Friday, December 10, 2010

Evaluation of blogging

Chayse Adams
Eng 100-20
December 10, 2010
Evaluation of blogging
Because of English 100 my reading skills have improved due to all of the short stories from the Introduction to College Writing book that you have assigned this the semester. My reading comprehension skills have also improved as well. I believe it is because of how you made us analyze each story and look for deeper meanings and other interpretations of each story. My actual typing abilities have improved due to the fact that we do almost all if not all of our assignments on computers in this class. Which typing is a skill that I will need to be building up for every college class I will have, so it is a very good plus that just came without having to actually try. My writing abilities such as being able to put my thoughts down on paper, or computer, have drastically changed for the better as well. Everything we have done forces you to do critical thinking and being able to write the words in an understandable way to express my thoughts more clearly.
                I think of the blogs as a kind of journal that we are forced to keep. I don’t necessarily enjoy writing them but I don’t really mind it either. Also, there are benefits in keeping the blogs in the since that they are a reference if you want to go back and remind yourself of the main points and focus of a story it you choose to write about it later. You can use parts of your actual blogs in some of your papers so you can save time if you’ve already expressed thoughts or ideas about it once already. The blogs are a hassle sometimes, but I would rather do them and make use of them every now and then than not  blogging and end up running around in the dark about a paper, so I think they are very useful.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Questions for Reflection and Writing, Question #1 (pg. 232-236)

Chayse Adams
English 100-20
11-30-2010
Questions for Reflection and Writing, Question #1
Richard Rodriguez, The Lonely, Good Company of Books (pg. 232-236)
            My relationship with books is not very strong. For the longest dime I actually despised books. I did not enjoy reading and I was very slow at it, so it took me forever to read anything, which did not help. I couldn’t figure out why in the world anyone would ever want to waste their time reading when they could be outside playing or hanging out with friends or chasing girls. The point is there is so many things for a person to do, so why would they, like Richard Rodriguez says, feel alone to their thoughts like you are talking to yourself all alone in a completely empty room. At least that is how I felt about reading throughout elementary and high school.
            Although my idea and perception of books has changed a little, I still do not have much to do with books or any reading for that matter, unless it is specifically for school or something else of importance to me. My favorite books to read, if I had to, would be war stories and old westerns, like cowboys and stuff. Although I was forced to pick a book from a list in one of my classes to read for an assignment, my all time favorite book would have to be With the Old Breed, E.B. Sledge. I have never enjoyed a book so much as that one. It really just drew my attention in and kept me interested for what was about to happen next. That was a rare and mysterious feeling for me, I did enjoy it, but I don’t think I’ll be reading a bunch of more books to find one that gives me the same feeling. I might buy it sometime though, I saw it at Target about two weeks ago and just about bought it because I wouldn’t mind reading it again sometime.