Welcome to WRIT 1122! I’m looking forward to getting to know each of you as students and writers in the next ten weeks. To start us off, I’d like you to use your first post to our course blog to introduce yourself to the rest of our class.
In your post, tell us a little more about who you are. What’s unique or interesting about where you’re from, your family, the high school you attended, your first quarter at DU, or your dreams for your future? (Or anything else about you that you think might interest the rest of us.)
Reflect a bit, too, about what kind of writer you are. What do you like to write? What are your strengths as a writer? What do you think makes writing “good”? How would you define the word rhetoric? (Have you ever studied rhetoric? If so, what did you learn about it?) Last, please conclude your introduction by telling us what you hope to learn about writing from this course and what you're looking for as a writer or as a student.
Please post your response as a comment to this post. I look forward to reading more about all of you.
Questionable Quality
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Found on the premises of Johnson-McFarlane and Centennial Halls are what
are supposed to be “convenience” stores. These convenience stores make
their busin...
16 years ago
Amy Vance is a name that signifies a Scandinavian heritage and come from the Latin word “amata” which mean to love. Beyond my name I am defined by a strong and successful background, a passionate and determined self, and the expectations of high standards and achievement. Some have labeled me to be a perfectionist due to my obsession to keep things in order and my willingness to clean and organize all aspects of my life. I avoid drama in my life but do my best to make lots of friends and be involved in many peoples’ lives. If I had to describe myself and my aspiration in three words they would probably be: understanding, determined, and easy-going.
ReplyDeleteMy writing reflects these characteristics about me, as it is organized, clear, concise, and usually intended to effectively convey my purpose and understanding of life. Depth and simplicity define my writing beyond all else and aid in the development and understanding of my ideas. Within writing, my struggles arise from a tendency to get ahead of myself and create awkward and/or unusual sentences that distract the reader and, occasionally, blur my overall point. Through this DU writing course, I intend to improve on that weakness as well as continue to expand my writing skills. Writing is such a crucial element to success in American society and I would love nothing more than to be able to effectively and uniquely put my thoughts and ideas into words for others to absorb. This class will hopefully teach me more than just how to efficiently write a paper but also develop my ability to communicate into life skills useful in all areas of the future.
My name is Ryan Schultz and I am a writer, not a good writer but a writer none the less. I was born in Denver, not to far from DU actually and have moved farther and farther away to come right back to where my life started. Throughout high school and in my first quarter at DU, I realized I am very meticulous and thorough. It usually takes me a considerable amount of time to write anything of substance, though does that by no means imply I am a good writer. I'm the kind of person who would rather take five minutes to write a single sentence once instead of quickly sketching a rough draft. In my weakness is also my strength. I strive, though often fail miserably, to create varied and interesting sentences peppered with clever words and ingenious turns of phrase. I guess I simply aspire to be the good writer I imagine- clear, intelligent, entertaining, and compelling. I believe rhetoric, or effective rational argument, is a major part of good writing as it should compel the audience, inspiring thought or moving them to form an opinion. In this writing course, I hope to come closer to that ideal good writer. I hope to learn to effectively use rhetoric to strengthen my arguments and support my theses.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Mariah Grindle, and yes I was named after the R&B singer Mariah Carey.But in a different aspect, my name, by Native definition means "the wind".I was born June 9, 1991 and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado, home to the beautiful Pikes Peak Mountains. I am an Army brat and I was born at Evans Hospital on Fort Carson. I am the youngest of 3. I have an older sister,27, who graduated from DU and is now working for the City of Denver. My brother, 21, is a nuclear engineer for the Navy. My mother is self employed, entrepreneur. She owns a construction company, a daycare, and also does real-estate. My dad aslo works in the construction field. I attended Sierre High School. Home of the Stallions. My frist quarter at DU was a life changing experience, literally. I learned alot about myself. I figured out the different limits that I can be pushed to, as well as the different things that I am capable of. When I first chose DU I wanted to become to pursue law, but since the first meeting of my First Year Seminar class, my mind has changed. I would like to become involved with women studies, and closely study Domestic Violence. But this may also change in the future.
