the little narrative that could...maybe

The Little Narrative That Could...Maybe

Setting: Literacy Narrative

Time: October through November of 2012

Character: Myself

Monologue

It began with a few simple ideas. I planned on writing my narrative like every teacher in high school expected us to write our essays. Very informative, simple, and boring. That’s not how I wanted to write it, but that’s how they asked us to, and it was easier than thinking of something big and creative. I was kind of taken aback by being asked to write outside my comfort zone. After writing the same way time after time, writing in a different style was, well lack of a better word, different. After I went through like 5 different topics, it was time for me to start writing. I decided for the first draft I would stay in my comfort zone just because coming up with a creative introduction was too frustrating. I was worried that I would sound stupid. I wanted to sound witty and unique but it was just not working. After another class, I read some examples of pieces that were written differently. I sat behind my laptop a few days later trying to write like those authors did and it really took a lot of work to get it to be alright.  I decided to turn it in as is and hope that it was creative and different. I still don’t know how I did but I certainly hope it was enough to be considered out of the box. My literacy narrative speaks from my feelings and genuine thoughts and I feel like that should be enough. But the fact that I don’t know if it was enough still makes me worry. Overall, this assigned had me puzzled. It made me question what I’ve been taught after all this time, and I’m still not sure what the right way to write is.

Scene.

Ethnography reflection!

My ethnography project was on Relationships and what some of the underlying issues hidden behind fairy tale relationships. In the beginning, I felt like I would easily be able to get this project done. So many people are in unique relationships in college, it’d be no problem. But it was actually very difficult. Not many people, especially girls want to be filmed so that a whole class can watch her speak. I mean, to be honest, I really wouldn’t want my face plastered on a screen talking about my relationship status. Who’s business is it anyway other than my own?

When we tried to think of an angle for our project, it really wasn’t too hard. I just thought about some of the things in my relationship that other people really don’t get to see – pet peeves, arguments, etc. Lacy mentioned to us about homosexual relationships but a lot of people in that community are afraid or uncomfortable talking about their sexuality. I personally did not want make this project controversial just because you never know how it could turn out. I wanted it to be casual.

Working together in a group went fairly well. The only hard part was like our schedules are all different so it’s difficult to plan get-togethers outside of class.

In high school I had a few opportunities to do different projects like videos and I’ve really enjoyed them. This on the otherhand was much harder just because I don’t know very many people like I did in high school. And I didn’t want to offend anyone with any crazy questions whereas in high school, I knew everyone better which made it easier to talk to other students.

Overall, the project gave me a broader perspective on relationships and how different and unique all of them are. It was kind of like a behind the scenes look on real relationships, and it made me think about underlife within my own long-term relationship with my boyfriend.

 

Literacy Narrative Blog Post

In the beginning of my literacy narrative process, my original idea was to write about how I am just like a pencil. Thankfully, my idea changed from that a lot. My first index card was a list of topics I could of used for my literacy narrative:

 

I was really set on the idea of writing about how I am my own source of expression, which I talked about in my second index card.

                          

In my third index card, I realized that I am less like a pencil and more like a pen because everything I say is permanent and I can’t take it back usually. I feel like this is when I began getting the idea for what my final topic ended up being.

 

 

In my index cards, I really didn’t talk about what my final literacy narrative idea would be. I guess I realized afterwards “I’m like a pen,” is a little bit cheesy. I decided I still like the concept of being my own source of expression. It started making me think about how in the past, the way of used this access to speech throughout my life. It made me think about my yearbook past and how I could basically say anything I wanted about students, faculty and other events that are in the yearbook. Along with this, I started to think about my sarcasm and how my freedom of speech isn’t always the best thing for me.

So for my first draft, I kind of just started writing. I didn’t really know what I wanted to say just yet so I decided I would just type. I did my introduction last, it just works out better when you don’t know what you want to say just yet. The idea of conversational writing was new to me so I wanted to stick to the basic style of writing for my first draft. I mean, it wasn’t exciting or anything interesting but it was just what I am used to doing from high school. That’s just how we were taught.

