner the author feels necessary is successful writing. The concept of writing is a cultural and though provoking experience which should give the reader some sort of mental stimulus that expands the mind in a new direction.

Through collaboration with my group I have determined that writing goes beyond what I initially thought of writing. Writing is also Descriptive and Stylistic. in order to accomplish complex writing which reaches a deeper level with the reader the text must be able to grab and relate to the reader. These terms paired with my original terms of encompassing, expressive, symbolic, insightful, necessary and complex signify effective writing. Writing does not have to be confined to words on a page, it can be anything expressive and all the different elements of writing fit together and feed off each other in order to create a final piece which relates to the audience and allows them to relate to the expression of the author. This theory is useful because it expands the mind and allows the reader to process information that normally wouldn't be considered writing. Anything that is symbolic or inspiring is writing.

Journal 2 - Mitchell Rossini

• Based on your reading of all seven concepts, how do you define "genre"? Is this definition of genre different from how you've understood genre previously?
• After reading the article, I now define genre as what defines the connotation of a text. As  Charles Bazerman writes in the selection, "It is through genre that we recognize the kinds of messages a document may contain. This for me means that a piece of writing that may be written as a satire, for example, has the possibility of being misinterpreted by the audience unless it was made clear that is was meant to be satirical. 
• What are three major ideas about genre and/or writing that you can take away from your reading of this text? In other words, what three ideas seem most important for you as a writer?
• As a writer, the three major points that resonated with me the most were; Writing speaks to situations through recognizable forms, Writing Represents the World, and Writing is Performative. The last one is probably the most important to me personally mostly due to the fact that writing in terms of the film industry is all performative. Especially when you consider the fact that you are, most of the time, creating dialogue that will be read aloud. So scripts are in a sense, a literal performative art. 
• Has your understanding of "genre" and/or "writing" changed as a result of reading this text? If so, how and why? If not, why not? 
• My idea of what genre and writing have not necessarily been changed but rather added on to. The strong additions discussed in the text allowed me to fully understand the entire interpretation of what genre is and how it is used. 
• Are there any concepts or claims in the text that you disagree with? What is it, and why? 
• I agree with all of the points made
• Find two examples of texts that you would classify as being part of the same genre and link to them in your post. Then, provide a brief description of how you see these two texts adhering or not to the seven concepts outlined above. (e.g., I might include two links to Buzzfeed listicles and then explain how the "listicle" is a recognizable form that uses conventions like a title, gifs, captions, etc; how it represents the world/events/feelings by the language and images that are used; how it is multimodal because it uses language, image, moving image, color, layout, etc.)
• http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Psycho.html
• This is a movie script to one of my favorite movies from Alfred Hitchcock. Unless one were to know that the movie Psycho was a horror movie, they would be very confused as to what they were reading. 
• http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/500-Days-of-Summer.html
• This is the movie script to my favorite movie and it applies to the point that all writing is performative as well as the others that apply specifically to genre
• Lastly: what questions do you have about the reading? what more do you need or want to know? what confuses you? 
• I'm honestly perfectly fine with all the information that was given in the selection. 

In Class 2

The connections I see between my word cloud and key terms is that these words are used to describe the different types of writing there is. I expected to see my illustrative words such as passive and aggressive, being that those come to my mind when I think about writing and since they were a part of my key terms. What was surprising to me is that simpler words such as connection, successful and fulfilling allowed my word cloud to become so much deeper. I feel like without those description words, my cloud would not be as powerful as it is now. I think it is important to see my cloud mirroring my thoughts in my journal because it is how I actually feel about writing. Putting these words into a cloud conveys my feelings of writing without actually having to write a formal response and explaining what I feel, it’s all in the cloud. The most intriguing conclusion I can draw from this exercise is that simple words in a cloud instead of paragraphs of writing can depict the way one actually feels about writing. My theory of writing is that it is connective and emotional. Expressing how you feel, whether it be passive or aggressive allows you to unconventionally influence readers to believe or agree with you on whatever the subject is. In whatever context one is writing, whether it be a research paper, novel or jotting down notes the writer is expressing what they feel is important to them.

In my theory of writing compared to others is the concept is about the same. All agree that writing is connective where it allows us to express what we feel through a sheet of paper/computer. However, there was a difference since someone utilizes their writing without having to connect their thoughts/ feelings, and simply writing without opinion. Having a theory of writing might be useful due to having a set way of thinking when you are actually writing a response or creative story. What I can say now about myself is that I am a writer who incorporates my opinions into anything I am writing. Whether I agree or disagree with something allows me to write a certain way, in any context of writing. Like stated before, I connect with my writing by inserting the way I feel into most of my papers, no matter the topic. I would characterize my writing as expressive and aggressive since my opinions may be totally different from others.