Berkenkotter, Murray, Allen

ROW:

SUMMARY:

In Sarah Allen’s article The Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer she attempts to give advice to a student. The student reaches out for help, and Sarah gives the student advice. She talks about how you have to be driven to write. There has to be inspiration and it will come easily. She also says that you have to write to practice, your writing will get better over time.

WAW:

SUMMARY:

In her article Decisions and Revisions she uses information from Donald M. Murray. She observes him and applies what he does to her article. She attempts to go over the strategies of writing and the editing process. She gears this towards anyone who is writing a paper and needs tips on revising. 

CONVERSATION: This writing kind of reminds me of the one about a research paper. She is observing someone and then providing steps on how to revise. In the research one it tells you what you need to do to do good research. They both gave some helpful tips.

BEFORE YOU READ:

Explaining death to an 11 year old:

You know that no one can live forever, right? At some point everyone leaves earth, where we live. There are many different reasons for death. Sometimes people just die of old age. Eventually their body just shuts down and they can’t live anymore. Sometimes people die unexpectedly. People can become very ill and their body can’t fight off the sickness anymore, so they go away. Sometimes people die because of freak accidents, like a car accident or getting injured badly. No one really knows what happens when you die. Death is when your body completely shuts down and you can’t do anything anymore. It’s like you are going to sleep, but for a very long time, and you never wake up. You are supposed to go to heaven after you die, but I don’t know what heavens like. Your body gets buried in the ground, or cremated into ashes, which means it gets burned into ashes that you can keep in a vase or something in your house. People then can go to your grave, where you are buried and visit you, even though you aren’t there, people still feel like they can talk to people when they are dead. Death is basically when something goes away forever, and you never get to see them again.

I think it was kind of hard to write this. Death is kind of hard to explain, because no one truly knows what happens when you die, at east I don’t. It’s also hard to describe heaven and what happens to you after you die. While I was writing this I was thinking about all of the people that I know that died. I was thinking about my friends that I lost the night before commencement in a car accident. I was wondering where they are now and what they’re doing. It makes me wonder what heaven is like. It also makes me wonder why some people have to die, especially so young.

QD:

1. I thought that he seemed very efficient. It was good how he uses so many different drafts and editing tools. On the one article he was working on, he used 8 drafts before he sent it off. Berkenkotter said that Murray would have his wife edit his articles. I can relate to that because sometimes I will have someone else read my assignments before I turn them in.

3.Berkenkotter had to develop a separate code category for the evaluation of text or content. She says that  he had to make the concept of the other self still more concrete for his audience. Berkenkotter realized that you have to include your audience more.

AE:

1. I spend my writing time alone. I can’t write well unless I’m by myself somewhere silent. I don’t have that high of a level of writing experience, but it’s not that low either. I was in the journalism class at my school senior year, so I had to write an article every week. I don’t really spend that much time on the various parts of the writing process.

MM

I learned that it can be very beneficial to have multiple drafts of your writing and to have people edit it. I could reread my writings more and try to make corrections and not just turn in the first draft.

OPINIONS:

I didn’t think it was that interesting, it seemed kind of boring to read. It might be kind of helpful, but it talked about things that I already knew. I didn’t really learn that much. It compares to my own experiences because I have people double check my work for me sometimes. I agree with the editing process, because you could use as much help as you can get.