Thing #13: Final thing

Overall, this blog didn’t really turn out to be what I expected when I started but in a positive way. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting in the first place –probably something more along the lines of a blog where we posted new things that we discovered (more in line with my independent blog project). But as the posts started to pile up, I noticed that the things that I was actually posting on were new but more so in terms of things that could potentially help me in life after coe

Most of the things posted by Jane were new things that I hadn’t really heard of except for Creative Commons, Twitter, and embedding photos and videos into my blog. Besides those, everything else was new to me. One post which did end up giving me significant insight was my Wordle post. As I mentioned in the previous post, I think that this one was insightful because it allowed me to see words that I frequently use and words that I have a tendency of overusing. Hopefully through this non-traditional source I will be able to better enhance my writing in the future.

In terms of posts, my favorite one was post seven which was about making multi-media stories with Storify. I thought this was an awesome website which I was surprised to have never heard of or used before. Since that post I have been visiting the site fairly often (3-4 times per week) and have discovered some awesome people to follow on Twitter.

I also felt as if I discovered new things that are applicable to both life now as well as after Coe. One post which helped me for my day-to-day life now is Scrivener. I think that it is always a great idea to have a way to manage large projects in our ever increasingly digital world (although using traditional pen and paper still works well for me). I also think that social bookmarking and annotating is useful for life now because it seems as if it’s a vital tool for students like me who tend to take a lot of notes and use many different sources. As for after graduation and after Coe, the one new thing that I think will be most useful is the visual thesaurus tool. As I mentioned in that post, I am a word nerd and I enjoy using thesauruses and therefore any means for discovering new words through non-traditional means is helpful. I also think that Twitter is useful for life after Coe. I came to this realization after I got this Tweet from Bruce Braley:

“@azhirsch: @brucebraley #Coe Dems want to bring you to campus this semester. Possible?” Anything is possible, Alex. Contact Jake Oeth.

— Bruce Braley (@BruceBraley) February 21, 2013

As a final conclusion I would say that the process of using this blog and “self-discovering” was extremely beneficial to my growth as a writer. I have come to the realization that in life I will be on my own for a while with simple goals or mile-stones to achieve so to speak. A boss may tell me to have something in by a certain date but that will be it –the way I go about accomplishing it is up to me. That’s why I liked this project so much. It allowed me to work as I pleased and as a result I can say that I can walk away from this assignment with a lot more knowledge than when I started and that what I learned will help me in my future endeavors.

Thing #12: word clouds

Here is my word cloud that I made about this blog.


And here is another one from an anecdote I wrote about my recent trip to Montana

After creating the word clouds I gained a little bit of insight into both the document I submitted as well as my blog. I found it interesting to see what the most prominent word were and in terms of my blog it allowed me to confirm my word choices as being prudent to the text within the documents i.e. “writing” was one of the larger words. Some of the other words that seemed to be most prominent included the following: thinking, walked, looking, towns, store, really, word, false, and posted. Overall, I don’t really think that this visual representation brought out any thoughts that I didn’t get from reading since I was the author of both the documents in the first place. Also, I think it sort of reaffirmed my word choices since when I look at the maps I think to myself “oh ya, I remember including that word” or something along those lines. Moreover, I don’t really think that this has many professional applications because it seems too childish in the sense that the shapes are rather whimsical and I don’t think it would add much to the professional world. But nevertheless, it is a fun thing to play around with.

 

Thing #11: visual thesaurus

The word that I chose to enter into the visual thesaurus tool was “creative” from the tenth post that we did. Some of the words that it came up with as alternatives include “originative” (having the ability or power to create) and also “constructive” (emphasizing what is laudable or hopeful or to the good).

In general, I do tend to use a thesaurus quite frequently when I am writing. Sometimes I find it to be more useful than using a dictionary because instead of giving me the definitions of a word it would simply give me any synonyms. I like this because it usually would save me a lot of time rather than flipping through a dictionary or searching online. However, I have run into a few problems when I’ve used a thesaurus rather than a dictionary. One example that immediately comes to mind is during my FYS, in one of the essays I wrote I was looking for a word that could replace something like “enticed” and I ended up using “infatuate” –specifically “infatuate my nostrils.” Needless to say, when conferencing with Dr. Bob he pointed out that I misused the word.

