Learning Log

English 2010

“Donald J. Trump, Pope Francis, and the Beef That Defied Space and Time”: Benjamin Soloman
15 January 2019
- One ah-hah moment for me was ​“‘a person who thinks only about building walls,
wherever it may be, and not building bridges, is not a Christian.’”​ Another moment was
“​As a writing teacher, I’m fascinated by these sentences. On the one hand, they’re a
logical train wreck—wordy, awkward abuses of a conditional clause.”
- This author used a good academic tone with less formal language in order to reach the
intended audience. He was effective in his simple approach to deciphering other’s use of
language.

“Language Matters: A Rhetorical Look at Writing”: Chris Blankenship and Justin Jory
17 January 2019
- My first ah-hah moment was, ”​Ultimately, we believe that by being more mindful of
others’ language and more deliberate about your own, you can become a more effective
communicator.” The second ah-hah moment was, “At SLCC, we believe a defining
characteristic of effective writers is their ability to be flexible, to adapt to the demands of
the task before them, and this requires an attention to language that rhetorical thinking
makes possible.”
- Language is difficult and messy because there are so many ways to use it and understand
it. Using the three pillars of rhetoric that SLCC teaches, audience, purpose, and context,
you can look at a text in many ways that could be different from the author's intent. With
so many ways of using language it can be confusing and complex.

“Genre in the Wild--Understanding Genre within Rhetorical (Eco)Systems”: Lisa Bickmore

22 January 2019
- Ah-hah number one was, “But another way to think of these compositions is as
predictable and recurring kinds of communication—in a word, ​genres.​ ” And the second
was.”But all of us are writers in multiple settings, in some of which we may be very
comfortable, and in others of which we may have to do a little more thinking and
prospecting—looking about, sizing up what might be the best choices for the situation,
including choices about genre.”
- I do not think that genre makes my writing robotic because there are so many ways to
work within a genre. You and the person next to you could have the same topic and
assignment to write an essay but the genres and language of the essays could be totally
different.
¨Writing for Community Change¨: Elisa Stone
24 January 2019
- My first ah-hah moment was, “College was designed to teach us to be whatever it is we
want to be when we grow up (assuming we do grow up at some point), but it is also
intended for a larger purpose: to make us good citizens.” And the second moment was,
“Being a good citizen, in other words, can actually help you get a higher GPA and be a
more attractive candidate to not only prospective employers, but also to transfer
institutions if you plan to pursue additional education after your current degree.”
- I would want to work with less fortunate children that have special needs. There are so
many kids who are in orphanages or other group living environments that struggle to
meet the needs that they require due to their disabilities and I would want to help them.
Maybe by creating special places for them to live or something like that.

¨The Elizabeth Smart Case: A Study in Narrativized News¨: Clint Johnson

28 January 2019
- Golden quote 1: “Intense debate raged as to whether Mitchell was genuinely delusional
or merely highly manipulative, with expert witnesses testifying to both perspectives.”
Golden quote 2: “Smart emerged from the ordeal possessed of an ability to reconcile her
horrific experience with confidence in herself, the wider world, and her old faith—what
to most would be an irreconcilable paradox.”
- This story is so universal and long-lasting because of how closely it followed the
stereotypical kidnapping storyline. Her story was so impactful because of the way that
she was able to live through such terrible events and come out of it with such confidence,
belief, and love when many would have had the opposite reaction.

“Writing Is Recursive”: Chris Blankenship

30 January 2019
- Golden quote 1: “Yes, they generally begin with invention and end with editing, but they
view each part of the process as a valuable way of thinking that can be revisited again
and again until they are confident that the product effectively meets their goals.”
Golden quote 2: “Although your future professors, bosses, co-workers, clients, and
patients may only see the final product, mastering a complex, recursive writing process
will help you to create effective texts for any situation you encounter.”
- The second image is more effective because it shows that you have to go through the
stages more than once and in different sequences. The old visual of five steps that you
can just do once, check off, and move on is outdated and not for experienced writers.
When we are able to move through the stages as we need them and as our writing
changes we can create better writings in all of the situations we find ourselves in.
“Making Choices in Writing”: Jessie Szalay
1 February 2019
- Golden quote 1: “Maybe that topic is like your dramatic relative who talks your ear off
about old family grudges from the 1970s—too exhausting to think about and leaving you
speechless.”
Golden quote 2: “Some of them won’t require much internal debate—you’ll just know.
Some of them will.”
- Five strategic choices that I will have to make include: what tone, the use of figurative
language, word choice, what conversation I choose to engage in (topic), and the sentence
structure and punctuation that I chose to use.

