I will start this post off by
saying the terms test was by far one of the most frustrating tests I have
taken. Normally, memorizing terms is one of my strong suits but these
words were abnormally difficult. The fact that the worlds were extremely long,
impossible to pronounce, and many had very similar definitions made memorizing
them difficult. But I am confident that with practice I will have them
down pat by the AP test. I just need to really try to just concentrate on
looking for them in literature and using them when I write. I need to not take
the easy way out and actually take time to understand them. Maybe seeing them
in actual literature will help my brain process them better then just trying to
embed flash cards into my memory.
The
Nuts and Bolts of College Writing was my favorite part of the summer
assignment. I thought the book was very informative and truly will improve my future writing. I loved the layout of the book: very clear and straightforward. I
thought it was ironic how our other assigned reading, How to Read Literature
Like A Professor, did not exactly follow the guidelines from The Nuts and
Bolts of College Writing. Although it was pompous, I felt that Foster
actually had some very insightful views on literature. I feel as if I can open
a book and actually know what’s going on in it. I wish I would have known
Foster’s information before reading books like The Great Gatsby, Huckleberry
Finn,
and How to Kill A Mockingbird in previous literature classes. I
will (hopefully) no longer be naïve while reading books, poems, and other
literary works. I now know what I should be looking for to enhance my
understanding while reading literature. That newfound knowledge will allow me
to fully comprehend the author’s message.
Last year, I absolutely hated the forum posts we had to do. Now, I thank
Ms.Dockus for preparing me for this class. I actually feel confident with forum
posts and they no longer seem like tedious work to me. On the other hand,
understanding poems is not quite as familiar. I continue to struggle with
poems. Understanding their themes, tone, and meter’s is very difficult for me.
I hope it gets easier with practice because right now I feel like a fish out of
water when reading a poem.
Hi Sam!
ReplyDeleteNice job on this blog post. It has really good voice and you covered everything you need to.
I thought it was interesting how you called Foster "pompous". I can see how this is true, but I also found How To Read Literature Like a Professor to be refreshing because it felt less like a book, and more like a conversation with Foster to me. I learned a lot from that book, and agree that those archetypes he talked about would have been useful when reading other books.
So overall, nice job! I'm struggling to think of any criticism here... my only suggestion might be to add an intro/conclusion, but I don't know if we need to to that, since these are blog posts not essays.
~Kenzie
I also think maybe you should have added an introduction and conclusion, but I dont know if it was required for this assignment or not! I agree completely with you on the terms test. It was also very frustrating to me. However, I liked the How To Read Literature LIke a Professor a lot more than the Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, because it was a fun read. But, I suppose I do see how it could be considered "pompous". Overall good job on this blog post!
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