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.