Learning Log #2
English 2010

Read two open letters

5 February 2019
- Ah-hah quote from Dear ​Italy:​ “Slowly but surely though, ​Italy,​ you revealed some of
your charms to me.¨ Ah-hah quote from An Open Letter to High School Students about
Reading: ¨If may seem counterintuitive that reading can help you with math, but if we
think of reading as an activity that by its very nature--regardless of what you are
reading--helps us develop more sophisticated ways of understanding the world, then it
makes good sense.¨
- Three of the common characteristics of these two open letters include an informal tone
with academic word choice, personal experiences, and a bigger reason to be writing an
open letter. The authors used an academic approach to an informal tone in order to make
it easier to read for their intended audience. If they were trying to reach an audience of
college professors then they would need to change the tone, but it is all about intended
audience.

¨Peer Review¨: Jim Beatty

7 February 2019
- Statement 1: ¨Pose questions to your classmate; let them know where they need to give
you more to clarify and convince you.¨
Statement 2: ¨Integrate peer review into every step of your writing process, not just when
you have a complete draft.¨
Statement 3: ¨Again, you can get the most direct advice by visiting your professor during
office hours to go over ideas and drafts.¨
- Something that makes a peer reviewing activity worthwhile for me is when we are able to
actually discuss the paper and information so that the comments that we leave are
 informed enough to be helpful. I have noticed that peer reviews are more successful when
there is enough time to actually read the paper with the author sitting near you so that you
can ask the necessary context questions that will make it easier to pose writing related
questions on their paper. Without adequate time it is nearly impossible to fully review
something and make the comments helpful to the author. A worthwhile peer review gives
enough time, is done in proximity to the author, and is specific in what the goal of the
review is.

“Personal Literacy and Academic Learning”: Marlena Stafford (3.1)

11 February 2019
- Golden Quote 1: ”While some students move easily between personal literacies and
academic literacies, others have more challenges as they move from the types of literate
practices they participate in for personal fulfillment to the types of literate practices they
must participate in to succeed as students in institutions of higher education.”
Golden Quote 2: “When we learn to transfer our personal literate practices to formal
school settings, we engage in a process of contextualization. In other words, we make
meaning of school content by connecting our personal lives to our school lives.”
- As I entered kindergarten I knew my alphabet but reading or writing were not a part of
my educational or personal career. As I continued to the fifth grade I had grown to hate
writing and reading. I struggled to find topics that I enjoyed to read or write about until I
began reading ​The Help. M​ y writing and reading became a little better and more frequent
but without strong drive to do either. Then 7 years later, in English 1010 my senior year,
writing clicked. I was able to enjoy it and was doing well with it. This was able to change
my entire view of of writing and I have worked toward becoming a more frequent reader.

“You Will Never Believe What Happened: Stories We Tell”: Ron Christiansen
13 February 2019
- Quote 1: “Telling stories is one way we use language as a resource to create and build
relationships.”
Quote 2: “We narrate our experience in order to connect with others and validate our
own experience and self-worth.”
- This quote is saying that when we tell a story we are showing our morals and experiences
that make us human. When we are reading someone else's stories we get to see what they
have gone through and what they believe which helps us to build our sense of
understanding for others and really connect with our humanity.

“Is That a True Story?”: Ron Christiansen

15 February 2019
 - My first ah-hah quote is, “So it is ironic, indeed, that I now embark on a story about my
teaching in order to make a somewhat academic argument for a particular way of seeing
and using stories in the writing classroom.” The second ah-hah quote that I found is, “I
would argue, however, that one thing is clear: the minute we start to retell a story from
our past we are constructing it from our point of view, so there’s no need to get too
worried about getting every detail correct. It’s impossible.”
- The “truth” is complicated because each person that is involved in a situation has
different versions of the truth. Each person views the truth differently based on what they
remember about a story through their point of view. As we try to find the truth we face
obstacles due to the person nature that the truth holds in each version of a story.

“Adding the Storyteller’s Tools to the Writer’s Toolbox”: Clint Johnson

21 February 2019
- The Power of Scene: “Writing stories requires that we write meaningful scenes: areas of
intense focus where we describe people, places, and actions in order to make a reader feel
they have witnessed something themselves. “
- The Power of Experience: “Could this help a reader understand something that may be
accurate even if they have not experienced it themselves, making them more likely to
accept your claims?”
- The Power of Sensory Detail: “To describe something using the senses not only gives an
additional texture of reality to the subject, but it can help memory.”
- The Power of Voice: “Could the controversial, confusing, silly, or abusive statements
they have made allow you to shape your reader’s view of them without directly sharing
your thoughts on the issue, allowing you to seem objective while still influencing your
reader’s opinions?”
- The Power of Conflict: “Conflict is produced when different individuals or groups have
competing interests and take action trying to achieve their personal goals, often by
overcoming resistance from others.”

