Blog Eight – Persuasion

I would like to say i’m a pretty persuasive guy. I am normally able to either sway people’s opinions or choices to my side, or at least make them see both side, with a more recent example being when I convinced my grandma to allow me to drive more often, normally to my bus in the morning but also to take her places. This allowed me to have more time in the morning and much more driving experience for the future.

The biggest thing I used to persuade her is was logic. I stated that she was uneasy when driving and that allowing me to drive her would get her to her destination safe and sound. This worked because for a while she has been noticing that her driving ability has been dwindling, seeings as she is going on 80 years old. Then, I told her about the recommended amount of time that driver’s ed teachers say is good to have before going into the G2 Road test, this being between 30-40 hours in car. She understood this but wasn’t quite agree with it entirely. As a final point I made to her, the one that really convinced her, was the fact that I was constantly having to rush out the door because I would have to help my grandma out in the morning before school. With being allowed to drive down, I can spend more time helping her and still be able to make it to the bus on time. The reasons above show that my best form of persuasion is that which involves fact and logic.

(Word count: 266)

Blog Seven – Rewriting

The secret that appealed to me the best and was something that feels important when I write was the first secret that states “Once is Not Enough”. For me, I do have to do a few drafts to get to a good copy normally because of grammatical errors, run-ons, and tangent ideas. My first pieces of work for everything generally consist of at least one or two sentences that either don’t make any sense or have very little relevance. This is because I type the my raw thinking process down to make sure I don’t forget it or mess up the idea behind it. To put into story form, like the article did, when building my house, I would do everything that came to mind as it came and not always in the correct order. Most of the time though, the end product does stand and seem to be alright but after further inspections, there are large mistakes. Whether they are faulty beams or just measurement errors, they are there because I didn’t follow the entirely proper procedure.

With the above in mind, I would like to say that the lesson discussed is valuable because it applies to pretty much everyone. Very few are able to write a perfect piece on their first go, thus meaning that multiple drafts are needed. This being said, even the slim amount of people that don’t need the second draft or even others for a third draft can still benefit. It can help you become better at writing the first drafts, make you more aware of the common mistakes you make, or even make you more successful as a peer editor. All in all, writing multiple drafts helps you in all aspects of writing and should be done when applicable.

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Blog Six – Passage Analysis

I’m not just saying this for ease or laziness, but the second passage is the only part of the reading that truly stands out to me, mostly because I have had the feelings it talks about numerous times. It relates directly to me because of all the times that the aspects of death and mortality have been around me, with the recent passing of my grandpa. Before that though, his death was never in my mind, even though he was pushing seventy, was now a dozen different pills, and had to do dialysis. He always seemed fine and full of life. I could tell for him as well that his death was in his mind whatsoever. When he did die, it was such a surprise to everyone, because was never something that came to mind.

What I’m trying to get at is the fact that this passage is just so relatable to anybody. This is what makes it good at portraying the fact that everyone dies. It makes you realize that life isn’t forever because of the wording and constancy that it provides. The passage is especially good when it says “Also because someone else’s mortality reminds us all too vividly of our own” (Cable, 2002, Page 1) because this is what people feel when they lose someone close to them. For almost a month after my grandpa’s death, I was constantly thinking of what’s after life and having some existential crises.

This passage is so strong because it connects to you and gets what the general public feels when loss happens. The writer gets what goes through our heads.

(Word count: 268)

Blog Five – Interviewers

This article has generally some very easy and almost natural pieces of advice that don’t take any effort to really follow, like Background research. There are two points that I feel would be difficult to follow though, those being “Not afraid to interrupt” and “Be selfish”

The first point, “Not afraid to interrupt”, is advice I feel many would have great trouble either getting used to or just starting. Let me put an image in your head. You are a somewhat new interviewer and you score an interview with someone decently famous. I feel, given this situation, that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to do anything because of just the sheer intimidation factor that the person would give off. Also, it could be as simple as you’re just too polite and it’s just awkward for you to do something like that.

