During Tuesday’s class, we shared our research findings with our groups. After reading my story, I found it very helpful for the group to read my work and fill out the feedback page. Getting feedback made the process of revising my second draft a lot easier. Also hearing my other group members share their work was interesting to hear their perspective on the gratitude process.
This same day while it was fresh in my mind, I decided to start revising my first draft. Following the feedback page requirements helped me change and rewrite some of the sections in my paper. I particularly focused on my findings section along with my conclusion. I felt as if they needed the most work. For the findings section, I focused on answering the research question. I included a journal entry to help prove that using PERMA allowed me to evaluate my journal entries and become more grateful which improved my well-being. I also added expert opinion to help prove my point which I didn’t have in the first draft. In the conclusion section, I added if I was going to continue with the “three good things” gratitude process and why. I also connected my introduction short story into the conclusion and why the story is relevant. Overall, I think listening to others papers helped me think more in depth about my paper and what I am missing or what I did well. Following the feedback guidelines page helped me apply what I am missing in the findings and conclusion sections.
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During Thursday’s class, I learned how to write a proper thesis statement. We learned the acronym TPS to help us compose a thesis sentence. In order to write a thesis, you must have a Topic, Position, and Support. After writing the thesis, each point in the paper should relate back to the thesis sentence.
Also in Thursday’s class, I worked on my findings section. To begin, I wrote a starting sentence relating to my TPS thesis. I found it difficult to write my intro sentence into the findings section because I have mixed feelings about how the “three good things” affected my well being. I’m going to try and argue that the “three good things” didn’t improve my well being in a week but using PERMA did improve my well-being. I think this class period was very important. Learning about the thesis sentence and tips on writing it really benefited me. Learning acronyms do help me because it is like a checklist making sure you have covered every point of the acronym in your paper. Also working on the intro into the findings section pushed me to get started on this section. For the research project, the question we were asked: Can the “three good things” gratitude process have a positive impact on my well-being? After reading over this question, I started by learning about positive psychology and its effects on well-being. I also watched Martin Seligman’s Ted Talk on positive psychology. Watching the founder of positive psychology talk about well-being and positive psychology was helpful. Also listening to someone talk about the topic rather than reading made me pay attention more to the details.
Over the past couple weeks, I tested a process of “three good things”. For this project, I wrote down three positive things that happened to me daily. This process tested if positive psychology could improve my well-being. After doing this for a week, I felt as if writing down the moments was a drag and a chore and I didn’t have much interest in it. Next, I analyzed the journal entries using PERMA: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment. I read every entry and applied the PERMA model to each entry. Even though I thought the daily journal entries were a drag, I discovered in my PERMA analysis that family was very important to me. When I am with my family, I am happiest. So spending time with my family overall makes me happier which is beneficial to my well-being. I think doing the “three good things” journal entries did help giving me data for my research process. For starting my research paper, I have almost all of the information I need to start writing my paper. I am ready to start my introduction. For the literature review, I had to answer seven questions talking about positive psychology, gratitude, and well-being. I answered these questions in class but I want to further develop my answers for a more clear understanding. After doing this, I can write the paper having all of the information I need. To prepare me for a research paper, I read What is Positive Psychology & Why is it Important? (Positive Psychology Program), Greater Good in Action: Science-Based Practices for a Meaningful Life (UC Berkeley’s Project Home Page), and Three Good Things (Greater Good in Action). Over the timeframe of a week, I tested out the “Three Good Things” project. I wrote down three positive things each day to help me focus on more positive moments.
Tuesday, October 30
Wednesday, October 31
Thursday, November 1
Friday November 2
Saturday, November 3
Sunday, November 4
Monday, November 5
In this blog post, I have created a video blog to answer questions regarding the second draft of my narrative project. To help me compose this second draft, I have read What is Fan Fiction--and why is it making people nervous? and Rewinding and Rewriting: the Alternate Universes in Our Head. Here is a link to my narrative project web page. For this blog post, I read and watched these two links, Reflective Writing and Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection. In this blog post, I will reflect on my experience in this class so far and some of my writing process. I will also talk about my intrinsic goals for the rest of this semester.