“Memorability: 6 Keys for Success”: Nikki Mantyla

25 February 2019
- Simple: “Selecting and maintaining a simple focus ties everything into one tidy,
memorable package.”
- Unexpected: “Writers who incorporate the unexpected in strategic ways—with a
shocking statistic in a report or a fresh take on a classic recipe or an unheard-of position
on a controversial subject—are more likely to hook their audience.”
- Concrete: “On the other hand, showing with concrete details means readers experience
firsthand input and draw their own stronger conclusions.”
 - Credibility: “Weigh possible credentials against the writing situation and include ones
that will give it the best boost.”
- Emotional: “Aim for the kind of vibe that best fits the audience and purpose, and find
effective ways to solicit those emotions.”
- Story-Based: “Some people assume storytelling is only for memoirs or fiction writing or
movies, but in reality, stories are everywhere.”

“Story as Rhetorical: We Can’t Escape the Story No Matter How Hard We Try”: Ron
Christiansen
28 February 2019
- Three ironic statements from this article are: 1. “‘narrative is a form or mode of discourse
that can be used for multiple purposes . . . —we use it to inform, to persuade, to entertain,
to express. It is the ‘mother of all modes,’ a powerful and innate form of understanding’
(6). “ 2. “In arguing that academic writing can be (and already is) narrative based, I’m
arguing that academic writing is not nearly as objective as we often like to imagine.” 3.
“It is easier to make an argument about how to use narrative in the writing classroom than
it is to argue that story or narrative is foundational for all writing.“
- This article is an argument because it is all about getting you to believe that stories are
not only naratie but are also important to learning how to write. This author is arguing the
importance of narrative writing.

Learning Log #3
English 2010
“The Narrative Effect: Story as the Forward Frame”: Lisa Bickmore
4 March 2019
- We should think of all writing as telling a story, which is the meaning she gives to
underlying all understanding. She says that narrative has the story first and it uses
different strategies in order to bring the storyline out. Each author sets up their story line
differently but no matter how it is set up the reader needs to be able to orient themselves
within the timeline. The story should tell the reader why and under what conditions that
what the author is saying matters. The reader needs to be pulled into the world and/or the
world needs to be realistic with vivid details so the narrative is engaging. And last, she
said that implementing the narrative writing in other types of writing we, the author, can
use it as a tool for a complex rhetoric.
- The ah-hah moment that I had was to make sure that whatever timeline style that I choose
to follow for my work, I need to make sure that it is still able to keep the reader oriented
within it.
“Punctuation, Memes,and Choice”: Nikki Mantyla
6 March 2019
- The semicolon is an easy way to keep ourselves from comma splicing. I thought that it
would be easier to create two sentences with periods. And that colons and semicolons are
both supposed to replace periods.
- What I found interesting in this article was her description of the three possible outcomes
of how something comes across. With the three being, emphasis, de-emphasis, and
confusion. She, the author, also talked about how these three can be seen not only in
writing with punctuation to do the job, but with verbal communication and body language
signals. Using examples of how one would show each possible outcome within a
conversation really connected our writing and our talking in my mind.
- Em dashes and parentheses are interchangable. The em dash just brings emphasis to
information that can be removed without losing important information. Parentheses are
used to de-emphasize the added information.

Middle School Peer Review Video Clip: Tom Romano and two teachers
8 March 2019
- As important as grammar and spelling are, peer reviewing should be about content. The
author can fix the grammar and spelling during their editing and revising process. When
peer reviewing, the focus should be on the actual writing and what it means. For example,
asking questions about what something meant can help the author find better ways to
clarify. We need to work together and it should not just be one sided.
- Working with a group can help the writer to really get a sense of their audience. This
communication between peers can build confidence for the writer in their writing. Others
are able to ask questions in order to help the writer better clarify what they are trying to
accomplish. Conversation about the writing gives the author the chance to work with the
peer reviewer and really discuss the questions not just read them from the computer and
try to decipher them.
Style Academy
English 2010
14 March 2019: Writing Sentences
- Myka surprised her mother by singing. (1)
Myka sang and her mother was surprised (2)
Myka sang causing her mother to be surprised.(3)
Singing, Myka caused her mother to be surprised. (4)
Her mother stood surprised as Myka sang. (5)
When Myka was singing, her mother was surprised. (6)
It surprised her mother, but Myka sang. (7)
If Myka sings, it surprises her mother. (8)
 Myka’s singing surprised her mother. (9)
Myka, surprising her mother, sang. (10)
- Non-hibakusha employers developed a prejudice against the survivors as word got
around that they were prone to all sorts of ailments, and that even those, like
Nakamura-san, who were not cruelly maimed and hand not developed any serious overt
symptoms were unreliable workers, since most of them seemed to suffer, as she did, from
the mysterious but real alaise that came to be known as one kind of lasting A-bomb
sicknesses: a nagging weakness and weariness, dizziness, now at then, digestive troubles,
all aggravated by a feeling of oppression, a sense of doom, for it was said that
unspeakable disease might at any time plant nasty flowers in the bodies of their victims,
and even in those of their descendants. -John Hersey, ​Hiroshima

