Writer's Journal #9 - Generative Writing

OVERVIEW
As you have seen in our class, smaller pieces of writing can help us to sort through ideas, come to insights, and generally “write to learn.” One of the most valuable lessons a writer can learn is that no piece or portion of writing is wasted. Every time we write, we have the opportunity to learn and to use that learning in generative ways; in other words, each piece of writing we create can generate various sorts of materials that we can then use in other writing and thinking.
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DESCRIPTION
In this Writer’s Journal, you will have the opportunity to produce some generative writing that will help you to think about, and possibly generate material for, Writing Project #1. To that end, please choose one (1) of the topics below to write on for this Writer’s Journal:

• We are all members of a number of communities, ones that arise from our work, education, religious practices, recreational activities, political affiliations, etc. Our identities within these communities can compliment or contradict one another--our religious affiliations may influence our political stances, or our hobbies might interfere with our work. Of the various communities to which you belong, which identities do you privilege or feel are most central to how you understand yourself?  Why? 
  

    I am a Christian, a CPA, an alumni of Korea University Business School, a golfer and a citizen of Seoul, South Korea. I am belong to various communities which affect my identity a bit by a bit. During last winter, South Korea experienced a groundshaking political transition mainly driven by the candlelight vigils. My family also participated in one of the vigils at Seoul in November 2016 with people more than 1.3 million. I had never seen so many crowds of people gathered in one place and I never expected such a public order with 1.3 million people. I was with a 3 year old daughter and my husband and I knew at that moment we were participating and witnessing a history. Before then, I did not have a strong identity as a citizen. As participating the vigil that deposed the nation's then president (and the dictator's daughter, Geun Hye Park), I could truly experience and learn the sense of civil right and the power of democracy by real life. Now the identity as a citizen consists major part of me and has matured with that experience.  

Writer's Journal #8 - Fast-Writes

DIRECTIONS 
In this Writer’s Journal, you will have the opportunity to explore this kind of writing through a series of “fast writes.” To complete a fast write, you need to set a timer and write for the entire time period that you set (don’t stop writing!). The following fast writes will help you to think about many of the ideas and issues raised this week, and they will also give you practice writing in this fun genre. Please respond to each of the following questions, writing for no more and no less than 3 minutes in response to each question:

• • • How does your outward appearance (i.e. clothing, makeup, hairstyle, accessories, etc.) reflect your cultural identity? 
      
  • I like to wear formal suits for working and easy sweaters and jeans with a hint of little bit of rock spirit when I have a day off. I don't put on a lot of makeup, and I don't dye my hair letting them look natural. I don't like to wear lots of accessories, sometime when I feel like to wear one, I usually wear a bangle or a simple bracelet. Reflecting my outlook, I think people in my culture don't like to be outstanding or get people's attention. However, I want to loosen up sometimes, so I wear freely whenever I have chances.    
    
  • • How do your behaviors and practices (i.e. rituals, daily activities, routines, habits, etc.) reflect your cultural identity?
      
  • I am not used to speak out and stand in front of many audience. I love peace and try to avoid any conflict if it is possible. Not everyone in this culture is shy but I think relatively many of my people tend to show such behaviors.
    
  • • How do your beliefs and values (i.e. opinions, commitments, memberships, principles, etc.) reflect your cultural identity?
      
  • I value having opportunities to achieve one's dream the most. I think this is important because I am a working mom in such a male dominent society so that I am sensitive to such opportunities.
    
  • • How do your dietary and domestic practices (i.e. hygienic routines, meals and mealtimes, food choices, daily chores) reflect your cultural identity?
      
  • I really do care about what I am eating. I eat a lot of vegetables, superfoods and try to eat less carbonates and more proteins. I avoid processed foods and junk foods. I am trying to be fit as always not only becuase I do care about my appearance but also I see my daughter also eats same as I do (becuase we share a refrigerator!). I would like to leave her a healty dietary routine.
    
  • • How does your region or location in the world reflect your cultural identity?
      
  • I am living in Seoul, South Korea. This nation has been under the truce since 1953 but military provocation from North Korea is not rare news here. As we are busy living day by day and seem to forget everything about the threat, but fear and stress is always exist back in our minds.  
    
  • • Describe a time when you were judged, excluded, or misunderstood because of one of the cultural traits noted above.
      
