Part One
For this reflection in addition to addressing the spirit of the questions below I'd like you to consider the importance of genre. Each genre has its own conventions, and these conventions affect how the writer creates the work and how the reader experiences and derives meaning from the work. I'd like for you to think about how the genre--especially its conventions--affected your process, affected your treatment of the topic, and affects the meaning of the work you have created. If that's too abstract answer these questions: how are the genre conventions different from the other genres (annotated bibliography and research essay)? And how did these difference affect the work you produced?
Part Two
What have you learned? what have you done well? what are you proud of? what do you hope I notice?; on the other hand, what bothers you about the paper?what would you do if you had more time? what do you still feel you haven't figured out or mastered? what would you like to learn more about or have more practice with?; and, finally, what was your process (the order and time in which you did things)? what worked? what didn't work? what have you learned about the research process? what will you do differently next time?
Write a thoughtful metacognitive, introspective reflection (200 words or so) addressing the two sections above. Label your reflections "part one" and "part two." Complete this by B-block on Monday. Don't forget to follow the poetry directions below.
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Alicia Unis
E Block
Judith Sargent Murray
Wikipedia Reflection
Part One
I chose to do the Wikipedia page because after writing an entire thesis paper, I just didn’t have the energy to write another one. I wanted to do the wikipedia page because I was frustrated with the information provided to me from the other sources. This also came with a price of staying to the wikipedia format, which is factual, but can be opinionated. I couldn’t talk from first person though, I just had to repeat facts, but part of the reason I chose to redo it was because of its impersonality toward Murray. So I added a little bit more personality to her, with little anecdotes to add interest. Through the process I had to filter my information and make additions from other articles that weren’t included in this one, while at the same time being conscious of the existing wikipedia page. This made my final product a little less like my style, but still with a noticeable difference.
Part Two
I have learned the significance of paying attention to the details of your sources because you never know when they can come in handy. I think that I have taken the original wikipedia page and accomplished my goals well. I think that I added more personality to Murray and gave a better account for her life and her influence. I ended up writing the same amount of words as expected of a paper, 1200 more words than the original (I kept track to check my progress). I hope you notice the effort I put in, and the time I spent filtering through each source to find information not included in the article. Anything different that I found I added to the edited version of the wikipedia page. I also tried to summarize her important essay to give people a better idea of what she stood for. If I had more time I would have researched the other important documents that she did and given a summary of them as well, but I was satisfied with my final product. I don’t think I’ve quite mastered the whole giving facts without adding an opinion in. I like when facts include personality and fun, so I try to include those into my papers, but that’s not the right thing to do in a source of research. I had trouble doing this, because I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I’m hoping that my process worked. I could be completely off. What didn’t work was sometimes I put a little too much of myself in there, and I had to make sure I watched out for it. Have learned to pay attention to detail (as mentioned earlier) and filter the good information from the bad. Next time, I will make better progress on my assignments and try to stay more neutral with my information.
Sarah Johnson – Personal Essay
Halibut Point State Park
Part 1:
Personal Essay isn’t exactly a genre I’m very comfortable with. This is the second personal essay I’ve ever written, and it was as near to 100% different from the first as it could possibly be. I went to the park to get some first-hand experience—not because I was researching or on a mission, but just so I could re-acquaint myself with the park. I stepped outside of myself while I was there, trying to gain a little perspective. I wanted to try and see the park as it is in the present, as the directions clearly stated, but I couldn’t stop myself from mostly reflecting. I stopped treating the topic objectively (trying to see what I could find), and started instead looking for things I already knew were there, and anticipating the feelings and memories they would bring up in me. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it’s probably a good thing since it helped me get in touch with what the park really means to me. And from what I gathered from the blog directions for the personal essay, this is exactly what I was supposed to do. This essay was about finding the connection between my topic and myself. I did this, and I got so wrapped up in it I could hardly stop myself from sharing all of my very detailed childhood memories, and remarking on how that brings me joy now, even though maybe I can’t feel those things in the same way anymore. Because of the nature of the genre, I was inclined to think of the park one way, but because I knew the nature of the genre was flexible and forgiving, I allowed myself to expand and gently spread myself out to find the place where I felt most connected to my topic.