18 March 2019: Phrases & Clauses

- As much as geopolitical conflicts between nations will always be with us, it doesn’t mean
we need to be afraid of each other.
We need not be afraid of each other even if geopolitical conflicts between nations will
always be with us.
- These two sentences are different in their structure and their emphasis. The first sentence
uses the second portion in order to complete the first and the second sentence emphasizes
that we do not need to be afraid over the conflicts.

20 March 2019: Manipulating Parts/Imitation

- Opener: modifier, main idea.
Closer: main idea, modifier.
Interrupter: main, modifier, idea.
Multiples: modifier, main idea, modifier. Or main, modifier, idea, modifier. etc...
- Opener: Putting his own preferences above everything else, Snowden self-indulgently
short-circuited the democratic structures of accountability.
Closer: Snowden self-indulgently short-circuited the democratic structures of
accountability, putting his own preferences above everything else.
Interrupter: Snowden, putting his own preferences above everything else, self-indulgently
short-circuited the democratic structures of accountability.

25 March 2019: Sentence Combining

- People who become highly creative and productive learn to acknowledge and even
embrace, learn from, and explore their failures.
- As the weeks passed, Maurice slowly grew grayer and more wrinkled. He stopped
wearing makeup, the bounce in his step had vanished, and his once impeccable clothes
were sometimes spotted. One day I came in earlier than usual and found him running
 frantically from table to table in the dining room. Holding up a plate, running his finger
across the long, jagged crack that ran through the middle, he shouted, “Look at this
plate!” Tiny pieces of plate skittered onto the carpet after he had hurled the plate at the
wall causing it to shatter. He then moved to the next table and after examining the plates,
he picked up another and hurled it at the wall just as he had before. Then he threw
another.

27 March 2019: Participles and Participial Phrases

- Resting in the road against a car, the young girl gazed into the camera.
- Looking into the camera, the girl stood next to a car in the road while resting on her
crutches.
- Standing beside a car in the road, the girl stared into the camera.

Learning Log #4
English 2010
2 April 2019: “Slang Rebel” Evaluation
- Rhetorical Situation: This writer creates little to no bias and fulfills his purpose extremely
well. I knew exactly what I was reading and did not feel pushed one way or another, it
was pure information. It was clear that he spoke to an educated audience.
- Academic/Technical Writing: It was clear that the objective was to inform readers about
slang and its influence on the english language. The support of the thesis is through and
tells the reader just enough that it is helpful and not confusing. Sentences were written
with purpose and the syntax used creates good flow throughout the paper.
- Research Skills: The Author used many sources that create strong support for his topic.
The use of his sources was purposeful and in-text citations were done very masterfully.
Works cited was clear, easy to follow, and all in-text citations matched it well.

4 April 2019: Style Academy-Appositives

- 1. Identify or rename an individual
2. Explain or give examples
3. Define
4. Summarize a term already presented (personal thoughts without I)
- Drew Gilpin Faust, a historian and the first woman to serve as president of Harvard
University, recently testified before the United States Congress to encourage the
Government to fund more science research.
- Recently, Drew Gilpin Faust, a historian and the first woman to serve as president of
Harvard University, testified before the United States Congress to encourage the
government to fund more science research.
8 April 2019: Active or Passive Voice?
- We examined an applicant’s academic record to determine whether the applicant has
established a strong affirmative case in regard t the character of their general education,
and fitness for graduate work in their proposed subject of study. We give very serious
consideration to the persons who write letters of recommendation, in a position to analyze
the candidate’s abilities, to judge the promise of said candidate. . . We do not require a
personal interview.

10 April 2019: The Semicolon

- Teaching young children to read is easier if the children read at home with their parents;
therefore parental involvement in a child’s early education can freatl affect the child’s
later success in life.
- They repeated the same experiment in the following for places Austin, Texas;
Tallahassee, Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Des Moines, Iowa.