You Live, You Learn, You Write.
Showcase One: My Personal Credo
One of my best pieces of writing this semester is my personal credo. It is also one of my favorite pieces. Many people have a lot of things that they strongly believe in or that they may value. Writing my personal credo gave me the opportunity to share what I believe in. What I like about this piece is that most people may not think about the things that they believe in until they are asked, because a lot of people unconsciously practice their beliefs everyday.
My personal credo was a chance for me to gather my thoughts and write about the things that I hold dear to my heart. I love being able to tell a little bit about myself through writing. I feel that this piece was written for the right audience, and that my tone matched the flow of my piece. Before getting to this class, I wasn’t confident in my writing. I thought that none of my pieces were actually good enough to be liked by others. Writing my personal credo gave me a chance to write freely, but carefully at the same time. I made sure that I made good writing choices, but I didn’t care about what others considered as “good writing.” My personal credo was the first piece of writing that I considered “good writing” without worrying about the opinions of other people. It was personal.
Click the "My Personal Credo" button above to view the document.
Showcase Two: The Gnibbulc of the Nacirema
The Nacirema modern ritual piece is my most interesting piece of writing. It was the first time that I had ever been introduced to the writing style of Miner. It was also a piece that I had to create with a partner. I think that this piece was actually more difficult to write because I had to depend on a partner to help me write the paper. My partner and I spent a lot of time coming up with ideas to include in the paper, but we didn’t spend a lot of time writing the paper together. We attempted to use Google Docs to edit the paper together, but this became a challenge outside of the classroom.
I realized that writing in Miner’s style could become very hard when you are trying to think of ways to make your paper clear to follow. I had to find a way to make people believe that there is a culture demonstrating several bizarre behaviors, when I’m actually describing common behaviors in American culture. I feel that my partner and I did a great job with choosing words that we thought should be changed to fit Miner’s style. I think that Miner’s style is very unique and humorous, so I found it very enjoyable to create a piece that is similar to his own.
Click the "Nacirema piece" button above to view the piece.
Click play on the video above to watch a small clip of my Pawpaw and I. I wrote Just A Prayer, which is about him and is dedicated to him. He is a man whom I would consider to be the best man in the world.
Photos of my Pawpaw and I :)
Showcase Three: Just A Prayer Away
When I work hard and invest a lot of my time into something, I may become proud after it is complete. I am definitely proud of my This I Believe essay. Before I chose the topic of my essay, my top two choices were faith and the power of prayer. I decided the write my paper based on the power of prayer, because I believe that is important to pray and to have faith in what you pray for.
I believe that this essay actually evolved from parts of my personal credo. I strongly believe in the power of prayer and the story I chose to write about is very personal to me. Once I chose this topic, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. Writing this essay was very easy for me to do because it’s a current situation that I think about almost everyday.
The most difficult part about writing this essay was the word count. I had so much to say about my personal story that I exceeded the word count. I had no idea how to tell this story within 500 words. I had to try to learn different methods of eliminating wordiness to revise the essay. After all of my revisions were made, I felt pretty confident in the essay and I wouldn’t mind sharing it with the world.
Click "Just A Prayer Away" button to view document.