ReplyDeleteI believe that I am a very detailed and persuasive writer. Writing is something that i truly enjoy. If I have a strong opinion about the subject, I do not have any problem writing about it. "Good" writing has content, and character. Being able to express my feelings and my opinions through words is amazing. This is my first time studying rhetoric. I believe with course I will be able to express myself differently.I will learn how to argue my point more so that it will help me in the future.
My name is Tim Tynan and I am not a very good writer. I hail from Colorado Springs, CO which is often known for its glorious Pikes Peak. It is a great place to be from in spite of certain generalizations about it. My high school was known for its diversity and also as one of the largest in the city. My first quarter at DU was challenging and a difficult transition to make. I hope to come to enjoy my time at DU and get a good education along the way. I'm not at all sure what type of writer one could call me but I am not very good at it. I have only ever written formal essays based off of fairly traditional novels but i hope to expand my writing abilities as well as continue to write traditional essays. I do not particularly enjoy writing but I definitely enjoy reading good writing. Although I often times prefer sci-fi novels over classics, I always enjoy a good read. I believe that no matter what type of writing is being done, above all, it must be engaging to the audience. Certain writing styles do not appeal to me and, while reading, I find myself thinking about anything but what I'm reading. I have never studied rhetoric but I hope to not only learn about it but to use it to make my poor writing stronger. I hope that this class will improve my writing skills and give me a broader range of techniques to employ in my writing. I also hope to gain an appreciation for different writing styles and more specifically rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emma Garrison. Although not born and raised like most of the local residents, I consider myself to be from Park City, Utah. Being a "Parkite" is a rather bold part of me. The ski town, bum life is simply unbeatable, beyond intriguing and culturally entertaining. My first quarter at DU was indescribable. No thesaurus could help communicate the experiences of self-understanding I have grasped since being in Denver. Learning about myself, what I respect in others, who is most important in my life, etc. are among many explorations I’ve come across.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my life, I’ve resided in five different states, moving and adjusting has naturally become my lifestyle. I have ventured to six of the seven continents, excluding Asia. I have travelled to numerous countries, far beyond my count. I love travelling, whether it be sailing in the Grenadines with my family, or bumming around Europe for five weeks with nine of my closest friends.
Aside from travelling, dance is an important component to my life, a passion if you will. I’ve been dancing for over ten years, acting as the main constant throughout all the moving and travels. Not only has it served as a constant in my short eighteen years of life, but as an expressive tool. Without dance I would not be able to convey my feelings unto others.
Easily leading to the explanation of not obtaining the verbal or written talents of a speaker or writer. I lack the ability to express my feelings and ideas in various manners. Further justifying my poor writing skills. The most effective writing I personally compose is persuasive. By trying to persuade your audience I find a purpose and meaning in the writing, further creating passion and explanation to the piece. Analysis is my weakness. A good writer explains clearly, yet passionately about who and what they write. I have not studied rhetoric yet, but hope to use it to increase and better my writing abilities.
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ReplyDeleteI am Meredith de Souza. I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. It is a developing city, but in all honesty I do not like Omaha very much. I come from two different ethnic backgrounds. My father was born in India, where he lived until he moved to the United States to become a doctor. My mother is 100% Czech but was born in a very small town in Nebraska. I have three siblings, and we are all close with each other. Since my siblings and I have been young, travel has been a huge part of our lives. Traveling to different states and different countries helps me be more accepting of lifestyles out of the norm. I have fallen in love with Denver University because of the nature and people. I am still lost on my dreams and future aspirations. When it comes to writing, I can be pretty good when I try hard. I prefer to write on opinionated topics, I have found them to contain more substance to write about. "Good" writing entails how one can express ideas and expand the mind of the reader. I haven't studied rhetoric in school before, but I am looking forward to learning about it.
