First Blog Assignment

INSTRUCTIONS: Please share a little about yourself as a writer. Use the questions below as “invention” questions to stimulate your thinking, and post the answers to your blog. Write in complete sentences, using as many specific details as you can recall. At the same time, write quickly, without interrupting yourself to revise. This assignment calls for an informal, personal response, so it will not be graded for grammatical correctness. However, note that you may be sharing this information with the public through your blog, so it does need to be readable and not overly personal.





1. Introduce yourself briefly. Where are you from? Where have you gone to school? What educational plans brought you to the University of Maryland, and what fields of learning or potential majors interest you at this stage in your academic career?



Hi Im Travis Mitchell, and Im from Reedville, VA. I went to school at Northumberland High in Heathsville, VA. The reason I came to the University of Maryland Is because I was going to major in Engineering, but I didnt score high enough on the math placement test. Now I plan on majoring in Communications, while taking some Media classes, so I can combine the two.





2. What kinds of writing have you done in high school? At UMD? At another college? Outside of a school setting?



In school I would always write for stuff like projects and essays, up until my senior year. My AP teacher told us that one of our assignments for the first semester was to do free writings. Free writings were the easiest thing to do because you would write about what you would want. I haven't really done anyother writing at any other schools, or outside of a school setting.




3. What steps do you usually follow when you write a paper? Do you outline? Revise? Compose on a word processor? What part of the writing process do you find easiest? What part do you find hardest?



When I first start writing, I brainstorm so I can come up with a good idea. Then after I come up with a solid idea, I gather some info about it, either personal experience or actual facts. Next comes the outline, and then either the final or rough draft, depending on if i type or write. The easiest part would have to be writing because everything is set up, you just gotta put it in sentances. The hardest is coming up with the ideas.





4. What kind of writing has given you the most satisfaction?



Free writing because I can write about what I want, and it helps me clear my mind


5. What is the longest or most challenging paper you have ever had to write? How did you go about preparing and writing it? What did you learn about writing from that experience?

The longest paper that I had to do was the research paper that I had to do my junior and senior years in English. It took about a month and a half to get things straight and start writing. We went to the library and made note cards, and our thesis. I learned how to right a research paper and how to gather research from writing these two papers.



6. What do you remember learning about writing from other courses or other writing experiences that you found useful?

I learned from a Creative Writing class that in order for you to write a good paper, you have to keep the reader interested.


7. Assess your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. What are you good at? What aspects of your writing are you dissatisfied with?

When I write, i feel that im pretty good at keeping the reader interested. I can usually come up with ideas of the top of my head. My weakness would have to be my laziness to actually write. Sometimes I have to force myself to write.


8. What part of the writing process do you think you will need the most support with?

The Pre-Writing because like I said earlier I have to make myself write because this part to me is the most boring.


9. If you had your choice of subjects for a research project, what issues or topics would you like to write about?

If I had my choice of what to do research on, I would do it on a person. Nat Turner to me is an interesting person, in my opinion, even though what he did was flat out murder. I think he's interesting because he had a dream and hope, and he fought his hardest to get it.


10. What do you associate with the term argument? How do you feel about taking a course that focuses on argumentation?

When I hear arguement, I think of people who really dont get along with each other. Its gonna be very interesting to take a course that focuses on arguments because its not just one monotonous point of view.