I really wanted to switch things up for my second draft. After reading Foucualt’s pencil and Jamaica Kindcaid’s girl, I was inspired. I wanted to try their writing style with my literacy narrative. So I started out my paper with that same type of writing.

“I sat behind the yearbook computer and tapped my finger repeatedly on the space bar. Now the screen is filled with a big blank white space. Am I suppose to say how I really feel about you? I don’t think my advisor wants me to lie...But what if I say too much? I can’t say too much but I have to say something. I’m sweating. The deadline is quickly heading my way. Forty-five minutes, forty-four minutes...tick tock. Okay I’m finished. This story is going to be awful. But at least it’s telling the truth...right?”

It was definitely different using this type of introduction. I felt like if it was any other teacher, they wouldn’t go for it. I also used this type of style later on in my paper when introducing my problem with sarcasm.

“Everyone’s laughing. But she isn’t....Why isn’t she laughing? That was one of the funniest things I’ve ever said. If you don’t understand it, then there’s something wrong here. You should get it by now. You still aren’t laughing. You look mad. It wasn’t supposed to be a serious joke. You aren’t supposed to frown when I say something funny? You should get it...We’ve been friends forever. I’ve always been like this. I’ve never been serious. You know that. Please laugh?”

I felt like this type of intro was more enticing and personable. It showed more of my emotions and how I see things in the moment rather than giving a boring opening. I made a few other minor changes in the second draft like a title change. I just wanted to try something new…

In my third draft I wanted to take some of Lacy’s advice and talk a little bit more about how the issues affected me. So I added a few sentences toward the end to talk about how I am with my sarcasm now and how I learn to be more aware of what I say and how I say it. I also changed the title again because I thought “Frank & Filterless” sounded cuter.

Now this paper wasn’t easy at all. I really had to step outside my comfort zone and try new things. There are still somethings I wish I could of written better. Maybe show a little more of my personality but overall, this literacy narrative was a challenge.

 

I Dream of...

I wake up and ask myself, “Was that a dream or did that really happen?” I dreamt someone broke into my dorm room and stole my money that was on my bookshelf. Luckily, my roommate told me it was definitely just a dream. Scary stuff.

Instead of reflecting on something specific from my daybook, I want to talk about how the underlife theme has started affecting my daily life. Underlife has made me start thinking about things a little differently. I’ve really started noticing how everyday activities carry underlife. Like eating, I don’t know if this can be considered underlife but just how everybody eats food differently. They think about it differently, and heck they probably think it tastes differently. And you don’t think about how someone might view eating as underlife. Eating seems to have various underlying meanings to everyone.

So that’s what I’ve been thinking about. I’ll probably be thinking about other things involving underlife and talk about the next one in another reflection. What kinds of everyday things do you consider to be underlife?

Remember me, remember me not

Country Vegetable Soup. Slice of bread. A Sprite. What a dinner. College meals are really getting to me...I don’t know how much more I can take it.  I am physically drained. The drive from home lasts forever. Now I wish I did my homework before I went home…

So in class, we were asked to list some memories after the WID for Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge. That guy has a pretty long name, I would not want to sign that on every receipt…Anyway there were a few questions listed to get are minds headed in the right direction:

• Something warm
• Something from long ago
• Something that makes you cry
• Something that makes you laugh
• Something as precious as gold

 

I liked this mostly because I got to think about some really good memories I had. This made me think about how everyone has different moments that their brains choose to remember, but what happens to the moments and events are brain chooses not to remember? It kind of bothers me because maybe those memories that are forgotten aren’t as important as the ones we remember but at the same time, I still wish I could remember them.

How exactly does our brain decide what is important to remember from what is unimportant?

Annotated Bib Mini Assignment

3 students at Moore and Sanford Hall Courtyard, Charlotte.  30 Oct 2012. Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.

This picture may be useful for my group’s ethnography project because rather than just describing the groups and relationships between people, we can provide a visual of the relationship. Although, in this case, the three students in this picture aren’t really showing how they interact with one another on campus. I would probably go take a new picture to further explore and exemplify how students on campus interact with one another.