ReplyDeleteBefore I was born, my mother had my name all picked out; I was supposed to be Mya Kristine Dabney. Unfortunately for my mother, her and my father went to see the movie “Total Recall”—a 90s movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger—one month before I was born, where my dad then turned to my mom and told her that I was going to be named after the beautiful strong-willed woman in the movie: Melina. I grew up in a biracial home and a multiracial family. Diversity in my family allows me to identify with different people and cultures. My first quarter as a college student at the University of Denver was exhausting and exhilarating—exhausting because of a new type of work load, exhilarating because of new found freedom. DU was my first choice in colleges. I remember being so nervous upon receiving the response letter from the college of my dreams. One of the reasons why I wanted to attend DU was to learn and grow in my studies and especially my writing. Naturally, I enjoy writing about things that I am most passionate about. I like to explore different writing styles and rhetoric in hopes of improving my own writing skills. My downfall in writing is making my prose too simple and short without juicy details that would make the piece more interesting and a lack of organization. I consider myself as more of a poetic writer with lots of fluffy wording and rhetorical devices like metaphors, anaphora, and syntax. I think “good” writing is any type of writing that provokes emotion and gives meaning to the human condition. I would define rhetoric as a means to offer comment or persuade a specific audience on a specific subject. In the past, I studied devices used in rhetoric but had difficulty identifying what an author wanted to convey with a prose on a deeper intellectual—and often existential—level. With this course, I hope to gain practical organizational skills and learn how to thoroughly analyze literature and prose.
ReplyDeleteHere's Craig's introduction:
ReplyDeleteHi, my name is Craig and I grew up in a small town on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I went to a small boarding school for my high school years and that allowed me to see other opportunities and get away from where I grew up. I consider myself to be very active and enjoy all sports and activities, but specifically skiing, golfing, hockey, and fishing. The first quarter here at DU made me realize that I am ready to move on from where I grew up and take advantage of any experience that may cross my path. However, when trying to figure out what I want to do for my life, I still am just completely unsure. All I know is that I will enjoy what I do because otherwise it won't be worth it to pursue. As for my writing, I had not found an interest in it until starting school here in Denver. There is still need for much improvement, but on the other hand I have started to enjoy writing. I like writing about anything that I have a passion or an interest in because it just makes it that much more enjoyable and interesting to write about. It makes the research and the reading of the subject easier as well. As for good writing, I feel that a well written piece grabs the reader from the start and is very unpredictable throughout, but well put together. It can't be too dry, or repetitive, or grammatical; it has to be surprising and spread out throughout a well mapped plot. Rhetoric means nothing to me and I have no idea what it means because i have never studied it before. From this course I would like to understand the meaning of Rhetoric writing, and also to shape my writing skills and become a better writer.
Here's Flora's introduction:
ReplyDeleteHi, everyone, I'm Yao Fu, from China, just call me Flora. My city locates in the northeastern part of china, very close to Japan so that one interesting happened to me is that I am asked to learn Japanese for the first two years of middle school. As to my family, I live with my parents as well as grandparents. My mother is a radiologist while my father is a surgeon; however, I never want to become a doctor, which is kind of making them very sad. I do feel sorry for that. Instead, I would say hospitality is my area. I am very grateful to be treated welcome so that I told myself that I want to be a person who can make others feel happy and satisfied. That’s why I come to DU for the HRTM program. If you ask me why I decided to come to United States, it must boil down to the academic exchanged experience in Australia during my high school time. Even though it was just month period long, I did feel something different in terms of the education compared to the way we Chinese do. After then, I made up my mind to study abroad for the college. Now I m here and I make it. Many difficulties lie behind, but greater ones lie ahead.
My ideal plan for future would be to find a job in United States after graduate, and work for several years here, waiting for some opportunity that company can send me back to China. In that case, it is said I can get two salaries both from the original American company as well as the Chinese company where I work. That’s really a good deal, isn’t it?
I would say my favorite writing style is prose as I am doing it in Chinese, but for English, I still love to read some while it is kind of difficult for me to organize the structures anyway. When I am writing in English, I prefer to write some with clear structures so that I can easily follow the rules to improve it. I believe that good writing is able to make reader feel the way authors feel, namely; I can lose myself in a good writing.
I think rhetoric writing refers to use some skills to make your opinions more vivid so that it can impress readers a lot. Rhetoric should be an art of language with aesthetic delight.
By and large, I am very excited about this class but still a little bit nervous. I hope I can make my writing more frequently nature as the native Americans do. For an upper level, I wish that I could figure out some personal writing style and get ready for the whole college writing life.