  • When I am mingling with people from different culture, people tend to think of me as a shy or unemotional person at first. I need some time before I get used to people and open up.
    

Writer's Journal #6 - Your Writing Practices

OVERVIEW
Throughout this course you will think and write about your relationship to your own writing practices; in fact, a sizable portion of your final portfolio will deal with this relationship. Being aware of one’s writing practices and shaping those practices help writers to become more efficient and effective as they produce various texts.
DIRECTIONS
In this Writer’s Journal, you will have the opportunity to explore your relationship to writing, your writing practices, and how this relationship might change in the course of this class. To help you in this reflection, please respond to the following questions:

• What role has writing played in your life? Describe your relationship to writing and language.
  
• Writing is my personal advisor, a way of therapy and with a little bit of exaggeration, it is my kind of weed. When I feel stressed or overwhelmed by situations and when I don't know what to do,  I usually search for private and quiet place and pull out a note book from my bag. What I do in this quiet and private place with my note is concentrating the situation that I have, breaking down all the problems and looking for actionable plans. Going through this routine, my mind is cleared up and then I can tackle down difficulties of my life. In other words, writing has been usually very personal for me, unless I write for school papers or work reports.
  
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• How would you describe your previous writing experiences, overall? Whether good or bad, in what ways have your writing experiences prepared you for, or led you to, this course?
  
• I think I pretty much well explained my previous writing experiences in the above. I like writing but sometimes I felt limitations as to expressing my thought in writing and I wish I could develop writing skills so that I can more effectively and efficiently convey my ideas in writing.
  
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• What do you hope to do with writing in the future? How might you draw upon prior writing experiences in order to achieve those goals? What do you need to practice in order to be a more successful writer?
  
• As I am dreaming of being a professor/researcher in the future, I hope I can share my research results and ideas with academic colleagues and students efficiently and effectively. I am not afraid of expressing myself in writing which is good to achieve my goal, however I need to practice using rhetorical knowledge and writing collaboratively which I don't feel confident on the other hand.
  
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• What do you hope to gain from this writing course and its members? What are your expectations for yourself in this course? What are your expectations for the other members of the course?
  
• I hope to obtain lots of knowledge in terms of writing skills as I have not focused on writing itself previously. In addition, I hope to gain diverse views from peers and faculties of this course. For myself, I hope to participate more actively, voice up and not to be intemidated.  
  

Writer's Journal #5 - Understanding Rhetorical Concepts





OVERVIEW
Encountering “rhetoric” and the “rhetorical situation” for the first time can be surprising for many students. These concepts seem familiar, but often this familiarity is vague or under-defined. However, by becoming more aware of the “rhetorical situation” and working with this awareness, we can better understand what we are doing in and with our writing.


DIRECTIONS
In this Writer’s Journal, you will have the opportunity to think about “rhetoric,” “the rhetorical situation,” and your understanding of these terms. To help you in this reflection, please respond to the following questions:

• • Based on the readings and videos that you read/watched during week one, how would you describe “rhetoric”? What is “the rhetorical situation” and how do you see an awareness of this concept affecting your writing and behaviors?
  • I have read many news articles and seen TV commercials in this week. To the best of my understanding, "rhetoric'" means trying to persuade specific audience as a part of communucation. I think that news articles and TV commercials fit perfectly to explain this rhetorical situation, in terms of persuading audience (readers and viewers) to have certain ideas, to be informed about some topics, or even further, to want to buy specific products. An awarness of this concept let me think of strategies that I use in writing and talking. I had vague acknowledgement about purpose of writing and talking but have not thought as to audience and strategy before.
    
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  • Describe a recent writing experience or activity where you used rhetoric to effectively convey a message to a specific audience? What was the purpose of the message? Who was the audience? How did you go about appealing to that audience?
  • Recently, I had one of the most special and memorable moment throughout my entire life. That was quitting my job. I was working as an CPA and I was planning to embark on new transition - going to graduate school. Anyway, I wrote a farewell email to my colleagues and bosses at the last day in the office. It was not longer than two paragraphs but it took me more than one hour to write that email. I did not want to be sad or rude, but truly thank for everything we have done together and wish them happiness. Therefore, I tried to write it simple and authentic as much as possible. Did it work? I received dozens of touching replies right after I sent the email and keep in touch with many of them. I guess it worked as I desired.
    
