This assignment was to create a counterfactual memoir to the one that I wrote last week in blog 5. A counterfactual shows how things could have turned out differently if something in the story was changed. This post is a hybrid of scene and reflection on an alternate experience.
For this assignment I read these articles: Rewinding & Rewriting: The Alternate Universes in Our Heads (NPR Hidden Brain Episode) Two Views of the River (Mark Twain) and watched these movie clips: Kramer vs. Kramer: Action Scene (Shows/Deepens the Conflict) Kramer vs. Kramer: End-Resolution Scene The seat beneath me was shaking uncontrollably. I woke up from my semi-sleep and looked over to my left. My pop-pop was clenching his jaw and gasping for air, still with his hands on the wheel. The car had begun to slow down. Cars were flying by us on the right. “Steer,” he said with the little voice he could exert. He had warned me that this day would come before. I didn’t like long car rides with my pop-pop because he wouldn't let anyone sleep in his car. “If I have a heart attack again, I don’t want you going with me.” was always his explanation but I never believed that it would happen again. He had a heart attack ten years earlier from a combination of smoking and being overweight. Not only that, but he was also diagnosed with cancer a few months earlier, so there was definitely a possibility of something going wrong. I leaned over the center console of the car and grabbed the wheel with both hands. He pointed his finger to the side of the road and shook his hand with a finger pointed. I pulled the wheel towards myself and the car jolted towards the shoulder of the road. My side lifted up in the air off of the two wheels and fell back down after a period of time that seemed like forever. The car then hit a very small hill of grass that contained big trees on the peak. The car went up in flames. I couldn’t see 6 inches in front of my fave because of the smoke and airbags that went off. “Unlock the door!” I yelled. No response. “Open the door!” Still no response. I put my fist to my chin, and threw the hardest elbow that I could to break the passenger side window. There was no way I was going to drag Pop-Pop out the window with me. He was more than double my weight. I dove head first out the window with my arms over my face to protect against broken glass. I landed in a pile of small jagged glass pieces. The next thing I remember was waking up in an uncomfortable bed surrounded by my family, hooked up to four different machines to keep me stable. I looked around and didn’t see Pop-Pop. I looked to my dad, “Where is Pop-Pop?” “In a better place now.”
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In this post, I started crafting my narrative memoir. This is just the beginning of the memoir which will be completed as a full story for a later assignment. For this assignment I read the following texts:
To You, I Belong (Becky Thompson) What is Creative Nonfiction? (Lee Gutkind) What is Memoir? The Fundamental Differences between Memoir and Autobiography Making Scenes in Memoir (Lee Martin) My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou) Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway) The Summer of 2018. Last day of my family vacation, all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. I’m not a big fan of family vacation. It was fun when we were younger but going to the shore just gets old after 16 years straight. I feel like an adult, where family vacation isn’t really a vacation, it’s more of a chore that I am dragged on for a week and forced to spend time with my family (who I am similar to in almost no way). I couldn’t wait to go home and just go back to everyday summer life. That day I got a text, “Yo Shawn, you want to go fishing tomorrow?” It was my grandfather who I refer to as pop-pop. He was my best friend in the world. We shared a love for sports and he was at every one of my games growing up no matter what sport I was playing. My first time fishing on a boat was with him. Since then, I always had fun going fishing with him. He was back in our hometown. I was exhausted from vacation and just wanted to go home and sleep all night and day. I thought to myself, I had to drive two hours home just to sleep overnight, then wake up at 6AM and take another two hour car ride to go fishing, then two hours home on the same day. Why would anyone want to do that? I enjoyed fishing, but not that much. But I thought that it might be the last time we are able to go fishing together. My Pop-Pop was diagnosed with throat cancer a month before and started chemotherapy next week. He had a heart problem too which had to be dealt with which is why it took so long for him to start his treatment. How could I possibly say no? It’s not that I wanted to say no, it’s just that my body was so physically drained and I was so exhausted mentally, that I did not have the energy to do anything let alone go sit out in the sun all day. But I agreed because I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could before he started his cancer treatment. It was an absolutely draining trip. I tried to act as normal as possible but life was completely sucked out of me. The worst part was that he would not let anyone sleep in the car with him. He was a former smoker and had a history of heart attacks. “If I have a heart attack behind the wheel, I don’t want you going with me.” He would say. “Okay, I hear you.” Honestly I don’t think there would be much that I would have been able to do if that did happen and I was alert and on adderall, so good thing we never got to that scenario. For this blog I read these three texts:
Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product (Don Murray) Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision (Mary Karr) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life | pp. 28 -34 | Short Assignments & Shitty First Drafts (Anne Lamott) The post is about me meeting some authors I learned about in English Composition I class who give me advice on my english assignment and writing as a process. I woke up. 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday after my post-class nap and started to get ready to go to work. I put on my uniform and headed to my overnight mall security job. I didn’t really do much since my shift started at 8:30 and the mall closed at 9. I only had to do real work for a solid 30 minutes then I got to sit and watch security cameras until the shift was over at 2:30 A.M. I had a few hours so I decided I was going to go sit down at the coffee shop and get some work done. I walked in and saw some people that I recognized. They didn’t know me but I recognized them from my English professor’s lecture from earlier in the day. It was Don Murray, Mary Karr and Anne Lamott. I went over and introduced myself and asked them for some advice since I had been stressing out about my narrative paper that I had to complete. They told me to sit down and they would be happy to help. “I have a narrative paper due in two days and I want to get it done overnight so I don’t have to worry about it anymore. Can you help me with where to get started?” Don replied to me, “Not overnight, for writing is a demanding, intellectual process; but sooner than you think, for the process can be put to work to produce a product which may be worth your reading.” “Okay, but I really want to get this assignment done. I want to have the best paper written as soon as possible.” I said to him. “When we teach composition, we are not teaching a product, we are teaching a process” “Instead of teaching finished writing, we should teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness.” Anne added, “This is not a bad line to have taped to the wall of your office.” “I think I understand.” I responded. “I usually spend hours writing my papers and always end up with mediocre work, and my friends tell me that they are having the same trouble.” “Good work only comes through revision” Mary said. “Revision is the secret to their troubles—and yours” That was something I had never thought about. I would always write my papers and then just turn them in without even reading over them to make sure they made sense. “Why would I want to write in the first place if all I’m going to do is go back and change it later? I feel like I would just be losing time.” “Every writer I know who’s worth a damn spends way more time ‘losing’ than ‘winning’” “And when I write I can never see the big picture. I think that’s why I put off writing for so long. I know where to start, I just don’t know where to go with it.” “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” said Anne. “Thank you guys for all your advice.” I told them. “I really have to get to work” They wished me good luck on writing my paper. As I was leaving Anne said one thing that stuck with me. “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird” For this assignment, I read A Fable for the Living by Kevin Brockmeier. It is a story about people who write letters to old relatives who have passed away and they communicate to them that way. I also read 5 Reasons to Write a Letter to Yourself (and How to Do It) and A Motivational Letter to Myself (Jenna Terek) for this assignment if you would like to check them out
Dear McLovin, You wanna know what I think of writing? I hate it. I hate it more than the Jews hated Hitler, more than the Mongolians hated the Chinese, and more than OJ hated his wife. I am only writing to you because it is a requirement and the only way I am going to possibly get through this class. I would apologize to you for the past but I am not going to. I still do not like you and I hope I can get through this class. I am not here to be the stand out student who has the best writing or rewrite War and Peace. Marshawn Lynch once said in a press conference “Do you know why I’m here? I am only here so I do not get fined.” This is honestly the mentality I have going in this class. But I will not be getting fined if I don’t pass the class. The fine is equivalent to me having to take the class again next year at Alabama, which I guess would kind of be a fine because I would have to pay again to take the class. I just want to be able to focus on the business world and ways of beating the system when I get to college, which is why I am getting all of my core classes done now. Anyway McLovin, I hope that during the semester we can work together to accomplish some good writing so I do not have to retake the class next year. My past experiences with writing are mostly negative. I write when I am forced to, and dread doing it. The thing is, it isn’t that I am a terrible writer. It is just that I think there are many more things that I would rather be doing with my time, and I don’t feel like writing is going to take me anywhere in life. When I sit down to write something, it feels like such a chore. I have to sit down with nothing around me and just think and think, and think some more until I figure out what I want to say and how to say it, and it takes so long. Then I will usually write about a paragraph before getting distracted, and that’s if I get lucky. When I get distracted I don’t want to get back into writing mode because I sincerely just do not like it. After hours and hours of writing, when I finally get done, it feels like I just got hit by an 18 wheeler and bounced down the highway 400 feet. In order to interact withMclovin on a regular basis, I will attend class regularly, pay attention to what the teacher says and how to get the work done, and then go home and write my assignments every week. The main focus of this post is to explain what a multimodal website is and how it works. The reason for this multimodal website is to focus on my writing process throughout my English Composition I course at Delaware County Community College. I will be referring to the following links in the text:
How to Create a Weebly Website (Video Tutorial) All Writing is Multimodal (Cheryl Ball and Colin Charlton) It's All C.R.A.P: Four Principles of Design (Think Around Corners) Assessing Multimodal Student Work (Kent State University)
