Ski trip

One friday night when I was still in high school, my friend and I decided to go on a ski trip.  This was pretty much a spur of the moment idea and was a ridiculous decision to start.  My friend Brian got out of work at 10:30 pm, we hatched this plan by 10:35, gathered our gear and left for Sunday River in Maine at 11 pm.  This is normally about a 5 hour trip, but for two idiots leaving in the middle of the night with a road map and a case of Mountain Dew, it would take much longer than that.

We were on the right course for the first leg of the trip, as it took us right past Killington, a trip we had taken many times before.  We started to get in trouble when we got into New Hampshire, as this was beyond our familiarity.  This is where bad instructions were given, by myself in fact.  In a fatigued, but caffeine powered daze, I read the map wrong and told Brian to take a right instead of a left.  This was the worst possible spot to do this as we travelled over an hour and a half going the wrong way before we realized our next turn had not come about.  It was about 2:30 in the morning by the time we finally turned around.  On the return trip back to the correct route, we encountered no less than 6 moose in the road.

It was 5:30 am when we finally arrived at Sunday River.  We tried to sleep in the car before the mountain opened, but were unable to so we just lay awake cursing over our mistake.  By the end of the full day of skiing, we had both been awake for about 30 hours.  In this state I had become almost delirious, even more so when we were driving back home.  By the time I got to sleep in a hotel near Killington, I had been awake for 38 hours and was pretty much hallucinating from lack of sleep.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr: In the Kitchen

To start, I thought “In the Kitchen” was going to be about something else entirely.  The last thing I was expecting was that it would be about hair and how important it was to Mr. Gates and his family.   This essay made me think differently about conformity.  I had never even though of this as something people did to fit in better.  The extremes that were taken to make your hair look different seem extremely strange to me, but it gave me more insight into the times.

I have to say, this essay was extremely boring to me.  I did learn something new, but it was not something that I could relate to or was interested in.

Reflections on Prewriting to Develop the Process Analysis Draft

For my in-class pre-writing technique experiment I tried brainstorming.  I thought it was fine at first, but then realized I would need to use it in combination with my current process of free writing.  This was evident when I was listing terms I needed to define and explain to refine my passage about radar detectors.  I listed all my terms out and began to define them, but I came to realize that I wasn’t just going to put the definitions directly into my essay;  I realized it worked best if I just brainstormed and listed the terms and ideas as a prerequisite or post requisite to free writing.

I chose to use this technique on my paragraph about radar detectors.  I realized it was missing a handful of terms and explanations that a driver could use to their advantage if they knew them.  Brainstorming helped me figure out all the things I was missing and gave me another whole page of content.

Free writing felt the most natural to me.  I’m not sure why, but I have always found brainstorming to be difficult to translate what I’ve listed into ideas and points that flow well with my essay.  I feel more creative when I free write.  I feel that brainstorming is more of a formal process that is done the same by everyone.  I have found that my ideas are presented better when I put them directly on paper in a steady flow and edit and add to them later.  I am not saying I will not use brainstorming again, but I will not use it first.  I will continue to start off with free writing and use brainstorming to discover details and points I might have missed.

Course Goals

My personal goals for this course are pretty straight forward.  I have always struggled with organizing my ideas before writing.  This has always hindered my writing ability, eventually causing me to procrastinate and become stressed before an assignment was due.    Usually I would just sit down in front of my computer or with a pen and paper and begin writing out an essay.  I would essentially determine the order of my ideas when I would list them in my topic sentence.  So far this course has helped me immensely, especially with the pre-writing aspect.  It has forced me to develop ideas in different ways.  This is perfect because sometimes it takes more of a push to help me break my bad habits.

Ernest Hemingway: Camping Out

This week Ernest Hemingway’s essay Camping Out was the most effectively written.  To start off, Hemingway immediately begins with how going camping can be either a relaxing vacation or a terrible experience based on your knowledge on the subject.  He outlines points that can make a camping trip horrible to a novice, leading the reader to believe that he has done this many times himself and he truly is an expert.  This sets up the credibility of the rest of his process analysis.

This is about as straight forward as you can get with a process analysis essay beyond being just numbered steps.  It is in traditional essay format with an introductory paragraph, a body and a short conclusion.  He states all the problems an amateur camper will most likely encounter and then follows that up with the correct method to avoid any possible issues.   After that he goes beyond the basics, especially with the section on cooking.  He talks about making multiple course meals with pancakes as a appetizer and trout and bacon as the main course.  He even instructs the reader on how to bake a pie while camping, going into great detail.  He even includes, “..prick it a few times with a fork in an artistic manner.”  Who these days would actually bring a baker and bake a pie over a camp fire?

Bill Bryson: Your New Computer

Bill Bryson’s your new computer is the most effectively written essay this week. He is writing for the majority of people who aren’t tech savvy and are familiar with the frustration and confusion sometimes associated with technology. He satirically writes the directions with lots of technical terms (most not even associated with computers) and inserts lots of previously unmentioned prerequisites for the steps. He focuses on decision points with high consequence that most people would not know how to make. He also lists consequences asterisk points based on impossible logic.

Despite being well written, this essay seems old and behind the times. These days technology is part of everyday life and if you are still struggling processes he describes you need to update your own knowledge. Also, the user manuals ad setup processes have now been tailored for inexperienced users and are practically idiot proof. Maybe the computer companies read this essay and made some changes.

My writing process

My writing process so far has consisted of 4 steps.  First,  I write without self editing.  I write whatever comes into my head about the topic no matter what order it is in.  After that, I look over what I have written and decide what ideas I want to keep and actually use in my composition.  Then, I organize my ideas into a coherent flow that makes sense; the general structure of my writing.  Finally, I critically edit the content and organization of my writing.

Malcom X: Prison Studies

Malcom X’s essay, “Prison Studies” was an inspirational read.  It’s effectiveness is apparent in the way he conveys his message.  He humbly describes how he educated himself by only reading & writing during his incarceration.  This essay made me want to go out and learn about things I have always been curious about but either haven’t taken a class on or haven’t had the initiative to learn myself.  Malcom X reassured me that the latter is possible.

Malcom X does an excellent job illustrating the prison scenes of him learning in the library and within his cell at all hours of the night.  His descriptions were not overly developed, but were effective and to the point.  This essay to me is filled with inspiration and modesty.  He is writing about how he got to be so well educated, but does not flaunt his abilities at all.  His essay is not filled with obscure adjectives unlike the books he was reading at the beginning which he did not understand.  He is writing to an audience who could be in his shoes before he began his informal education.  He is sending a message of hope and guidance to try to better the youth of the time.

Malcom X’s technique is proven by his own success.  He went from another inmate with an 8th grade education to an extremely well educated man with a place forever in history.