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  • In what ways do you see your understanding of rhetoric and the rhetorical situation affecting your future writing projects?
  • ​I think the understanding of rhetoric and the rhetorical situation will affect my future writing project in many ways such as generating ideas, developing strategy to reach out audience and choosing tone and structure of writing. I will put much more impoortance not only on the purpose, but also on the context and the audience.
    
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  • The WPA Outcomes lists “Rhetorical Knowledge” first in the list of outcomes areas. What does this say about the importance of rhetorical knowledge to writing? Given your experience of the course so far, how important does rhetorical knowledge seem to writing and the writing process?
    
  • Rhetorical knowledge is vital as we are using it in variety of situations and contexts calling for purposeful shifts in many aspects of writing ,and as we use a variety of technologies to address audience matching to varying rhetorical situations. If we don't have proper rhetorical knowledge, we would not be able to see the strategy a writer chose to deliver his/her audience and figure out why the writer chose to use certain tone, voice, design, medium and so on. Likewise, if we don't understand how rhetoric works in writing, it would be really inefficient and ineffective for us to write anything since we don't know where to head.   
    
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Writer’s Journal #4 – Reflecting on Collaboration Bookmark this page

OVERVIEW



Writers of all kinds often collaborate on writing projects. This can occur in person, or (as is increasingly the case) this collaboration can occur at a distance through digital technologies such as our online course. Sometimes this collaboration happens in the drafting of a piece of writing, but it can also occur in every stage of the writing process.
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DIRECTIONS
In this Writer’s Journal, you will consider what collaborative writing means to you. You will do this by addressing the following questions:

• How does the notion of writing collaboratively challenge your sense of what a writer is and does?
  
•     To my sense of what a writer is and does, writing collaboratively sounded little bit awkward. I thought there must be a writer who writes that particular piece of composition. However, if I broaden the notion of writing from generating ideas to revising and reflecting the final writing rather than just typing on a keyboard or scribbling on a sheet of paper, than collaborative writing makes much more sense.
  
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• Do you find collaborating on your writing exciting or intimidating? Why?
  
•   To be honest, I feel intimidated. I feel frustrated when I need to challenge other people's ideas, because I am afaid of offending others' feelings with my comments. In addition, I find myself a perfectionist, that is, I hate to show my outputs before I finish them.
  
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• What do you think you might learn or gain from collaborating with other writers?
  
•    I think it would be an opportunity to come out of my shell. As I confessed in the previous answer, I am reluctant to show my working-in-process writing and to give feedback to other writers. Of course I will need plenty of practice and have embarrassing moments, but I hope I will learn from that experiences.
  
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• One of the bullets under the WPA Outcomes “Process” heading reads, “By the end of first -year composition, students should...Experience the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” Why do you think the WPA Outcomes value the “collaborative and social aspects of the writing process?” What does this say about academic writing and collaboration?
  
•     I think the WPA Outcomes value the "collaborative and social aspects of the writing process", becuase writing is one of the most important medium of communication, especially in the academic context. Academic writing and collaboration can not be separated as we learn from peer students, teachers, professors and fellow scholars with academic writing.
  
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Writer's Journal #3 - Reflecting on Writing Process

OVERVIEW
Reflection is an important part of learning how to write not only in the academic context but in any field that requires carefully considered communication.  Reflection helps us to understand why we might have made decisions in our writing and what those decisions might reveal about our ways of thinking about, and initially approaching, writing. We can then use this insight to gain greater control over the writing that we produce.
DIRECTIONS
In this Writer’s Journal, you will have the opportunity to think about your own reflective processes and practices. To help you in this reflection, please respond to the following questions:

• • What do you think might be gained from reflecting on a completed piece of writing? What might reflection help you understand about your rhetorical decisions or your writing process?
    
  •     Reflecting on a completed piece of writing sounds useless at first, however, I think it would help me to improve writing next time. As I can rethink and assess my rhetorical decisions and my writing process, it would provide me advice as to how I can articulate my ideas and persuade audience more effectively.
    
• • In what ways do you think reflective writing differs from other types of writing?
    