When I first entered this class, I thought we were going to have to write lots of essays and read boring books. This class is the complete opposite. When Dr. Mangini said we were going to write blogs, I was nervous at first since it was out of my comfort zone. The first writing blog post was a little rough, but throughout the semester, I used the readings to my advantage. They helped me along with my writing process. As the the blog posts went on, I liked writing my stories in different tenses. I was so used to always writing my stories in past tense so I liked changing it up. Overall, my favorite blog post that I have composed would probably be Composing A Present Scene With Dialogue and Symbolism. To prepare me for this blog post, as a class, we read Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway. This reading was one of my favorites. As we were reading as a class, we annotated the the story. The discussion after we read the piece really opened my eyes to how deep his writing was. The underlying subtext, motifs, and symbolism helped me learn how much more developed my writing can be by adding these things. This story helped me with my writing process after reading this story. As I was writing new blog posts, I knew to look for possible places to add themes or motifs in my writing. For the blog, Composing a Present Scene, I chose a topic that was emotional to me about my dad’s alcoholism. I knew that I could further develop this story and use it for my narrative project. I didn’t feel comfortable reading aloud this story so Dr. Mangini read it to the class. This was very helpful for me to listen to my writing. I was able to hear some things I wanted to change/fix and receive feedback from the class. A classmate took notes for advice and feedback on my story which helped me improve some parts in my narrative. A goal I would like to put more in place is to do my blog posts ahead of time rather than waiting until last minute. I really struggle with procrastination and just getting the work started. Another goal is revising my work. After the work is due and I get blog comments/feedback, I would like to revise my work rather than just doing borderline work. My last goal is to really push for the grade I want. I think by putting my goals in place and putting in my complete effort that I could achieve the grade I desire. In this blog post, I read What is a Found Poem?, Sample Found Poem, and Visual Examples of Found Poems. I chose the "cut-up" method to create my found poem where I made a negative decision to get in the car with my dad who was under the influence of alcohol.
“The Car Ride” My dad got home from work. “Taylor let’s go.” Overpowering smell of beer entered my nose, I was angered. Driving down the curvy road, Our bodies jerked left and right. “Dad pull over!” He sped into an empty bar parking lot. My Siblings stared back at me in complete fear, crying. “Get out of the car.” I refused, “ Dad please just take us home” The tires crunched over a broken glass bottle, We rolled out of the empty bar parking lot. The dense clouds passed by, Tears falling from my eyes. Reflection
To help revise my blog, I read My Mother Gives me a Writing Lesson (Martin Lee). In this blog post, I revised my version of Composting a Past Scene by adding a back story and more detail.
“Dad! Watch where you are going.” I yelled. At this moment, I had realized that I should have never gotten in the car. It was around 6:00 p.m. when my dad got home from work on a typical fall evening. “Taylor let’s go.” He yelled up the stairs. Immediately I knew he was drinking. The overpowering smell of beer entered my nose. His eyes were squinted and he slurred his words. I gave him a dirty look as he was yelling at my little brother for absolutely nothing. I tell my little brother, Adan, and my little sister, Adriana, to not respond to his comments and to just listen to him. We got in the car and I refused to look at him. The car ride was absolutely silent. My siblings refused to talk. He cursed at every car for doing something wrong. I was so angry since we had planned for a couple weeks to go to Delaware to get our hair cut by one of my dads friends. I don’t know why I would think this day would be any different from the rest but still. This one day, one day, he had to get drunk and I was angered. We were driving down the windy Dutton Mill Road as I was nervous by his driving. “Dad! Watch where you are going!” I yelled. “Stop telling me what to do.” he replied. I started to to fight with him. Back and forth we argued as I felt bad for my siblings in the back seat. “Dad pull over! Now. Now!” Adriana fought back to my dad, “Just go back home.” He sped into this empty bar parking lot right before we got on I-95. “Get out.” He yelled firmly. I was crying by this point as I turned around to Adriana and Adan, “Come on guys, hurry up. Get out.” They stared back at me in complete fear as Adriana was on the urge of crying. They weren’t responding to me as I had hoped. They slowly unbuckled their seatbelts but not fast enough. I was trying to overtalk my dad and get them to listen to me but it was clear that they were scared of my dad telling them the complete opposite commands as me. “Don’t you move.” He stared at them. “Get out of the fucking car!” he yelled at me. I refused since my siblings weren’t allowed out of the car and there was no way I was letting them stay alone with him. I started to plead to just take us home. That angered him more. He was so heated and was expressing it towards me as we began to make our way back to my house. I felt major relief as I stared out the window, tears falling from my eyes. He rambled on as a tuned him out. All I wanted to do is lay in my bed. Alone. We pulled in my driveway as I grabbed my siblings and rushed up to my room to hide. We heard footsteps coming up the steps shortly after. He forced Adriana and I to give him our phones as my sister sobbed. I went in the office to get the house phone and called my mimi. “I will be home shortly” She said calmly. “Just stay away from him” as I hung up the phone. We tip toed around my house the rest of the night trying to avoid him at all costs. The next morning, he had left our phones on the counter. From this day on, no apology, no acknowledgment of that day ever happening. My dad has been an alcoholic for as long as I can remember which was a major cause in my parents divorce when I was five. Mimi is my grandmother who lives with my dad, siblings and I. Since I was a little, I was always a “Daddy’s Girl”. As I got older, I slowly drifted away due to the effects of his drinking. In present day, he has not had a drink for about 6 months but our relationship is dry and I don’t think it will ever recover. To prepare myself for this blog post, I listened to a podcast, What You Don’t Know (Lulu Wang). In this blog post, I will be explaining a past scene where I made a decision that had a negative impact on my life.
