State of Essay Numero Dos

After the long, hard, painful process of writing my second essay I am pretty happy with what the final product is.  Although it is not as well written as my first one, I still feel that my essay was written very strong and creatively.  The reason why I say that it was not as strong as my first one is mainly because the options in the second essay didnt really fit to my strengths of writing.  As well as that I felt that it was very hard to use Wests framework to show how identity was expressed online.  In all actuality I believe that the reason it was so hard for me to write this essay compared to the other was because I wasn't motivated like I was on the other one. Either way from writing both of these essayI feel that I have become a much much stronger writer than I have been before writing these essays.

Which Direction Am I going, Do I Even Know..?

When I first read the guidelines for essay 2, I had just a blank stare at my computer screen.  Not only that but my mind was in a million places at once, I was simply just dead confused.  As the days progressed I began to think about the essay and everything to do with it, Im gonna do this... No this... Actually I changed my mind THIS IS WHAT IM GONNA DO!  Yet still I really had no clue where I was going, I was like a bird with a clipped wing I couldn't fly straight.  Coming out of class just after today tuesday I already am flying like a hawk.  I know what this mysterious annotated bibliography is and most importantly I know what direction I.. think.. I am going to go in with my essay. As of right now I think that Im going with option 2 and Im going to analyze Ted Millers Pac-10 Blog and Im going to use Kathleen West's article to help pick apart Millers Identity.  Also Im going to use Rettberg's Blogging book to help distinguish blog types as well as how Miller's Pac-10 blog ties in with both.

My attempt at Annotated Bibliography

I know this is pretty late but I was lost on the whole annotated bibliography and just needed some clarification on what this who ordeal was, as well all say "Better late than never at all right"? Anyways here is my attempt at the bibliography for my source that I chose that I feel will help me with my essay.

Miller, Ted. “Pac-10 Blog.” ESPN. 14 Nov. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10

Ted’s blog is the ESPN: Pac-10 Blog, where he gives his opinion on teams and how he thinks they will do for that week of games.  He also gives his point of view on many other topics going around in the league such as injuries, starting line ups, and many other factors that have a potential on the outcome on the games for that week, while giving his point of view on all of those factors he talks about how he feels they will have an effect on the game. He presents his identity as a dedicated sports fan that is dedicated to what he does.  I feel this blog is useful for my essay because I can tie it in with West’s article and Rettberg’s book as an example of a unique form of blogging as well as an individual distributing their identity through their blog.

Essay 2

For essay number two I have pondered to myself which option I want to do.  What I finally decided was that I felt that option 2 would be the best option for me.  I feel that taking West's framework and applying it to a blog of my choice and developing and argument on how identity is expressed online is something I could write a strong essay about compared to the other 2 options.  I say this because to me I feel like I can write an essay using West's framework and ideas to examine a blog and develop an argument of ones blog identity. Although while reading option 1 I am slightly intrigued about reflecting on what identity I create on my blog and how West's argument ties in with both options.  So as of right now i'm not totally sure what option I will use but I am for sure leaning towards option 2.

Kathleen West Article

In Kathleen West's article "Weblogs and Literary Responses"  is her research of using blogs in the classroom. What she realizes is that the students immediately develop identities for themselves using different forms of internet language. She also noticed that her students didn't  abandon the techniques they learner in their classes when they wrote their responses. What's funny is that when writing on the internet or on my blog, etc. I do these same exact things. I use internet language and acronyms but when writing analysis I write like I should on one of my excellent papers I write. What I think is that the more online writing research should be conducted to get to the bottom of whether of not online writing has a negative effect on the writing skills of students.

What did my essay teach me.....?

My essay taught me a lot of things about my own writing process I never really have noticed before.  What I discovered is that when I write I sometimes just get to writing my paper then go off on other tangents (not saying that is bad) but maybe be a little bit more specific and stay closer to that line in the middle.  One writing habit I noticed when I sit down and start writing I have to continue and write and finish what I'm doing in one sitting, I know it is probably not a good thing cause you need to take breaks and refresh but I always just sit down and bust of my papers or writings in one sitting.  After all these writing process' we went through I think the most helpful was the writing conferences because having other people read my essay and explain to me what I could do to help me make my essay better and vise versa.  I just feel all in all that the writing conferences are a great thing.