Month: January 2016

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Theme Proposal

In choosing a theme to write about for the various assignments due this semester, it seems that sports have somehow always been an important part of my life and one of the ways that my family connects. For the memoir I would like to share some of my experiences playing sports and also being part of the support system for my younger brother’s baseball and hockey teams. I have many memories of special places that we have traveled to when playing in tournaments and of course special people who we have met along the way. It would be nice to get the chance to take the time to write all of these things down. For the observation I would like to write about the subculture of a travel hockey team. It is amazing to watch how complete strangers, including siblings and parents, actually bond together like a family in a single season. My argument or controversial issue could be how political sports can be and how difficult it is for players to have to deal with rules and arguments when all they want to do is play on a team. Sports have brought great joy to me and I have met some really nice people along the way, so making a photo essay would be a nice challenge.

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First Assignment

My first impression of the article, Demystifying Writing Misconceptions, was that I can definitely relate to most of the points and I can see that it would be useful to think about my attitudes about writing before I even get started. It was interesting to read that good writers are not born with a special talent, but they have to work hard to write and revise their thoughts, just like I do. I was also glad to read that it is a good idea to have other people help you by reading what you have written, because they might be able to give you some tips on how to make your essay better. My experiences with writing have usually involved practicing five paragraph essays for the purpose of passing MCAS tests. One memorable piece of writing that I did was an essay about a family vacation and I think because I had a personal connection to the topic I was able to do an excellent job on the assignment. On the other hand, when I am confused about the topic or I do not think I can come up with enough information to write a five paragraph essay I am not confident about the paper. In the article, “What is Academic Writing?” it mentions that everyone can improve as a writer and I would like to improve in the areas of grammar and becoming more creative. As far as my strengths, I have knowledge of research skills and experience doing papers in Chicago and MLA styles. I have never written a blog before, but I do like to type. I find it useful to actually write my thoughts down on paper before I type it.