journal 1

Writing is the expression of thoughts, emotions, or ideas put into words. It is the way humans communicate what they are thinking or things they have learned, possibly from other people’s writing. Writing can be used to convey an idea or information such as in a text book or dictionary; or it can be used to express an emotion, which is often found in works such as poetry or informal pieces. Successful writing communicates its ideas clearly and accurately. If there is an idea or emotion the writing is attempting to convey, the reader should be able to easily understand it without much effort. Successful writing is also smooth in transitions and flows as a whole without being choppy or confusing to read. I see myself as a writer who enjoys the way words flow together and the emotion that can be brought out in a piece. I see myself as a writer who would love to learn more about it. As we read in Concept 4, “all writers have more to learn.” Even though I do see myself as a proficient writer, I also know I have much to learn and will always strive to improve. Key terms that define writing are describe, discuss, interpret, apply, and compare.

The major argument the authors made in Johnson-Eilola and Selber’s essay is for teachers to look at writing and plagiarism in a different way. Instead of asking students to constantly come up with completely original texts, consider more of the idea of remixing and assemblage, which is taking works that already exist and using them to solve new problems in different contexts. This would remove student’s impulse to hide their sources, and instead of downplaying their use of other people’s quotes, reward the student for their creativity of using previously existing work in a new way. I learned that writing can take on different forms and even remixing and assemblage can be a creative way to get ideas or words expressed clearly. It does not always have to be completely original as long as the writing is being used in a new form to solve new problems or creatively put a spin on different works. This article was “successful” according to how I defined it earlier. Not only were the transitions smooth throughout, it also flowed as a whole and all gave evidence to support the articles main idea of rethinking assemblage and plagiarism. It was also easy to understand and clearly written. My understanding of writing has changed in the way that I agree that remixing and assemblage can be used to solve new problems in a very creative way. I would not change my key words as they do apply based on the reading. The idea of assemblage agrees with describing, discussing, interpreting, applying, and comparing.