Part 2:
I haven’t learned anything new in the way of facts about my topic, but I’ve learned a lot about the relationship I have with it. I’ve also learned that it can be really difficult to write an essay about something when there are so many directions you could take it in. I chose to simply follow my trip through the park and reflect on what I was feeling and thinking, and transposed memories I had associated with the park to make a connection and see the difference between the me of my childhood and the me of…now. I’m proud of the way my paper shows that I really do know this place well, and the fact that I need to know it to understand a part of myself. It’s a connection also with my family, and being there alone was a strange experience for me. I hope you notice my hint to you about how awesome it is to play on rocks when you’re a kid….seriously Mr. Cook, I don’t know what you do with your kids for fun, but if you haven’t yet, I highly recommend taking them to halibut point to find some rocks or to the sea-side cemetery to do the same. But back to my paper…I disliked the lack of definite direction in my paper. I kind of felt like I was aimlessly wandering in my paper the same way I was wandering in the park. I’m not sure if this was a fault of my own for not creating more structure for myself, or because that was the way it was supposed to feel. With more time, I might have been able to process my paper more and make it more comprehensive. My process was pretty straightforward. I went to the park with an open mind, and I ran home as fast as I could because I was suddenly so full of ideas. I brainstormed them all on my computer, and then left it alone. The next day I went back, reread my thoughts, and strung together all of the ones that were most relevant to each other and put a journey together. This made the research process easy for me, and next time…I would probably do everything the same way!
Michael McGovern
E Block
Part 1
I chose to write a short story for my paper. The conventions of this genre allowed me pretty free will to create any story that I wanted. The only thing I had to do was relate the story to Dogtown. This allowed me to be able to easily come up with ideas and write a story that was not forced or uninteresting. I found writing the story to be much more interesting than writing a personal essay or a wikipedia page. I thought that the restrictions of all the other assignments was too much and I would not have enjoyed writing it. I think that the writing conventions of the short story allowed me to write a much better paper than if I chose another assignment. Overall, I beleive that the conventions of the short story allowed me to be much more free and relaxed with my ideas and create a much better paper.
Part 2
In my story, I beleive that I did a very good job with description. I intricatly( Ya, I know I spelled that wrong) describe every little detail in my story. I also inserted themes and motifs into my story to help with the characterization. I am also proud with the fact that I centered my story around the history of Dogtown. I based my story on the fact that "witches" used to live in Dogtown in order to be isolated from the rest of Gloucester. I am not happy with my ending for the story. I feel that it was a little rushed and that I could have tried to tie it up better. I feel that if I had more time I definitly would have fixed my ending. I also feel that I could have done a better job with the language in my story. The dialogue between the chartacters is a little weak at some parts and could have been fixed up a little bit. If I had more time I also would have fixed this part of my story as well. My process for this essay was pretty much similar to my other essays. I came up with an idea and brainstormed different events for my plot. I then developed characters and put it all together. Seeing how I like my essay, I would do it all over again for my next short story.
Meghan Ciaramitaro
D Block
PART ONE:
For my third genre I chose to write a work of fiction. It was like a walk in the park compared to writing the thesis paper. Personally, I find writing works of fiction exciting because the subject is so broad. Opposed to the research or annotated paper, I did not outline this paper to the same extent. I had the idea of choosing a picture of one of Cape Ann's photographers, and writing an underlying story to it. Once I started to write, the words just flowed out of me. It’s a lot easier to write fiction, which makes it a lot different than writing in another genre.
PART TWO:
While writing my paper, the only thing I learned was to judge photography in a different way. I had to force myself to look within each detail of the photographs to give it meaning in my story. I am pleased with my paper; however, I do wish I spent more time on it. If I had more time I would have increased the details about the pictures I used instead of increasing the details of the plot. I also feel like I may have made a few spelling and grammar mistakes. The writing itself was not rushed, but I didn’t spend a long amount of time proof-reading. I also made a cover for the paper with the pictures I used in the story. I was hoping it would give the visual effect to the story that some of my words were missing.