With the second piece of advice, it being “Be selfish”, it would be hard to even begin to try to be selfish. Most children are taught through most of their youth to be kind and sharing. So even when you are doing an interview and you might be in character as someone else, you still might feel wrong being selfish about things. Also, the thoughts that may go through your head could really conflict you and cause you to either break character or lose your train of thought. This can cause a bad experience for both you and the guest you have, not to mention the audience.

As a final point which is a bit off of the other points, I believe that people who are knew to interview may not take to these that well because the author doesn’t explain the points well, more just says that he likes the interviewers who does them.

Blog Three – Wikipedians

Wikipedia doesn’t have a very big role when it comes to my digit life. I really only use it when I need to look something up quickly and the information can’t really be twisted. This is normally things like actor names when watching movies or shows, or something that I may have forgotten. Usually the information is indisputable and unchangeable, so I feel confident in believing it. On the other hand, I won’t really use Wikipedia for any extensive amounts of research, like for a paper or to just further my knowledge. This is mostly because Wikipedia has the ability to be edited, so many facts could be changed by people who may be incorrect. Also, sometimes the articles on Wikipedia aren’t completed fully.

On to the second part, most of the things i’ve heard from my teachers have all been along the same line of “try your best to not use Wikipedia” or “Don’t use Wikipedia at all”. I personally don’t agree with them completely. Wikipedia can be rather useful when it comes to certain pieces of knowledge, especially with things that aren’t really able to be changed, like dates and names, and also things that won’t make sense if changed. The one part I can agree with is the fact that the information is definitely not always credible. People can very easily change the information if they want to either because they believe they now what information is right, or because they just want to be randomly mean and mess with people. This can cause many problems for people, but certain people do enjoy to screw over others.

All in all, I don’t believe that Wikipedia is a very good source of credible information, but small knowledge is normally safe.

(Word count: 292)

Blog One – 15 Reasons to Blog

Personally, I’ve never understood the benefits of doing a blog on your life. Blogs about studies are more logical in my mind so the quite a few of the points in this article make no sense to me. Certain points, though, come across as both sensible and beneficial. These points include the first reason about it making you a better writer because as the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and the thirteenth about becoming more confident because if you regularly tell people about your life, you would become more self-assured when talking to others about personal events and drama.

On the other hand, there are many points in this article that I don’t not either agree with or believe. These include the points about improving your lifestyle, and especially the fifteenth point about getting a rush from reading comments. The points about bettering your life are just nonsensical because all blogging is is just you writing about your life. If you change your life because of the blog, then it completely defeats the purpose of writing a blog about your life because your life is just going to be the same or at least extremely similar to other bloggers. Now, with the point about getting a rush from comments, the sheer idea of it is just strictly wrong. I personally know that many comments are very negative and will just make you either stop blogging or feel extremely bad about yourself or your life. Even after you account for the positive messages, normally the negative overpower them.

With these reasons, I can see why some other people may really enjoy blogging, but for me, it’s not a fun use of my time.

Blog Two – Shitty First Drafts

The biggest thing that this article makes me understand about my own writing process is the fact that I normally don’t get past the second draft. I usually only do the first draft, then correct the mistakes on the first and hand it in. I know this isn’t a good thing to do but usually I don’t have the eye to change what isn’t obvious like typos and grammatical errors. The next thing is the fact that it made me think of all the first drafts that I have made and how shitty they actually were. It made me realize how truthful this article is, especially the line in the beginning paragraph, saying “not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much.” This line does apply to some people I know, and it’s great that it is vague and personal.

Now, the part of the article that relates to my own writing process the most is the part that talks about the poor wording and “child’s draft” that comes with the first draft. A lot of times, I find my first draft to be exactly what I thought of when writing, with little formatting and bad phrase. It’s just the raw thinking that flows through with very little thought. There have been times where I write it out a sentence and think it to be completely fine, but then re-read it later only to realize how messed up it actually was, which always gives me a laugh.

All in all, this article does a good job making you come to terms on how your drafts first are.
(Word count: 280)