Writer's Journal #17

My reading and writing literacies have drastically changed throughout this course yet I do believe that some things about it have not. I have never had to use multimodal elements when writing. This was a learning lesson for me because captioning a multimodal as well as including it in the essay requires thought and purpose. Just choosing the image requires thought! I have learned how to pick an image and how to find the purpose of the image in my essay. I’ve also learned ways on improving my writing through not only editing but inventing. Using mind mapping and listing are my favorite writing inventing techniques to use. Mind mapping is newer for me than listing. At first I was hesitant on mind mapping but it has proven to be very helpful. The best topic I have learned in this class is how to understand context and purpose. This involved many steps like determining audience and mapping out different purposes in order to find the primary purpose in a literacy.

These changes in my learning has also developed my thinking. When I was reading the previous piece called “How to Read Like a Writer,” I noticed myself trying to find the purpose or parts that give me hints on the purpose. The fact that it is written in first tense, helps me know that it is an individual sharing a part of his life and his ideas. The writer used his personal narrative to attract me, his audience. He wrote it so that students like myself could relate to what he is saying and what he means. The fact that I am analyzing the writing so much means when the author states. “The goal as you read like a writer is to locate what you believe are the most important writerly choices represented in the text.” As I was reading, I was already sort of doing that. I was trying to understand what the writer’s purpose was and which ideas were the most important to be able to understand him.

Works Cited:

Bunn, Mike. How To Read Like A Writer. Library of Congress. 2011. Print.