Notes before fieldwork, Charlotte. 30 Oct 2012. Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.

This image allows a reader or instructor to see some of the beginning ideas of my group’s ethnography project. I wrote about some of things I was looking for while looking for on and off campus relationships. This image also has some of my possible interview questions written down. Even though I haven’t conducted an interview yet, having this pre-fieldwork picture not only shows that I intend on doing an interview but also it shows what questions I might ask to students in various relationships and how they interact on and off campus.

Whitmire, Farrah. A couple interacting at University Walk. 30 Oct 2012. JPEG file.

This picture really shows a couple interacting off campus. It visualizes what a couple might look like while interacting off campus. By having this picture for our ethnography project, we can get a better look on how a boyfriend/girlfriend couple acts with one another socially away from the place they receive education. It seems couples act emotionally and physically closer with one another when they are away from, I guess you could call on campus the “work place,” rather than when they are on campus. This picture could help more in the future once we are able to compare and contrast on and off campus couples in more detail.

Ethnography Mapping

My group (Farrah, Stefani, and I) met at the Atkins Library to start our ethnography project. We decided that we are doing our project on relationships: boyfriend and girlfriends and friendships. We started by talking about some things that we’d liked to focus on: the difference between relationships on and off campus. For our off campus location we chose the U Walk apartments, and for our on campus location we chose the courtyard between Sanford and Moore Hall. We also wrote down a couple of interview questions we might ask at a different time. They’re on my daybook picture.

<------my daybooking beforehand<----my map of the courtyard

 

After leaving the library, we went to the courtyard to observe some relationships. We didn’t have too much luck because it kind of was an awkward time, 10 am. But we noticed a couple holding hands, and some groups of friends walking together.

Next time we will have to go at a better hour because they're really wasn't anyone around.

Then we went over to U Walk and we watched some friends hang out, a couple outside holding hands, some people were playing volleyball, and one guy was on his porch listening to music.

                                               We were able to watch a couple talk.

 

So that sums it up, next time in the courtyard we will have to go at a better time.

 

This is Literacy?

What location should I choose? Somewhere far from where I am now? Or somewhere I can walk to in 2 minutes? I choose the closest one. So I chose the courtyard in the center of Sanford & Moore Hall. (I’m in Sanford(: ) Everyday there is something different happening here. People are constantly outside, talking, passing out flyers, eating, everything.

Some of artisticness for you're own personal enjoyment.

 

La di da da di da da. Music. I find it interesting to see what type of music people like… usually rap around here. While I was working on this project, there happened to be some guys rapping along to one of their songs. Singing, rapping, rhyming, whatever you want to call it, allows people to express their literacy in a different way other than simply speaking or writing. It’s a creative way to talk about feelings and emotions. Music can be an outlet for some people. Like in the video Lacy played for us about Youth Roots. Those kids used their music as their own form of self-expression.

Red flags. 1, 2, 3, 4 red flags. But what are they for? I’ve noticed them before around campus. Ahhhh, they bring awareness for abuse against women. That makes sense. Things like these flags are literacy in the form of awareness. If you read these flags once, the next time you see them you already know what they represent, which then causes you to notice them more and more around campus. Then I told my parents and friends that it’s Violence Against Women Month. This type of literacy is like a chain reaction. It’s a cool way of learning something new!

Frat guys. We all know one. And know they are everywhere. Always promoting something. This time they are promoting their Second Annual Monster Mash party. It costs money to go to the party so I’m not sure if they’re trying to donate money to something or just being a little selfish but in any case their flyers are a form of literacy. Maybe it’s not educational literacy, but hey, literacy’s literacy right?

This actually makes me wonder, what really defines literacy if anything can be considered literacy?

Three 3 Musketeers

Saturday Night. I have three 3 Musketeers. Jealous? I’m cozy at home, on our big brown couch with my fuzzy socks on. My Saturday night couldn’t be more appealing. It’s moments like these that I try to cherish. My dorm room bed has nothin’ on this couch! I love Three Musketeers.