Hello, My name is Andrew Cantella. I was born in Boston, Massachusetts and currently reside in the city of Cambridge. By 8th grade, I grew tired of MA, (hence why I am in school in Colorado) and opted to apply to boarding school in New Hampshire. I feel this gave me a unique high school experience as I was given the option to study abroad multiple times throughout high school. In my junior year, a group of classmates and I ventured around Europe, learning the foreign languages and studying the brilliant art and architecture of the renaissance age. During my senior year, I was given the opportunity to sail from the icy waters of Maine, down to the cultural-rich islands of the caribbean. Along the way, I learned the mathematics needed to navigate, as well as maritime literature, history, and biology. I feel these experiences changed my writing style and allowed me to master the art of keeping a journal and writing on-the-go. I think I do have to have strong creative writing/journalism, yet I struggle putting together analytical pieces. I think good writing is created when one can either sympathize (or empathize) with the writer/protagonist, and where one can take something from the writing and is left with questions to answer for themselves. I hope to learn how to create stronger persuasion pieces of writing, and how to develop a simple thesis into a well written analytical paper.
ReplyDeleteHere's James' introduction:
ReplyDeleteWell, here is a little about me. I come from a culture that has struggled to survive with my lifestyle. My Dad's family is from heart of Mexico, while my Mom's side isn't known for sure. We primarily spend time with my Father's side of the family , who all practice Catholicism with my Mom, my siblings, and I as the exception. Growing up with a language barrier between me and most of my family has proven to limit how close we can be as family; so once again I am the exception in the Mexican culture.
I attended Greeley West High School in Greeley, CO, which is different as far as the dynamics of the student body and it has taken some time to getting used to it. My dreams are to live with no regret, persevere, and keep God in my heart.
I am Jordan Zinsli, I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. I am currently pursuing an Electrical Engineering and French Major with a Math Minor. Coming from high school the work load is lighter here granted I still have to complete two-hundred and forty-six credit hours until I am able to graduate. I am fluent in French as it was a crucial part of my life growing up, I have lived in France several times for more than three month periods and two years ago I made my ninth trip to the country. In addition to my French studies I have worked twice for Intel Corp. out in Hillsboro, Oregon and I am currently employed as an IT Technician for the Engineering Department. My three passions in life would have to be Engineering, French, and Politics, unfortunately my hectic schedule allows me time to only pursue the first two however I dedicate most of my free time to politics.
ReplyDeleteMost of my writing ends up incorporating my passions. I can not remember the last time I wrote a paper without using numerous references to politics and historical facts. My greatest strength when writing is an incredible amount of knowledge about the past and using it to strengthen my writing. Writing is only as good as the person writing it wishes it to be, so I have always found the best writing to be when the author writes about their greatest passion. Rhetoric would be the use of creative language that sways others to accept or acknowledge the validity of your opinion. I hope to learn a great deal more about modern day use of rhetoric and how it shapes everyone's life.
Hey everyone, my name is Gabe Flanagan. I come from Montpelier, Vermont. Montpelier is proudly the smallest state capitol with a population no larger than 8000. Also, it is the only state capitol that has successfully resisted a Mc Donald’s. I have two brothers and both of my parents are Vermont natives. I attended Montpelier High School and had a graduating class of a whole 75 kids. Many people consider this small, but considering a number of schools in VT graduate between 10-20 kids, we do not look so small in comparison.
ReplyDeleteMy first quarter at DU went very well, met a lot of new people and my grades did not turn out so bad either. I do not consider myself to be a good writer. I do not enjoy writing at all, although it has begun to grow on me in the last couple of years. I tend to write better when I am in an essay format, particularly research projects, stories and other types of writing are not exactly my cup of tea. In my eyes what makes writing “good,” is someone who captures their audience and or relates with texts in ways which I would have not seen myself or are a little less obvious. I have never studied the word rhetoric and have really never used the word, just heard it used as a name that classifies a specific group of people. I am interested to see what this word really means. Although this was a mandatory course and I did not look forward to signing up for it, I am interested in seeing how or if I will progress as a writer throughout this course.
My name is Victor Valle and I am of Italian, Spanish, and German backgrounds. I live in South Florida where we have summer year round so it was nice to come to Denver and see the seasons and live in a climate totally opposite of what i am used to. I have one younger brother who's name is alex and he is also looking to come to DU. I love cars and i love to race them. I also have a passion for snowboarding and playing soccer. My first quarter at DU was very well and i made lots of new friends and i got to experience what college life is about. I am interested to see what this course has and how it will contribute towards what i want to do later in life.
ReplyDelete-Victor Valle