Journal # 14 - Inner Writer

To what extent are people born writers? How much are they able to cultivate the writer within through education and experience?
What activities and experiences can you engage in, in order to develop your inner writer? What part of your past has best helped you become the writer you are now? How motivated are you to continue developing your writing ability over a lifetime?

I do not believe that people are born writers. Writing is something that is developed over time and with various forms of experience. A passion for writing can be developed at a young age. Many young children will enjoy telling stories, making them up and some children may want to write them down, so they can be told more than once. A passion for writing often comes from a passion for reading. Some people may read something, and think, hey, I can write something like that. To develop your inner writer, it is best to read as much as possible. A lot of the work I had done in Elementary school has inspired me to continue writing, as well as the teachers.

Young children have a lot to say, and usually want to tell everyone around them. They have huge imaginations, and use them, daily. Their use of imagination and creativity can make for some pretty interesting stories. Many people are able to keep their imagination alive by actively reading. Reading a variety of different types of texts helps to nuture your inner writer. It helps you to learn different styles of writing, different words to use, and provides you with different points of views. All of this information can be used as research to help develop your own personal writer. This also helps you to define what style of writing you are most comfortable with.

Throughout elementary school, reading and writing has always been a large part of my school career, and remains to be. An interest in reading was introduced to me at a young age, and I have loved it ever since. The part I loved most about being able to read was that I could read more and spell more than my brother (who is five years older) was able to. He hated it. I loved it. My love for writing came with my love for storytelling. I loved to tell stories. I would come up with some pretty strange ideas, and make them into stories with characters, a plot and setting. A lot of my teachers have also inspired me throughout. They have always told me how well I wrote, using proper grammar and punctuation. They also praised me on the content of my stories. Every step of the way, they were always encouraging me to write more, and often as possible.

I believe that I will continue to write throughout my entire lifetime. It is something that I enjoy doing and will continue to enjoy. I find writing to be an escape for me. It is a place where I am able to get everything out into the open, and just be me. Completely me. Sure, my writing may be judged, and some may not like it. Do I care? No. It’s my writing. For me. I write for me. If I do not like what I have wrote, then no one else will either. If I do like what I have wrote, then there is hopefully at least one other person who does as well.

Journal # 16

Many parents in today’s world do not abuse their children. They do not spank, hit, bite, or physically abuse them. But we are now seeing another form of abuse begin to rise. Emotional abuse. Yelling at young children has become increasingly more common is today’s society. The effects of yelling at a child can be minimal, but sometimes it can be serious, depending on the way the yelling is performed. Shouting is considered the new form of spanking to many people.

A lot of parents today are working full time, trying to raise a family and keep a relationship alive. This can be very stressful and emotionally and physically exhausting. Many parents do not know how to deal with their children when they are misbehaving. Before, it used to be that they would spank their child, but now that spanking is not socially accepted, what else is there to do?

This is where the yelling comes in. With all the frustration from your job, your house, financial and relationship matters, your drained. To top it all off, your kids are not listening. All the frustration just finds a way out. Unfortanetly, even though you may not mean it, it is targeted at your children. You yell at them to get them to behave. You yell at them because they did something wrong. You yell at them because you are frustrated and do not know what to do.

The effects of yelling on children can be minimal, but also serious in some cases. Hearing yelling will cause many children to tune out and ignore you. If the yelling is done in a rude tone, insults or has sarcasm in it, the child can feel rejected. This is where the yelling can be serious. Feelings of rejection at a young age can lead to low self esteem, and trust issues. Yelling effects all children in different ways.

Many parents tend to feel guilt after they yell at their children. They were frustrated before, causing them to yell, and now they feel guilty, causing frustration, causing more yelling. It is a vicious circle. One that can be stopped. Some ways to avoid yelling at your children are to take a ‘time out.’ Stop for a minute, breathe and relax, before dealing with any annoying situations. Target the reason why you are frustrated. Most times, it is not your kid. A lot of the time, events happened in your day, with your kids added on. So, if you’re angry because you are hungry when you get home, make time to eat before you get home. Taking your frustration out on your kids, even if not intended, is not right. Find another stress relief.

The best way to avoid possible long term effects from yelling for your kids? Don’t yell.

Journal # 15 - Blogging

How do you feel about blogging now that you have had an opportunity to develop a history with it over the past two and a half months? Do you feel that you are more or less organized and productive than you would be "the old fashioned way?" What are some of the advantages? What are some of the drawbacks? What advice might you give to students starting the course next semester about how to get the most out of their blogging experience?

Blogging, for me personally, has been an enjoyable experience this far. It has helped me to keep organized and on track. It also helps that when a class is missed, it is easy to get caught up on any assigned work. Just take a look at the blog, and it will be there. Blogging also helps me with my spelling and grammar. Also, with blogging, it is a lot easier to start and stop, as well as work on more than one thing at once, than it is with doing it 'the old fashioned way.' Some of the drawbacks to this style is internet use, as well as computers not working. Blogging, overall is a great way to do and submit work.

With blogging, I am able to save my work on the computer, or on the website. This helps me to keep my assignments organized. Since there is no paper, I am not able to lose my assignments, or journal entries, which is always a good thing. When I log onto to the computer for the EWC class, I am able to easily access my work from the previous time. Whenever there is a class that has been missed for whatever reason, it is easy to get caught up. Take a look at the blog and at the calender, and you will be able to know what you have missed and if anything is due.

Since with blogging, you are able to use a computer, well you have to, but anyways, you can easily edit your work. I always have problems with my spelling and grammar, mainly when I have a lot to write at once. With the use of a computer, words that are misspelled are highlight, and can be easily fixed. As well, since you have the ability to save your work, you can also go back to it the next day, and re-read it. This way, it helps you to know exactly what you said, and what you meant to say. From this you can make any corrections that may need to be done.

A lot of the time, when I am writing, I tend to have more than one idea in my head at once. Writing things out, can be hard to get everything onto paper all at once. I can only write so fast. But with blogging, I am able to type everything, and I can everything out faster. I am also able to use bolded and italic fonts in order for me to read things more clear. With the use of a computer, it is possible to have more than one document open at once. So, this way, you can work on one thing, have an idea for something and still be able to get it out.

Some of the drawbacks of using the blogging method are that technology cannot always be trusted. There are times when you could have written a 20-page essay, and if the computer shuts off, or it freezes, all you hard work is gone, just like that. As well, there are times when there is no internet connection. When this happens, it makes it hard to submit your work and keep caught up in the class through blogging.

Blogging is a great addition to the EWC class. The advice I would give for future students would be to ensure that you save your work, and check the blog and calender often. Blogging is very beneficial, and can help out in a lot of ways, but at the same time could be very frustrating (lost work). For the majority of blogging though, it a great writing tools to be able to use