Okay so today I am not going to reflect on something in my daybook. I’m gonna try to switch it up and try something a little different. Life is boring if you always do the same things.

This past Thursday I had to write a midterm essay for US History. We weren’t told what the essay would be on. We only knew it had to be 4-5 pages and needed to include a reference from something we’ve read in the class in each paragraph. Did I mention we only had an hour to write this essay?

So I decide to just study as much as I can. There’s really not that much a person can study for an essay exam. I looked through all the main ideas we talked about over the first half of the semester and just jammed my head with information. But this reflection is less about the actual essay and more about the idea of timed essays, so let me get to that.

Basically, I think timed essays are ridiculous. What does it prove to teachers??? I had to rush through the whole thing and it probably sounded like crap. It probably made zero sense and my main ideas were not clear or made any sense at all. So what’s the point? Yea, okay it shows that we are actually learning something but there’s no way I’m going to be able to remember a billion examples we read, especially without knowing the topic of the essay beforehand. I can’t grasp my mind around it. If we go home and write the essay, it’s going to sound better, it’s going to have better grammar, our ideas will be clearly stated, plus it’ll be typed! I am officially anti timed essays. Hopefully I passed the stupid thing.

And for those who are as unfortunate as I am, here’s a few tips:

http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/writrhet/for_students/strategies.html

http://www.csun.edu/~hflrc006/strategies.html

 

Midterm Blog!

Midterm time!

So my group chose Dr. Seuss’s Hooray for Diffendoofer Day as our literacy narrative example. Maybe it’s not the most intellectual book, but Dr. Seuss was a smart guy and he always had meaning behind his children’s rhymes - which I like about him and his writing style.

 

 

We documented our journey of finding the book via a slideshow. http://snack.to/bunaom9t

So here’s how our search began:

We arrived at Atkins Library approximately at 9:30 am on Tuesday October 2, 2012. Everyone but me was early, so I met my group members, Nikki, Michael, and Bryan on the second floor where they had already gotten their laptops out. I sat down and we began browsing the Atkins search engine online. I was brainstorming on what type of writings could be easy to write about…at first poetry came to mind. So we started talking about some popular poetry that could be used and BAM! It hit me. Dr. Seuss. Who doesn’t love Dr. Seuss???? So we searched online and found a couple of Seuss books in the library. So we picked a random one just so we could find the Seuss section. We took a picture of the Call number and Bryan and I were up first to search for the book (we didn’t want to leave or carry our stuff around so we took turns).

 

Like I said before, our group was on the second floor. And to be honest, Bryan and I didn’t get how the library was organized –it’s confusing. So we started on that floor until we realized it was nowhere to be found. Without wasting any more time, we went downstairs to the reception desk and asked the ladies where we should look for the Seuss books. They told us to go up the 5^th floor in the Juvenile Collections section. So Bryan and I searched for the elevator, and headed up. We walked up and down a few aisles for a good 20 minutes and then gave up. There were simply way too many books. So we went back down to the second floor back to Michael and Nikki.

Then it was their turn. So Bryan and I just hung out while they were gone. They came back about 15 minutes later with a Dr. Seuss book! Dr. Seuss’s Hooray for Diffendoofer Day to be exact! So we read the book and talked about how it relates to our lives. Then I attempted to write like Dr. Seuss in my Daybook and was unsuccessful - I ran out of rhyming words. Nothing rhymes with enemies…at least I tried.

Here's a picture of the page I wrote about:

My daybook writing:

 

Overall, it was a pretty fun time in the library. I like the idea of searching for a literacy narrative on our own. It wasn’t easy, but after we found it, we felt pretty accomplished. Dr. Seuss was an interesting man, and I like how you he can make a children’s book but with so much meaning behind his words. It’s sneaky, but impressive.

 

football sunday anybody?

Sundays. Sitting in my bed, under my favorite teal blanket, all snuggled and warm. This is my kind of Sunday. Family weekend just ended, and it reminded me how much I appreciate them.  Even though their gone, today will be fun filled with bucket loads of homework and Sunday football! Football makes all things better. So does food. Food, football, and my brand new 49er hoodie all add up to the perfect Sunday.