As I used the visual thesaurus a little more, I put in some words to see where it would take me in terms of rediscovering words that I could use. The first word I tried was “love.” Some of the words I found were great: penchant, wonderment, and predilection. Another word I tried was “dirty.” Some of the synonyms for this word included: bemire, smirch, and colly.

Overall, this was a great tool because it let me discover some great ways to use and find new words that I have never had a chance to really do. All in all, I would consider myself a word nerd because it is so interesting to know that there are options out there when writing. I also would consider myself a word nerd because it is so great to be able to add to my personal vocabulary since knowing big words sometimes impresses others!  

Thing #10: Creative Commons

I think that the whole idea of Creative Commons is great and vital for our digital society in which it is becoming easier and easier to rip off other people’s work. I think it is so crucial because it gives the public domain so much more to work with and allows others to become more comfortable using other peoples work and thus inevitably entices others to let their work be licensed under Creative Commons.

While at Coe, one of my projects that I think would be worthy of opening up to the Creative Commons license would be really anything that I have written NOT for a reasech project. These would include a 50 page manuscript for my creative writing class as well as my technical writing works that I did last semester. I think that these types of projects would be best for the CC license because they are works that would be best utilized by others because they are ideas that can be used and expressed over and over again without really harming the integrity of my efforts.

As I mentioned above, I wouldn’t want my research papers used for a CC license because these types of papers were written by citing other people’s works and I put a lot of time into collecting that information. Plus, I would probably need to get the owner’s of the sources I cited permission to license it through CC which would be arduous and time consuming.

Thing #9: Scrivener App

A large project that I have recently worked on was for my technical writing class last semester. I wrote a set of instructions on how to brew beer at home and it was over 30 pages long. The project was really all-encompassing in terms of what I needed to do to make it successful. For example, I needed to research the process in the first place as well as find applicable images, an easy recipe for beginners, and the proper layout for the instructions. In terms of taking note for my research I did what I typically do for my papers that require research: I write and research at the same time. I’m not sure if this is a good habit but it has worked great for me for as long as I’ve been writing at Coe. Basically what I do is open a word document on my computer since I feel that doing my prep is best done on a computer rather than a notebook. Next I open my refrences button in Word and make sure to do end notes since I don’t like to see my citations except at the bottom of the page –I think it is better to have less clutter that way. As I find what I need I write my paper and incorporate my research and citations.  

In terms of the Scrivener app, the feature that I think would be most useful is the automatic backups. I have struggled in the past with backing up my information and I even had a regretful incident where I thought everything was saved and my computer crashed and I ended up losing everything. Since then I have started using Dropbox but I think it is great that Scrivener has the automatic zip file saving feature. This would eliminate any stress that comes from backing up files. However, I don’t think I will download the free trial since none of the other feature are all that crucial to me right now.  This isn’t to say that if I go into a field where writing is my primary task, that I wouldn’t invest in this tool since it does seem quite useful.

Thing #8: Online Notebooks and writing prompts

So I looked around on my Google Play story (the app store for Android if you’re an iPhone user) and I decided on Penzu. I really liked the layout and how user-friendly it was. But the real reason why I chose it was because I really wanted to try my hand at using this type of app for my phone since, unlike my computer, I carry it everywhere with me. Also, it seems to come in handy because I find myself sometimes throughout the day without my regular, old fashioned planner and desperate to find somewhere to jot down some notes.

Other than this app I have never really used a notebook besides for class. There have been times when I would go on vacation or somewhere interesting and I would keep a personal journal which I do find handy. For example, when I went to Israel a few years ago I made sure to take a spiral with me so I could write down anything interesting that I did. Remarkably, I forgot about it until this past winter break but when I found it and read it I was amazed to see that I remembered so much. Overall, I plan on using this type of thing –either digital or old school- more often.