Famous Last Words of Week 8

I really enjoyed this week for two main reasons.

First, the review writing assignments were both insightful and relaxing. Instead of stressing to read all of my stories to complete each reading diary assignment, I could just reflect on my experience in the class thus far. I didn’t get to read much of my classmate’s posts, but I did gain some tips on my own writing and commenting opportunities.  The commenting post forced me to read comments I had not gotten the time to read, so I was able to get some helpful tips for my storybook.

In my other classes, I had my second Introduction to Marketing test and completed my mid-term paper for my Introduction to Human Relations class. So that was nice to get out of the way. We just have one more week until spring break!

My friends and I are going to Mexico in exactly a week! We planned the trip so long ago that I almost forgot I was going until recently. Thankfully the online classes give time for spring break, so all I had to figure out was taking off time from work. I am getting married in June, which is less than one hundred days away, so I am excited to hang out with my girlfriends for almost a full week!

(Mexico Beach - Photo by Danielle Petrie)

I spend most of my days listening to music in some form or fashion, whether that is in the car or while I am working or even working out. This week I feel like I haven’t gotten to listen to much music though. I want to change that next week by finding a new band through Spotify radio. This way I might even find some songs I can incorporate into my wedding!

I hope everyone reading this is having a splendid day!

Commenting Review Week

Many of the storybooks or assignments I chose to comment were written by friends I made before the class. There are about five people enrolled in the course that I have had previous classes with, am in the same sorority with or are great friends. That previously established rapport helps me to take their critiques less personally.

Kappa Kappa Gamma Candle Lighting with Annie Tucker (another student in the class)

Photo by Kara David

When people comment on my work, I love it when they encourage first or give me praise for something they enjoyed, and then broke down their critiques. Because I have enjoyed this format, I try to do the same for them.

When I leave a short comment, I usually focus on the big pictures, so more from a holistic perspective. When I leave the longer comments on people’s storybooks or portfolios, I like to start off with the holistic perspective then get down to the nitty-gritty.

For my storybook, I received some helpful comments that noted the positives and negatives. For example, I tend to create run-on sentences when I am creatively writing. So some of the critiques were to separate those thoughts out into two sentences.

Writing Review Post

Before I started journeying through my old storytelling posts, I knew where my most successful writing was located. My storybook writings have been my most creative, concise and purposeful stories. Even though there are only two, I see the cohesiveness already forming. The writing style I chose helps the stories seamlessly flow together. By having God narrate the whole storybook and randomly, but purposefully, input his opinions throughout the stories, the compilations become unified.

One writing goal I have for myself is pushing the limits on my traditional predisposition. I have already tried to put personality into my writings, but I think I get timid when trying something new because I fear sounding dumb.

(Boy Hanging off a Slide - Photo by ImaSwedeStock)

I chose to include this picture because it was the image I used for my first storytelling post, The Mean Bully and the Child. By reading that post and comparing it to my more recent storytelling posts, I see the improvement.  

By looking at other people’s writings, I have been inspired. There are a few students that have a knack for storytelling, so I seek to mimic their styles and use of their principle of meaningful vocabulary.

When I start to write a story, I have entered the hardest part. I hate the beginning when you are just staring at a blank sheet of digital paper. After I get an idea down though, it is so much more fun to write.

Reading Review Week

As I reminisce over my past reading diaries, some of the stories jump back out at me. I had completely forgotten about the Tales of a Parrot collection, and I am not sure if that is because I didn’t enjoy it as much or because I simply forgot. One reason might be because I had an instant connection with both collections in the Biblical Unit, and the African Unit were fresh on my mind. Tales of a Parrot was also more complex and written with a higher level of vocabulary, so it took more time to understand the bottom line.

I have already started using the Adam and Eve and Bible Women collections for my final storybook because I fell in love with the stories. This is an image from my first post that comes from the story of Eve in the Bible Women collection. It represents both mistakes and grace. 

(Garden of Eden - Artist: Lucas Cranach)

I usually connect my reading diary posts with my storytelling assignment because the stories I enjoy the most are the ones I want to recreate in my own words. As I look over my summaries for some of the stories, I tend to forget the stories with shorter descriptions. In the beginning, I wrote lengthy paragraphs about my favorite stories so that helped me to remember the plot, characters and purpose of the story.

It is so interesting because I do see overlap with this class and two of my other classes. One is my Languages Across Cultures class because we delve deep into the cultures that are lost when languages die. Many cultures are preserved because of folklore and songs. My other class that it overlaps with is my Introduction to Human Relations class where we talk heavily about discrimination. By reading mythological stories and folklore from different culture, it helps you appreciate other people’s roots.