(Part 1.)
Writing/creating a wikipedia page was ten times easier than writing a research paper. First off, you already have an outline of what you need to put into your page, because you follow along with what other pages have on them. However, it seemed like the wikipedia page was going to be a lot less work, but I had to follow the wikipedia rules and HTML format they used on their pages to make it look up to date and realistic. I could not use “I” in any sentences, nor could I be opinionated. I also found it difficult, one I started the page to not repeat myself.
(Part 2.)
To create the wikipedia page, I simply followed the format of another wikipedia page about another schooner and filled in the information about my topic. It seemed that much of the information I had was more along the lines of a story from the sources I was using, compared to the factual sentences of the other pages, but I stuck with it. I am certainly very proud of the wikipedia page that I created, though I did make a few mistakes (you can’t blame me though the HTML of those pages is tough). If I had more time I would definitely go back and fix the errors that I made. I would certainly do this again, if given the opportunity.
Part One
For the third genre I chose a personal essay. This was ten times less stressful than writing an annotated bibliography and research essay. There are less "rules" when writing a personal essay. My favorite type of writing is a personal essay. Especially with this topic, Fiesta, I was able to really connect to it. When writing other forms of papers, such as research ones, even though I wrote the paper I feel like it is not real. It is hard for me to connect with a topic sometimes through research papers especially. When I don't connect with a topic that I am writing about it makes me feel like what I am writing is not real or true feelings. I enjoy writing personal essays because I can connect in a much deeper way. When writing this personal essay the words just started to flow right out of me. Everything was coming out of me all at once; I wanted to make sure that I got all of my feelings/thoughts down on the paper as well as the story I was telling. I think that my writing sounds more real, meaningful, and believable when it is in the form of a personal essay rather than something like a research essay.
Part two
I love that through my personal essay on my topic of Fiesta I got to share a true story that is close to me. The story I told of the walk with my Papa is very real and very true. To me it has a lot of meaning and I hope that I was able to show that on paper. This is the only thing that I am worries about. When writing there was so much that I wanted to say that I'm afraid that I didn't get out what I wanted to. Sometimes when I am too into a topic it is hard for me to get everything I want to say down on paper. When I was writing everything just sort of came out of me at once sometimes not in an order that made sense. I tired to order my information, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs but it was difficult at points. Once I found out that one of our choices was to write a personal essay I didn't even need to hear the other options. I knew right away what I wanted to write about too; I knew that I wanted to talk about my Papa and the walk with him around the Fort Sunday night of Fiesta when putting St. Peter "to sleep", as my Papa calls it, until next year. Before I even took the walk early with my Papa I knew all of his stories and was basically ready to write. I walked around the Fort with my Papa and he told me the stories I hear every year and more that I have never heard. I took notes on all of his stories so I wouldn't forget anything and good thing I did. When we were done walking I realized that I had six pages filled with information. He had so many stories that he was excited to tell me about in detail. When I sat down to write the essay I could not include every little bit of information so I had to pick out the things I wanted to include. From there it wasn't too hard to put the whole thing together. I had an advantage in writing this because I had heard my Papa's stories a million times before so it was easy for me to reflect on them; it was easy to figure out how I felt and what I thought about them.
Courtland Kelly
E Block
I chose to write a person essay because I found from our previous personal essay assignment it is my favorite writing style, besides poetry. I like that I could adopt my own voice and really put my personality in my work. Also, I found writing it fairly easy because I basically just wrote down what I was thinking about at the time. Sometimes, without even consciously doing it, I come up with these really cool descriptions of things that I notice and then don't have anything to do with them. In writing my personal essay, I finally got to write them down, and they were actually important because it helps portray my mindset and personality, which is one of the purposes of the personal essay.
