Responses to "Writing about General Apache" and "Simplicity"

Response to “Writing about General Apache”

When I first picked up “Writing about General Apache” I was a bit skeptical. I didn’t understand how hearing about a professor’s struggle to write about his student was supposed to matter to me. A reflective essay is supposed share an experience that will benefit the reader, but this sounded like a piece written to express frustration. As I read the essay, I found it enjoyable all the same. Harrington wrote beautifully about his student. I enjoyed the little details he put in, the story about learning the streets of Washington DC from a homeless man, for example. These little details made you care about Harrington’s student, made you want to know his story. Though almost the entire essay was in the past tense, the quotes Harrington included really helped the story feel more alive and true. I think that fact that Harrington wrote this essay after writing the poem and sharing it with his student really made the essay better. You could really feel the sense of looking back. Harrington looked back not only on his writing process but also at the life of his student. It allowed him to slim down all the event and stories into one concise piece that wasn’t too long for the reader or too filled with unnecessary details. I especially liked the ending of the piece. The whole essay was kind of a buildup to the poem. Adding the poem at the end satisfied the reader’s curiosity and reinforced the importance of the subject matter. I don’t think I could put what I got from this essay and the included poem into words, but I did come away feeling a sense of understanding, and that’s what counts.

Response to “Simplicity”

William Zinsser has an incredibly valid point. I really enjoyed reading about his policy on written language. I totally agree that writing is hard work. I find myself doing a lot of the things he talked about. Not knowing what I want to say is probably the biggest thing for me. I like that Zinsser made the point that writing and thinking clearly isn’t something you’re born with, but something you have to work at. He also really put into perspective what writers are competing with when they try to catch a reader’s attention. He made great points and exemplified those points in his writing. I found it enjoyable and informative.

Learning Styles

Learning Styles

I have always felt that I have a complex learning style, and I was right. My results for the learning styles quiz were that I am a multimodal learner. This means that I learn equally well in more than one way. I scored equally well in both reading/writing and kinesthetic, as well as scoring highly in aural. Looking back on how I have done with different teachers and subjects in the past, this makes a lot of sense to me.
Reading and writing has always come very naturally to me. I absorb books like a sponge. The information will stay with me for a long time, ready to be used when I need it. With writing, I’ve always found that if I write things down it helps me remember them later. To facilitate this learning style, I need to do a few things. First, it will be beneficial to me to transform things like graphs into words. I also need to try writing more lists, using more reference and textbooks, and taking detailed notes.
Having a kinesthetic learning style means that I learn well by doing things, which explains why I’m impatient to get my hands dirty, per se. I’ve noticed especially in physical classes, like dance, that I get bored while the instructor is explaining something before I get to try it. I learn dance much faster by doing the moves and repeating them until I get them right, rather than watching or listening to an explanation. For my academic classes, I need to find hands-on, realistic ways to remember and understand things, like looking at pictures or recalling situations visually.
I find it interesting that I scored high on these two particular learning styles, because in a way they contradict each other. For some subjects I need to turn pictures and graphs into words, and in other subjects it will help if I visually or physically remember things.
I also scored very high in aural learning. Throughout my learning career, I have enjoyed and benefited from interacting and studying with others or talking things over with the professor. In academic classes especially it always helped to have someone to do homework with, to bounce ideas off of or compare answers. Somehow hearing my ideas out loud and getting feedback has always improved my performance in class.
Now that I know the best ways for me to learn, I know how to succeed in all my classes. Having a multimodal learning style seems especially beneficial. This way, I can make almost any subject work to my advantage, because I have so many options in ways to learn.

Introduction Letter

Dear English 100,

My name is Elena Kay, and my motto in life is, “Carpe Diem,” or, “Seize the Day.” This isn’t something I do very well, which is why it’s my motto. I keep this in mind to remember to be who I am and stop worrying about the future or the past. I came to college to make every day new and productive. I like the feeling that everything I do during my day is working toward a nursing major.
I didn’t always want to be a nurse. For years I wanted to be a writer. Writing comes to me like sleeping. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easy, and sometimes it comes at the wrong time., but it’s something you do every day that makes you feel better. I started writing very young, about the time that I learned to string two sentences together. I’m not an anything-goes writer. I write stories, not poetry or papers. Writing is my way of letting things in my life go or of slipping into another life for awhile.
Writing and reading go hand in hand for me. I don’t go more than a few days without picking up a book. Reading is very therapeutic. It helps me see things in a new light by letting me step into someone else’s shoes. As a writer, I need to read to expand my ideas and to see what’s already out there. A single sentence has proved to spark the idea for multiple stories. I could not write without reading.
Writing and reading are like breathing to me. I wish I could make a living writing, but the truth is, I’d like to have a stable future, and being a writer depends on so much more than your skill and what you want. I chose nursing because it helps people, it’s needed, and there’s stability in nursing as a career. I like all of those things. Writing will still be a part of my life, even when I’m working twelve hour shifts in the emergency room. I also know that writing grows with the writer, and all the experiences I have will help me become a better writer, even if those experiences aren’t English and Creative Writing courses.
So even while I’m taking biology and anatomy, I’ll be writing as often as I can, trying to fulfill my life-long dream of being published and recognized for it. Each new day of college and each new day of my career will bring me closer to that dream. If I don’t get published, at least I will have spent those hours doing something I love, and if I do, maybe I will end up as a full time writer. For now, I’m just taking each day as it comes and keeping my goals in mind.
Sincerely,
Elena Kay