Thursday, August 25, 2016

Exploration Two from Austin Craig

I'm Austin Craig, I recently turned nineteen on August 12th, and I've lived in Marion all my life. Even though I have been stuck living here, I've traveled to California once, Florida five times, and Washington D.C. once. Car and bus trips: seven. Plane trips: zero. Two trips to Florida were with my high school marching band in which I participated for four years. Both times the band traveled, we won a grand champion award in a competition, which allowed us to preform pregame at the Outback bowl. At the end of my Senior year, I was awarded the John Phillip Sousa award; I'm most proud of that because it is the highest award my former high school has to offer in music. Graduation was three months ago, but I'm still involved in the music department as both a performer and instructor. After achieving a degree in nursing, I wish to pursue a degree in music.


In the first chapter of The Call to Write, the difference between the two essays stood out the most. The first was the formal research paper and the second was the opposite, an informal response. The research is of course by the books and has a solid structure (i.e. MLA format, uniform tense, third person, details, details, details). It's every student's nightmare. The response comes to a more personal level. Not only is it in first person, the student is comparing the details to his life (comparison of religious celebrations) and using "I" statements, which is more empowering to a writer. The writing was at its best when the writings were presented and compared.

5 comments:

  1. Yeah, truly it's interesting how writing can differ so much based on whether we're talking as an individual or a computer meant to spew truthful and unbiased information. That statement "Every student's nightmare" is truly a great way to describe the difficulty in writing formal research papers where our feelings and opinions don't matter-and are rather frowned upon in the format.

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  2. I definitely agree with the use of "I" that can be used as a very powerful word but I feel it can also be used a little too much and lose its meaning.

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  3. I definitely agree with the use of "I" that can be used as a very powerful word but I feel it can also be used a little too much and lose its meaning.

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  4. I also found it very interesting how different ones writing can be when allowed to bring in personal beliefs rather than having to write about something they may have no interest in, such as for a research paper.

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  5. I strongly agree that MLA format, details, and technical parts of writing are "every student's nightmare". They can distract you from the focus of the paper and extend your writing process.

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