It was around 6:00 p.m. when my dad got home from work. “Let’s go.” He yelled up the stairs. Immediately I knew he was drinking. The way his eyes were squinted and he slurred his words. I gave him a dirty look as he was yelling at my little brother for absolutely nothing. I tell my little brother, Adan, and my little sister, Adriana, to not respond to his comments and to just listen to him. We got in the car and I refused to look at him. The car ride was absolutely silent. My siblings refused to talk. He cursed at every car for doing something wrong. I was so angry since we had planned for a couple weeks to go to Delaware to get our hair cut by one of my dads friends. I don’t know why I would think this day would be any different from the rest but still. This one day, one day, he had to get drunk and I was angered. We were driving down the windy Dutton Mill road as I was nervous by his driving. “Dad! Watch where you are going!” I yelled. “Stop telling me what to do.” he replied. I started to to fight with him. Back and forth we argued as I felt bad for my siblings in the back seat . “Dad pull over! Now. Now!” He sped into this empty bar parking lot right before we got on I-95. “Get out.” He yelled firmly. I was crying by this point as I turned around to Adriana and Adan, “Come on guys, hurry up. Get out.” They weren’t responding to me as I had hoped. They slowly unbuckled their seatbelts but not fast enough. I was trying to overtalk my dad and get them to listen to me but it was clear that they were scared of my dad telling them the complete opposite commands as me. “Don’t you move.” He stared at them. “Get out of the fucking car!” he yelled at me. I refused since my siblings weren’t allowed out of the car and there was no way I was letting them stay alone with him. I started to plead to just take us home. That angered him more. We began to make our way back to my house as I stared out the window, tears falling from my eyes. He rambled on as a tuned him out. All I wanted to do is lay in my bed. Alone. We pulled in my driveway as I grabbed my siblings and rushed up to my room to hide. We heard footsteps coming up the steps shortly after. He forced Adriana and I to give him our phones as my sister sobbed. I went in the office to get the house phone and called my mimi. “I will be home shortly” She said calmly. “Just stay away from him” as I hung up the phone. We tip toed around my house the rest of the night trying to avoid him at all costs. The next morning, he had left our phones on the counter. From this day on, no apology, no acknowledgment of that day ever happening. Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway) In this blog post, I will compose a present scene with dialogue and symbolism. I read Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway) to help guide me in composing this scene. Below I wrote about my niece coming over for the day. I’m sitting on the cool leather couch on a rainy, miserable Sunday afternoon. My sister, Alyssa, repeatedly texts my mom bugging her to come over because she’s bored and my mom rolls her eyes. My mom turns and says, “I have to go get Alyssa and the baby.” “Okay” I reply. “I’ll watch Harper.” I try to distract my Harper so she doesn’t see “Nana” leave and have a huge meltdown. We play with babydolls as I swaddle one in a pink flowered blanket and feed the babydoll with a fake bottle as Harper imitates the baby drinking. About ten minutes later, Alyssa and her baby Nevi barge through the front door with a diaper bag and car seat along with other baby items. I rush towards the the baby carrier and take her in the family room. I unhook her buckles slowly as I pull her fragile arms out of the straps. She is still cozy in her pajamas as she starts fussing to eat. Alyssa yells from the kitchen, “I’m making her a bottle now.” I rock Nevi to try and calm her down as she lets out the most innocent little cry. I grab her burpee and rest it under her neck to catch any drips of formula. She starts to slurp down the bottle making little grunting noises as I cherish these little moments. My mom plays, “Sweet Home Sextuplets” on the TV as I panic for the family. “Omg, imagine having 9 kids!” I say shocked to my mom. She replies, “I know, right. I couldn’t even imagine.” Nevi finishes every last drop of her bottle as I lay her on my shoulder to burp her. She lets out a couple little burps and poops. Alyssa and I lay her on the changing table as she stretches out. “This one’s all for you” I tell Alyssa. She changes the dirty diaper as I take over to change her out of her Pjs. I change her into the cutest little flowered button up hoodie, little pink leggings, and the tiniest socks I have ever seen that were still too big for her. Just as I finish, she spits up all down the front of her outfit. I wipe the majority of the spit up with the burpee and look at Alyssa a little frustrated. “So I guess this is what you have to deal with, huh.” I say as the whole outfit has to come off after being on for less than a minute. |
Taylor DannakerI will use this blog to write about moments in my life where I hope you can understand me a little more. Archives
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