Part Two
By writing this paper, I learned that I learned a lot more from my Gloucester Project research experience than I first thought. I think I did a good job describing my surroundings during the storytelling portion of the paper, which is probably due to taking notes in my head that I know I would use later while writing the essay. I hope you notice that I actually discovered something about myself while I was writing the paper, which is basically the point of a personal essay. I don't really like the ending of my paper because it is mostly reflective, and although I know that's important to you, when I was rereading it, I found the storytelling part a lot more interesting. But maybe that's because I was rereading my own thoughts, so the end lost its novelty. If I had more time, I would probably try to make the ending more eloquent. I liked the way that I wrote the essay, where I had a general purpose and then figured out the organization before writing the body. I'm interested in what you think of the paper because it's a little free-form, which I like, but I don't know if it fits the personal essay conventions. While writing this paper, I was really glad that I had done such extensive research and that each interview was such an experience. It gave me a lot of material to write on, and I learned so much more than I though I did that I'm glad I got a chance to write this essay and share the other things that wasn't pertinent in my research paper.
Ben Moore
Genre 3 Reflection
Part One
I chose to write the personal essay instead of the other options because I had an interesting idea of what I wanted to write about and we just recently had to write a personal essay, so I knew what I had to do. Although this was only the second personal essay I have written, I felt pretty comfortable doing it. I decided to find a place in Gloucester that Winslow Homer painted one of his paintings from, go to that spot, then observe that place and reflect on it. It turned out to be quite the adventure to find the spot but once I found the relative area, it was a remarkable experience to try and see from what Homer’s perspective may have been like. The personal essay genre was completely different from the annotated bibliography and the research paper in that it was about you’re experience and reflection of something you did. These differences in genre helped me to open more on a different perspective of my topic.
Part Two
I haven’t really learned anything new about my topic; I have just looked at it from a more personal perspective. We just recently learned how to write personal essays so I feel that the structure of my essay was done well. Although, I am not sure if I reflected enough on my experiences in the essay and if I had more time I would like to add more to my reflections. If I had more time I also would have liked to do my original plan for my personal essay, which was to go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and reflect on some of Winslow Homer’s original paintings. The process for writing the personal essay was pretty simple. I took a bike ride to find the spot where Homer painted Gloucester Harbor, I found it and observed it, went back home, then wrote the essay reflecting on my experiences.
Part One
I chose to write a short story for this assignment. I felt that writing a story gave me a good way to add incite on my topic. By creating a story I could look at my topic from the perspective of the Native Americans. My topic is very interesting, but with limited information being creative is helpful. I can use the information I have, then get into character to explore the topic more deeply. This genre allowed me to think about the feelings the Native Americans had upon meeting the Europeans and not just the European perspective.
Part Two
I think that my story gives a lot of truth to what the Native Americans were feeling. I believe that I gave some good descriptions and quickly put the reader into character. With more time I would add more to the story. I may try to give both perspectives of the Native Americans and Europeans. I am planning to turn my story into a play, but make many adjustments. In play form I can create more dialog and make switching perspectives much easier.
Brian Hand
Part One
Fiction is always easier than writing an analytical or research paper, but this story was easier than any fiction i've ever written. Because I was writing a stream of consciousness story about a struggling artist, every time I struggled, I could just write down my thoughts and it would fit into the story perfectly. Doing this type of fiction, I was able to treat my topic with more of my actual opinion and not what I thought would make a good thesis. The character in my story represented my own personal beliefs about my topic. Just like me, my character struggles to find any meaning in this topic and sometimes has to pretend he likes things that he doesn't. This work of fiction captures what I was going through when I was trying to write my thesis driven paper; the meaning of Cape Ann is so varying and abstract that at times it's hard to determine if it's even there, and it's even harder to articulate.
Part Two
In terms of my topic, I leaned nothing new through writing this. Basically, this story was a big slap in the face to the first assignment, because it demonstrated that sometimes you get better results pretending to like and know what you're talking about then you would if you actually did know. I think the best part of my story was the indirect characterization, because about 90% of the story exists in the artist's mind. As an audience, we only see the finished product of an artist and my story takes the audience to the process of the artist, which reflects my process because the character in my story is essentially me. I thought about writing a letter for this assignment, but once I came up with the idea, I wrote it in one sitting. If I did have more time, I probably would have second-guessed every last detail until i didn't even know where I was anymore. Actually, if I were able to do that, it would probably better my story, because I could just apply those thoughts to my character. It's always fun writing fiction, but this one was particularly interesting to me and was really easy to write.