Back to the homework part…So on the 27^th, my class was given a piece of writing called “Writing a Life” by Katherine Bomer. It talked about how revision is healthy when it comes to writing. In my WID, I talked about how stubborn when dealing with revisions. I hate changing my original ideas. I feel like I came up with the stuff I did for a reason, and why should I get rid of my originality. See, I told you I’m stubborn.

Now that I read the piece by Bomer again it makes me wonder a little more about revision. Yea, I like to keep my original ideas but my original ideas can sometimes be bland. Revision doesn’t necessarily mean I have to change my idea entirely but I can continue on with it – run with it. I can create new things from my original idea, go in detail, or just get more creative. Rereading this piece my Bomer has kind of allowed me to be more open with revision…Now I don’t mean that it’ll be easy, but I definitely want to try it more often. I want to start getting feedback from other people with my writings. I think advice and revision can only make my writing better. Couldn’t hurt.

 

 

49ers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$12.95 Wi-Fi

I am sitting in a Westin hotel room in downtown Charlotte, trying to relax, when I get the urge to do my homework. Why not? It’s 10 pm and I want to sleep in tomorrow so I’m just going to do it now. I’m here alone while my mom and aunt are at a Bachelorette party and I’m stuck here with the flu. Figures.  The irritating thing is Wi-Fi is $12.95 to use…Seriously? People charge to use Wi-Fi?? So instead of writing this directly on my blog, I’m writing this on a Word Doc and then tomorrow I will copy & paste this on my blog. I kind of like writing it on a Word Doc first, it’s easier. Moving on…

This WID is one of my favorite ones for sure. I chose one from class, this past Thursday I believe. It is from this story called Girl by Jamaica Kincaid. This author writes her stories in a very different way. I’m not sure how she came up with the idea to write this way but it gets points across in a differently. I really liked how she wrote her story. It’s hard to explain through a blog, you just have to read it for yourself. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwM_mqgmQbT3S2YzUTlfYkluOXM/edit

For the WID, we had to pick an idea that dealt with our literacy narrative, and write it kind of like Jamaica Kincaid did in her story. Now at first I thought it would be kind of difficult just because I’ve never written anything the way she did. All of the essays I have done have been like… point-blank I guess. I’ve never really tried anything different. To me, the way I write essays is the way I’m most comfortable with. I can easily get a point across and explain it in terms that I feel are understandable. But this made me think. All my essays have been about something else, and never narratives. In elementary school I wrote narratives but never in high school. You aren’t really given opportunities to speak from your mind, or tell a story. Usually we are given a couple topics to choose from. Rarely are we able to tell our own story about our own idea. So the way Kincaid wrote her story gave me a new idea. I like how she wrote her story, and I want to try it myself one day.

In class, we were able to write our own story like Kincaid as I said earlier. Here’s mine!

 

 

I’m proud of mine because Lacy said it was really good and she liked it. (:

 

Because I Can

I’ve started this blog reflection with three different sentences and erased them, and I’m not sure why. I am so distracted right now. Someone really important to me was here for the weekend and I just had to say goodbye to him. It was extremely difficult and I just want him to come back. I should probably stay on task now that I’m starting my Sunday homework fest. I am also feeling a little sick to my stomach which is definitely not helping me what to do homework. But here goes…

I am going to reflect on the WID from last Thursday. Lacy showed us this website called www.wdydwyd.com .WDYDWYD stands for “Why Do You Do What You Do?” It’s this site where I think people can post different things on that answer the question. People post pictures, videos, stories, and just a ton of other things that could help answer the question in a way that other people can observe and understand.

While Lacy was scrolling through the website, I decided that it might be easier to just go to the website myself, so I did. I found a few that I thought were particularly interesting. There was a post that was a picture of woman holding a sign that said “because I can,” and to me, I really love that. It reminds me of the freedoms we have as Americans. We have the freedom to express our feelings, just like we do in these blog reflections. Freedom of speech allows us to say whatever we want and feel which I appreciate the most out of all our freedoms. This sign makes me think of personalities, and how personalities are a way we express ourselves. Who would we be without our personalities?