  •     To the best of my understanding, I think reflective writing is purposeful writing. Thus, almost all writings can be or should be reflective writing to the some point as the most of the writings differentiate writers from audience. However, there might be some different types of writing such as an daily journal or simple memos which are not supposed to be read by others. 
    
• • What are some ways that you might reflect on the writing you do for this course? Where and how would you do this reflection?
    
  •     I think I can reflect my writing for this course by cracking the assignments given to me. I found they are intriguing me to reflect my mind and my writing. By preprating answers and rereading before submit them, I can reflect my rhetorical choices and writing process. In addition, discussion with peers also gives me broader insight and new angles to topics.
    
• • Which of the WPA Outcomes does reflective writing seem to relate most directly to and how?
    
  •     I think the Processes are the most relevant and directly engaged with reflective writing. Because the Processes are designed to develop writing strategy, to invite collaborative works and  to learn to give and to act on productive feedback.
    
  
  

Writer's Journal #2 - The Learning Process 

DIRECTIONS

After you make your initial discussion post, be sure to read at least 2-3 of your peers’ posts. Then, consider (i) what we have learned this week so far, (ii) your answers to the questions in the discussion thread, and (iii) your peers’ responses to the questions above. With this in mind, please answer the following question:

- How does one learn to write? What is included in the “learning process” of writing? Where does your understanding of the “learning process” of writing come from and how might this differ from your peers’ understandings and the origins of those understandings?

Be sure to be as detailed and thorough as possible, and use examples to help explain your response.

    I believe the learning process of writing includes trior and error in drafting a lot of compositions. As I have been learning many things, I would define the learning process as to overcome frustration coming from not knowing a subject, to make a room for it inside of you and eventually to enjoy and leap benefits from it. The learning process entails persistent trior and error and sometimes it feels like never-ending task. However, a sense of achivement is something that I can never forget about and to explore my potential is the most important theme in my life.
    Peers' responses were varied as they are from various backgrounds, however, couple of insights seem to be marched. Firstly, the learning process is an indefinite journey throughout one's life and secondly, one has to practice or experience in order to fully comprehend and learn something.
 

Writer's Journal #1 - Outcomes Reflection 

OVERVIEW

The writing outcomes in this class help to define what “academic writing” means for our English 101 community and for many academic writing communities. They help us understand what academic writing and writers should aspire to, but they can also help us compose in other contexts, for other purposes, and with other audiences.

DIRECTIONS

For this first Writer’s Journal assignment, please think about what you have learned this week, and answer the following questions:

- What do you find surprising about the course outcomes?
- What do you find confusing about the course outcomes?
- What do the course outcomes tell you about academic writing, and how is this different from or similar to writing you do in other contexts of your life?

Be sure to be as detailed and thorough as possible, and use examples to help explain your response.

• What do you find surprising about the course outcomes?

    I was surprised to find out that the course outcomes put a great emphasis on the writing process even more than on the composition itself: reading, drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting, rereading and editing; especially, I was not used to the concept of collaborative and social aspects of writing process, so that it made me amazed.
    In addition, the consideration of digital technology into this course outcomes was something unexpected for me. From my college education experience, most of the classes did not explicitly consider leveraging the technology into course syllabus or outcomes.
    In a nutshell, the course outcomes varied from my expectation- a writing course will be a writing course. I will have tedious writing assignments and that is all- rather up-to-date, collaborate and social works are awaiting for me.

• What do you find confusing about the course outcomes?

     I am diffident whether I fully understand the term Rhetorical knowledge. I have written many emails, reports, journals, memos and so on; but It seems that I have never been conscious about rhetorical concepts while I was composing. 

• What do the course outcomes tell you about academic writing, and how is this different from or similar to writing you do in other contexts of your life?

     When it comes to writing I do in the most of the contexts in my life, it seems very different from academic writing. I am mostly unconscious about who is going to read this or why I am writing this while composing memos or daily journals. Because those are written solely for my own benefit and no one is going to read them carefully and criticize about structures or contents.
    On the other hand, as I am working as a public accountant (CPA), I made lots of auditors reports and had them published. In this context, I went through several levels of review procedures, reread, revised, rewrote the reports. Moreover, I always considered who is going to use the information the reports contain and how the clients and stakeholders would think about the contents so that I was prudent and cautious about tone, voice and structure of the reports. Therefore, auditors' reports seem to have a lot in common with academic writing.