Semester Final 2

If you used any quickwrites as blog posts, how did they change from what you wrote by hand in class to what you published on your blog? In other words, how did you go from rough draft to final draft? Explain your revision/rewriting process.                

Other than the quickwrites I had to post such as the "rules of love", I did use some to post in my blogs. I used one called "She touched the box in her pocket and smiled...", which was making up an idea/ story that includes that phrase. Instead of posting this right away, I tend to post my quickwrites later than usual. Because I already wrote it down, I would either get someone else to peer edit, edited the paper myself, or both. The process in editing the paper is long however, so that is the reason why I would post it up last minute. The editing process can go longer, especially if I got more than just myself and a friend to edit the paper. Unlike quickwrites, my weekly blogs are typed right on the computer, so there could be some minor grammar problems I might've missed. Most of my quickwrites that I posted are more of ideas listed. During the quickwrite, I usually list my opinions or ideas into the paper. Affterwards, I decide whether it is a paper filled with ramblings or something I can use but needs a editing. Sometimes, I like how I just list them in sentence form because I can see what ideas I can use to relate the topic, and which ones I can not use because it seems more of a rambling than supporting the topic. Due to the editing, my one page written quickwrites can reduced down to fewer than three hundred to five hundred words, so I tend to add more details to stretch the topic. Also, unlike just typing the weekly blog right on the computer, writing quickwrites as my post is a pain to my hands. We are given ten minutes to write as much as we can (but the minimum is one page), which means I would need to write faster than usual. With writing at such an abnormal speed than my usual pace, my hand really hurts. It's more like my wrist, but add pressure to my wrist by writing really fast across a blank, lined piece of paper can be a killer.

Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

I get my ideas from my surroundings that inspire me to write about it. For example, I wrote about a variety of popular Vietnamese dishes due to my mom's homemade cooking at home. With my background culture surrounding me, I take pride in my mom's awesome cooking, which I personally would say it is better than most restaurants.There's also blogs about books and movies I recently read from class or from a random pickup in the library where I really enjoyed it and would like to share to others. Normally, I do not read much on my free time (due to surfing the internet, homework, taking care of my little brother, etc.), but because this is an English class, I go down to the library more and going through aisles would definitely have some book spark my interest, such as a mystery series, The Beryllium Murder. I also often wrote about historical figures that I recently learned about in Modern World History class, such as King Henry VIII during the Reformation period and Baron de Montesquieu,whose ideas help formed the United States's government of today. It is also interesting learning about a famous person's history, answering a simple and popular question: What did he/she do to get to the point where their name is well known throughout the world, textbooks, magazines, news, etc. Anything that gets me typing real quick and real long is something that can help me accomplish both the blog and spreading the word about my favorite things. Fortunately, I am not a video game addict, so  I do not get distracted as much, but I do play some, making two blogs about my favorite game of the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2. This is something I do not normally do, but it is something that deserves to blog about to others and hopefully persuade others to play the game.

Explain one or two ways your writing has improved (or not) over the semester. Include a few examples from your posts over time, with analysis and links to the original posts, to illustrate how the improvement(s) happened.

One of the ways that my writing has improved over the semester would definitely by how fast I can write down. With a limited amount of time to write on our weekly quickwrites, I can now type my blogs with enough confidence to just type away with no regrets. my previous blogs took longer than to type than my blogs being posted today due to how much I can type today. The first time I had to do a one thousand word final took me a few days because I didn't know what I should write about or I have no idea what I can write about. Answering the questions seems easy, but to extend it in full detail and be quite a challenge, especially to people who can' exactly stretch words out in such a manner. This is something I cannot compare among my previous blog posts unless I can show my memory on the screen or something. Another way that my writing has improved over the semester is my supporting details. I'm not great at supporting my ideas. I pretty much tend to say/write  something but have no way to support it, which means I am pretty bad at arguing during debates. Throughout the year, stretching my words by adding supporting details helped my research paper for Modern World History class and supporting my ideas on weekly blog posts for English. I can't exactly point out my blog posts because there's too many that does look I did put enough supporting details and some that seems like I am ranting so unfortunately,I do no think I can display this. My persuasion skills are steadily improving because after posting some of my Vietnamese dishes, some people came up to me and asked where they could try it or how they can make the dish. Also, my game reviews inspired some gamers to try out the game and they are now currently a big fan of it.