Kyle Smith
E Block
Part One
Having written less than five personal essays in my entire life really gave me a bit of trouble with this assignment at first. I like having clear-cut goals and rules when I’m writing so initially I struggled with the concept of putting my own voice and opinion into the writing. Usually I end up writing papers that are contrary to my beliefs (or lacking any belief at all) so this was actually pretty nice to be able to real delve into my thought process. Personal essays have always been something that concerned me because I know that I will need to write a really good one to get into the college of my choice and, not having a lot of experience with them, that worries me. This one was probably the least formal essay I’ve ever written at a point going so far as to write directly to you Mr. Cook, because I didn’t know exactly how to proceed.
Part Two
Overall, I am satisfied with how my paper turned out. If I had had more time, I would probably have asked someone to read it to make sure there was enough reflection and not too much story telling. I also would have found a solution to my “audience” problem prior to turning in the paper. As it turns out, I think my metacognitive writing added to my overall reflection about the topic at hand, and although I didn’t learn too much more about my topic it was a nice way to solidify my opinions about the sheer turn of events that led me to meet two people who happen to share multiple interests of mine (even if their views are a bit different then mine). Alright, another thing that I JUST realized I could have done to make my essay a bit better is include my opinions about the differing political views I have with Dave and Catherine. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.
Mercedes Lane
D Block
Fitz Henry Lane
Explication of Artwork
Part One
An explication of a piece of artwork, whether it is a painting or a poem, is extremely different than any other genre we have previously used. Both the annotated bibliography and the research paper strictly involve information. They have so many rules to them, that the writer hardly has the opportunity to add their own personal touches. I liked using the explication of artwork option because it allowed me to explore the artistic side of my topic. I was able to take the artwork made by Lane, and examine the particular details of what he created. Instead of quickly looking at the painting, I saw things I would have never seen without looking closely, such as the colors and details. Also, I was able to write about how this work touches me.
Part Two
Through using this genre, I was able to learn a lot about the details of artwork. I had never before looked this closely at a painting. I typically examine a painting in a matter of seconds, and completely miss the finer points of the artwork. This time, I learned about painting techniques, and how Lane used colors that blended in the best way. I realized how well Lane detailed his paintings, through looking at the details of the boats in the painting. In my paper, I thought I took a lot of time writing about the details I saw in the painting. Something that bothers me about my paper was that I don’t think I took enough time to write about how this painting relates to my life. If I had taken more time to write it, I definitely would have delved more into the painting’s relation to my life. Overall, I really think I mastered the details of this painting, and was able to better understand how the painting was created. I think that knowing exactly how Lane painted would have helped me to understand it better. My process of explicating a piece of artwork began by discussing the details of the painting. I specifically talked about each part of the painting, including the colors, strokes, and details. Next time I attempt another explication, I hope to better relate it to my life. I also wish that I had taken a longer amount of time to write it, which would have allowed me to better write.
part one.
For my third genre in the multi-genre piece I chose to write a short work of fiction. I felt like the fiction piece would make the most sense pertaining to my topic of Charles Olson. I knew that I wanted to do a piece where I took a look at Gloucester from Olson's perspective, so I thought that I would do a personal essay,but as I thought about it, I thought a better idea would be a piece that had Olson actually with me, explaining his perspective himself. The lack of serious constraints in the work of fiction allowed me to take my piece where ever it felt like going at the time, and I feel as though that was the thing I needed after the stiff formatting of the research essay and the annotated bibliography.
part two.
I like I learned that I am really no longer a fan of this project anymore. I feel as though I'm over saturated with Charles Olson, and everything Gloucester related. This work has been one of the better ones I've produced pertaining to this project, but it's not quite on the level of the stronger work I produced at the beginning of thise year. I feel like the idea behind this story was good, but I could have elaborated on it a little more and made it a little richer. I sat down to write it and I feel like I rushed the process a little bit. I had this great idea and it seemed to be coming to me too fast to put down to paper, or type, rather. I did enjoy writing this fiction though, and I would like to have seen more of it throughout this year and years past.