This multimodal website will focus on the holistic assessment of my writing. Holistic assessment is an overview of both the writing process and the product. The overlap of process and product is the portfolio which will be posted on this website. Multimodal writing is defined by Cheryl Ball and Colin Charlton as multiple ways of making meaning, or communicating. There are five modes through which ideas can be communicated: Linguistic, Aural, Visual, Gestural, and Spacial. Ball and Charlton argue that all writing is multimodal. It uses multiple modes to make meaning. I agree with this claim because I feel like every interaction whether it is with another human or a text, there are multiple modes in play at all times. Some people use linguistic and visual at the same time, like if a professor is giving a slideshow presentation, or if you are showing your friend a picture. Another multimodal interaction I see often is people who talk and use their hands to act out what they are talking about at the same time. This type of interaction uses both linguistic and gestural. Multimodal writing does not have to be digital, although it is easier to see it that way, posters, brochures, and books can be multimodal as well. In my opinion, the most important mode is visual because everyone can understand visuals. Babies can see things around them and react to them and illiterate people do the same. No teaching is necessary to understand visuals. The second most important mode is gestural. Gestures can be understood through language barriers and even species. There are gestures that you can make to a dog and they will understand what you mean. Third most important is linguistic. Being able to speak and communicate with words is the most efficient way of communication, but can only be understood by people who speak the same language that you do. Next is aural, it is communication through sound which does happen sometimes between humans but when I think of aural, I immediately think of the interaction between humans and animals. Spatial communication, i feel, is the least important of the five modes. It is a subset of visual because you can, for the most part, only tell space by being able to see. T The C.R.A.P acronym stands for the four principles of design. Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. Using these four design elements will help to make good designs that are pleasing to look at and make people want to pay attention to them. Repetition is a 5 on a 1-5 scale of importance in a design because it makes a design look cohesive. I would say that alignment, contrast and proximity are all a 4. They are definitely all very important but not on the same level of importance as repetition. The seven criteria that Borton and Huot suggest writers use when assessing multimodal writing are purpose, organization, tone, organization, transitions, synthesis and detail. These criteria are the same we would use to assess a traditional print essay because they are a good holistic assessment of composition. In this post I respond to The Proust Questionnaire.
__1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? My idea of perfect happiness is being able to do whatever I want without worrying about school or work. __2.__What is your greatest fear? Being kidnapped and tortured is my worst fear. __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I don't like how much I procrastinate and do most of my assignments in the few days before they are due. __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? I hate people that are obnoxiously loud. __5.__Which living person do you most admire? I admire Cole Bennett for the way he was able to build a brand the way he has at a young age. __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? My car is my most expensive thing I own, even though it’s 28 years old. I don’t own anything very extravagant. __7.__What is your current state of mind? I’m currently stressed because I have a paper due on Sunday that I haven’t thought about starting yet. __8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Being blindly obedient is the most overrated virtue, look where it got the Jim Jones followers. __9.__On what occasion do you lie? “I lie when the truth doesn’t sound believable” - Kevin Hart __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? I dislike how I am only 155 pounds for being 6’4”. __11.__Which living person do you most despise? I hate Joe Buck because he is a rock head. __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? I like people who are hard working and don’t complain. __13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman? The quality I like most is humor. __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? I say the words “like” and "bro" way to much. __15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life? My greatest love in life is good food. __16.__When and where were you happiest? I am happiest in the summer and when school is on break and I don’t have to worry about doing the pointless work most of my teachers assign. __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? If I could have any talent in the world it would be a photographic memory. I don't really know if that is considered a talent but I wish I had that. __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would give myself 30 pounds if it was possible. __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? My greatest achievement is being accepted to my dream school. __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? I would be some type of bird because being able to fly around would be cool. __21.__Where would you most like to live? I want to live in the Hollywood Hills after college, which most likely won’t happen but I am going to work as hard as I can to get there. __22.__What is your most treasured possession? My stock portfolio is my most treasured possession. __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? People who go to a job that they hate every day and live for Saturday. __24.__What is your favorite occupation? My favorite occupation is people who are entrepreneurs and self-employed. __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? Im 6’4 which is always the thing that people mention when they talk to me for the first time. __26.__What do you most value in your friends? People who like to test boundaries and limits without getting in trouble. __27.__Who are your favorite writers? I don’t read a lot of books but my favorite comedy writers are Howard Stern and Danny Mullen. __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? Alan from the Hangover. __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? Robert O'neill. __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? My real life heros are Jordan Belfort, Bruce Buffer, and Dan Bilzerian. __31.__What are your favorite names? I like my name which is Shawn. My parents were going to name me Ashley if I was a girl and I like that name. __32.__What is it that you most dislike? I hate attention seeking people. __33.__What is your greatest regret? Not trying harder in highschool. If I studied and did all my work, I probably would have been given more scholarship money to go to college. __34.__How would you like to die? I would like to die in my sleep when I am no longer able to live and have fun. __35.__What is your motto? Success doesn’t just find you. |
Shawn AtkinsI use this blog to complete my assignments for my English Composition I class. ArchivesCategories |