Fieldwork Mini Assignment 10/30

For our fieldwork mini assignment, we decided to expand where we were looking to create our map, and took a closer look around campus, mainly around the area of Friday, Denny, the Bell Tower, and Atkins Library. This is the map I drew to display each of the writings that we found in this area:

One of the themes that was emerging in our group was public expression. I was thinking that could mean anything from writing on desks by students, to graffiti on walls, to any message seen around campus. I was walking past the Bell Tower while I was thinking of all the people who come there during the day to voice their opinions. I saw the plaque with the first amendment written on it, and couldn't think of a better example of public expression.

 I found this message painted on the ground in front of the Bell Tower in the same area as the first amendment plaque. It shows that not all graffiti has to be negative.

I saw these shirts on the sidewalk leading up to the library. They all had messages about stopping abuse on them, and it seemed like there were 100 of them.

Public expression, when it comes to messages written in random places, seems to me like it can be the most honest form of writing in a way. People post their messages for everyone to see, knowing that it's unlikely for people to find who wrote the message.

10/24- Mapping Literacy Underlives

On Tuesday we were assigned to go to a place on campus were acts of literacy occurred. We were supposed to take notes about the place we chose with details of what we noticed, and eventually draw a map of the setting we picked. I chose to go observe the Atkins Library. Here's the map that I came up with:

I stayed on the first floor of the library while I was inside. When I walked in, some of the first things that stood out to me was the large map of the entire building right inside the front door, and all of the artwork on the walls. Near the front doors were tables that fit about four people. I saw some groups of students studying and working on assignments together. I also saw some people at the tables doing their own work by themselves, most of them focused and wearing headphones. As I walked farther towards the back of the first floor, I got to the quiet area. There was a lot of traffic coming in and out of the library at the time, and I noticed that some noise could be heard in the quiet area. I saw several frustrated looks at this, and even heard some complaints about it. Of course people with headphones in weren't bothered by this, which made me think of how listening to music can help some people, including myself, focus easier and get work done more efficiently.

Reflexive Blog 10/14- Grammar

For our writing into the day last Thursday, we were told to rant about grammar. Here's what I came up with in my daybook at first:

Right away I mentioned how other people's grammar mistakes seem to bother me for no reason sometimes. I like to think that I've always been able to use correct grammar for the most part. Part of me feels like correct grammar isn't a big deal because most people won't be bothered by a grammar mistake, at least in a real life conversation.

But another part of me feels like it's important to use correct grammar to be taken seriously. Of course using correct grammar is necessary in some situations like writing a paper or really any kind of writing that's supposed to be professional, but I try to use correct grammar to make sense of what I'm trying to say. Using correct grammar can ensure that the reader of your work can get a better understanding of what you're trying to say, and not be confused by mistakes.

Midterm Assignment- 10/3

Our writing group met in the Atkins Library on Tuesday morning. Right away we began the search for a mentor text that would support our writing. On the elevator, we decided to look on the 6th floor in the General Collection section and see what we could find.

 

After browsing the 6th floor for a while, we did an online search for books about narratives and writing narratives. After getting our search results, we headed to the section that had the books we were looking for.

  

We began to look through some of these books, but couldn't find anything to try to imitate the style of or easily borrow elements from.

I eventually came across a book titled Narrative Comprehension, which was more helpful than others because it listed tools to use while writing narratives, then showed them being used in examples. We ended up not using this book to write beside. 

We finally decided to use a book titled There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby, which was actually a book of fairy tales. 

We ended up using a short story called Incident at Sokolniki to write beside. It was a strange scary story about a woman who is haunted in a dream by her husband who had died in a plane crash and has to go bury him. We thought this story would be useful for us to try to imitate the style of because of its unique way of recalling events in an attention-grabbing way. The author of the story displayed some of the advice we've been listening to about how to keep the reader interested and eager to find out what happens next. I feel like I'll be able to borrow elements and ideas from this text while revising my literacy narrative.