PART ONE
In using different genres to write about the same ideas, the author is able to express his or herself more clearly. Similar to the idea of a metaphor poem, individually, each genre cannot express the idea completely; together the genres come closer to an absolute truth. Their “x and y intercepts” come closer to the deeper meaning of the topic. I felt like the work I produced followed these ideals in that more ground was covered by the multiple genres. Had I simply written an annotated bibliography and a research paper, the importance of the topic would not have been fully presented and explored.
PART TWO
My explication was rather enjoyable to write, if only because it was something new. There was something comforting about writing straight facts (how the etching looked). It was more concrete writing assignment, although it definitely used some abstract thinking. I feel as if I could have explored deeper, as usual. I also didn’t proofread, as you may have found already.
In my choice i decided to explain a story that had occurred in the 2007 seine boat racing. I explained how looking at the St. Peter docks made me think of our miserable practice and how nothing could possibly go right. I think my strongest part of the paper was my narration because i was so spirited by the story and it means a lot to me. Also along with doing a personal essay it gave you a chance to reach out and do something different rather than analysing different aspects of books and it allowed me to be passionate on a topic.
This assignment taught me to be a better story teller. I am proud of how i told the story and made it different from a normal essay. This made me feel confidant in my topic and hoped you realized that i am passionate about my topic. I think one thing that i need to do better from this paper is reflecting on my narration. It was an interesting assignment and i believe i connected to it well.
I chose to do a personal essay because my experiences with this topic, landscape photography, the right story to tell in this genre. Doing so poorly on the thesis paper made me realize that I really didn't know what the true importance of landscape photography in Cape Ann was.
Before even being assigned to this essay, I started to reflect about my topic after class one day when I was confused about how to approach my topic. The majority of my reflection essay consisted of how I was having trouble trying to explain the importance of landscape photography to Cape Ann. What I like about this essay is how I wrote about my experience with struggling with my topic, and what approaches I took in order to better explain it. If I had more time to write this essay, I probably would have added a little more detail, but for the most part, I was satisfied with my ideas and reflection.
Emily Castro
Note: I just almost completely finished both parts to this response, but they were suddenly deleted because I pressed a button or something... I'm using my brothers lap top because my computer is awful and the mouse is weird...is summation, I'm really angry right now.
Part One
I'm not exaclty sure what the conventions of personal essay writing are because I have only written two in my life, but I'm thinking that the two most importnat ones are the use of first person, and reflection. Even though it is much easier to explain things sometimes rahter than reflect on them, an essay cannot be personal if there is no reflection. There was a lot of fore-thought put in to writing this paper, because to write personally about my topic I not only had to understand my topid very well, but I had to understand a certain aspect of it in terms of myself and how it related to me. Because the essay is personal, everyone else will derive different meaning from, because I am the only person who actaully experienced everything that is written about in the essay. Although, I am willing to bet that there are a lot of people who can relate to what I wrote on some level.
Part Two
As I have already said, I have only written two personal essays in my academic career, Mr. Cook, both of which were for your class, and I must say that I was far more pleased with the first personal essay than I was with this one. This essay really lacked direction, I think. My topic was just really broad, so there were so many directions I could have taken it in. And in the end, I didn't even end up choosing a direction, but rather, it chose me. I was really at a loss as to how I was going to write this essay, so I went for a run hoping that it would spark my brain into coming up with some ideas. Turns out that going on that run was the best idea that I came up with, because when I got home I knew just what I was going to write about. I didn't need to think of an experience, my run through Gloucester was my expereince. Although the process of writing this paper was somewhat refreshing, I was not thrilled with the final result. The paper wasn't as well written as my past essays have been, and as I said earlier, it lacked direction. However, I am pleased with my reflection. Within the essay I reflected on Gloucester, on the world, and on myself, and I hope that it is apparent when reading it. Through writing this paper I have learned that personal essay writing cannot be forced, but rather it something that will just happen when the time is right. Everything that is inside one's head and heart when beginning to write a personal essay is everything that is meant to be said in the essay. If I were alotted more time to work on this essay I would have gone back and rewritten it using different language, because I was very unimpressed with how I wrote the paper.
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