Writing Goals

1. During this year, I would like to expand the range of sentence structure, and vocabulary that I use in my papers. Despite the fact that I know a large number of vocabulary words, I often struggle to find which words fit that might make the sentence better and usually resort to more basic words that I am comfortable using.

2. I also would like to be able to recognize "good" writing. Most of the essays I read and write are hard for me to distinguish the quality of the writing. I know there are many factors, such as subject, grammar, and sentence structure, but I don't know how to determine what is needed for a great essay.

3. The final goal I have for the year is to produce high quality work and writings, but in a short period of time. In general, the longer I spend writing something, the better the quality of the piece. It takes me anywhere from 30mins-2hours to write a 500-750 word essay, and the less time I spend on it, the more editing and revision are needed. I hope by the end of the year, I can produce great papers in a timely manner.

College Essay Tips

1. It's not all about the grades...

The college essay, according to the article, is a huge part of the application. It is so important that it nearly is equal to the SAT. Getting good grades in school, as well as doing well on the SAT have not been very hard for me, but writing my college essay, and expressing myself in general are very challenging.

2. Colleges want to hear the truth.

Even if expressing myself is a challenge, it is encouraging that colleges want to hear the truth. As given in the example of the A student experiencing failure, colleges would rather hear the truth then a made up perfection story.

3. It's not easy.

The article clearly demonstrates this is not an easy task, but that's why I think colleges do this. They want to see how well people can handle new things in addition to finding out about the person.

What is Journalism?

• What does journalism look like?
• Journalism is a compilation of facts and quotes to produce a narrative. A particular piece should convey a story from start to finish including all important events, and not leaving out critical points.
• Is there "good" or "bad" journalism?
• There is both "good" and "bad" journalism. Good journalism will accurately dictate all important features of a story with a proper flow. In contrast, poor journalism might relate a story, but lack description or decent order.
• Where do you see journalism in your life?
• Journalism can be seen in newspapers, editorials and blogs as well as other places.

• Talk about journalists you pay attention to.
• I don't really follow any journalists. I don't read newspapers, or watch the news; I only read occasional articles on the Internet.
• Why are you interested in journalism?
• Being able to write quality blogs and articles with a proper structure is skill I am certain I will use later on in my career and in college. 
• What are you curious to learn more about in terms of this class? Journalism in general?
• I would like to know better now to properly structure an article, and the best way to do so as well as writing excellent narrative pieces. I am also interested to figure out what exactly journalism is; I have an abstract idea, but nothing concrete yet.