Time After Time

Another day, another reflection.

 

It is that time again. To choose another Writing Into the Day thing. This time was much more difficult to decide which writing than the first time. Today is Friday and the first day of my weekend so I'm trying to focus since it's 2 in the afternoon and I'm still in my pajamas in bed. I’m a tad distracted so hopefully my blog will make some sense.

 
Today I chose the Writing Timelines we had to create for homework the other night. When I was doing it, I didn’t really think about how it was meant to help us. Maybe it isn’t supposed to help us – I don’t know. The Writing Timeline did a little extra for me though. It helped me understand a little bit more about why I am the writer that I am today.

 
Before I go in depth on what it did for me, I’ll explain what the Writing Timeline was. The task was to choose at least five memories (or more) that we believed shaped us as writers. Before creating the Timeline, Lacy, my teacher, gave us a list of questions to answer  what we remember about our early writing. I unfortunately do not remember the questions specifically, but they were pretty simple so it’s no big deal.

           
So for me, the Writing Timeline made me remember back to elementary school when we first had the super easy prompts. I remember using stupid transition words like “first, second, last.” It is kind of funny how many other words there are to use other than “first, second, last.” My next event on my Timeline was when I was in 8^th grade and I joined my school yearbook for the first time. It was a super easy class but it was the first step in my yearbook career. I had to take pictures of kids I’d never met, write stories about sports I knew nothing about, and overall it just allowed me to open up and become less awkward…which I’m thankful for. I loved yearbook. I skipped a couple years until my next event which was my giant research paper for my junior year. I wrote it on the correlation between aggression and violent video games. The paper gave me the ability to write an extremely personal opinion on something very modern. I got a really good grade on that paper and it assured me of my writing abilities. I shouldn’t second guess myself. My fourth event on my Timeline was when I became Editor-In-Chief of my high school yearbook in 12^th grade. Best moment of my life. It was an amazing experience. I learned so much about journalism from the five years I was in yearbook. Being Editor-In-Chief is the most gratifying event on that Timeline. My final event on my Timeline is my first college paper. I turned it in last week, and I don’t know my grade yet but it’s making so nervous. Turning that paper in made me question all of the skills and everything I’ve ever learned about writing.

 Have I really been a good writer all this time? Who am I trying to kid?

 Overall, the Writing Timeline helped me comprehend why I write the way do.

Oh My Mali

So basically “Writing Into the Day” is something my English teacher wants us to do. We are shown some kind of multimedia something, a poem, or something like that. Then we write what comes to mind afterwards. It can be completely random or actually related. I don’t think it matters but I think she wants us to just practice expressing our thoughts? And put them into writing, which then helps us become better writers? I am not exactly sure but I hope to understand it better by the end of the semester. I think it is really cool creative way of starting a class. It’s not boring, and we get to say what we want. Kind of like what this blog is for.

More specifically, this blog is meant for me to explain more in depth about a particular WID (Writing Into the Day). The one I end up choosing felt like I could easily express my opinion, and the other ones really did not interest me at all, honestly.

Personally, I decided to choose a "Writing Into the Day" thing that is fresh from my mind. One that I knew I could really elaborate on because I know that I just watched it and wrote a response to it in this class period. We watched a video from Taylor Mali that (at least I think) was supposed to show how people in America are losing their declarative voice. When it comes to speaking about something we have a strong opinion about, we tend to use words that really have no meaning (like the word 'really' for example). Words like 'just, like, really, ya, kind of" used in a sentence where we are trying to state an opinion can kind of dumb down what we are really trying to say. These words make it more difficult to describe our feelings.

In my writing, I talked about how I agree with what Mali is saying in his poem. As a young adult, I know exactly what he means because I use words like those in almost every sentence.  It is kind of sad actually. So many scholars took their time writing dictionaries, and perfecting the English language. And we use slang and other imperfections that take away from the language. It’s embarrassing.

I tried to find the link to the video, but i couldn't. So here is a picture of his face just for fun.