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Portfolio
Jake De La Paz
Professor Lucas
College Writing 21
11 February 2022
Understanding both sides
Throughout this article, there are two sides being brought up, blogs or the traditional term paper that we have used throughout the years before the internet. There are many credible people that advocate for both sides and they will be credited through his paper. There are also a few studies that display the benefit of both forms of writing. Both have very strong arguments for both sides and this analytical paper will show these both sides in detail. First up is the more modern of the two, the blogs.
Blogs are a recent development compared to paper only recently having begun to be used in the academic scene. It has many arguments, for one, it’s shorter than the average term paper. This allows them to be assigned more often and completed in quicker succession while putting less stress on the student. They are public as well and allow for quicker feedback not only from the teacher but also from the peers of the students. It also allows for anyone to read the blog, not only the peers due to its publicity. A professor named Lunsford did a student by collecting 16,000 writing samples from Stanford students between the years of 2001 and 2007. This study has shown the writer’s writing skills and their passions began to evolve as blogs began to be used regularly. Though some of these pros may seem quite strong, they may also be considered a con. One of the main cons is its length compared to a term paper, “Writing term papers is a dying art, but those who do write them have a dramatic leg up in terms of critical thinking…” (Matt Ritchel)
Though there aren’t many pros mentioned about writing term papers, it has that one massive pro in its ability to allow for more critical thinking due it’s extreme length compared to the blog format. This one pro is one of the main reasons that a teacher would pick term papers over blogs, critical thinking is a very important skill in general and wanting to teach it could be the one thing that pushes teachers to use term papers. The length also allows it for these term papers to be far more interesting and intriguing when put next to blogs. Though it’s length may be one of its strongest attributes, it’s also one of its weaknesses. Mentioned in the article, one of the main reasons that the term paper is dying out is due to the fact that there isn’t enough material to actually make a term paper with. Mr. Fitzhugh says “Writing is being murdered. But the solution isn’t blogs, the solution is more reading…”. Even a while before blogs were introduced, term papers still seemed to be falling out of the norm. There are many examples throughout the article when they mention that even in the early 2000s, long term papers were not very common for the average college student, “The National Survey of Student Engagement found that in 2011, 82 percent of first-year college students and more than half of seniors weren’t asked to do a single paper of 20 pages or more…” (Matt Ritchel).
There are plenty of pros and cons to both term papers and blogs. One might have a large strength, but this strength can be shown to be a weakness as well. The other might have many pros and yet it could have one glaring issue. One thing is for sure though, these formats are both valid forms of writing, just one may seem more appealing than others. Though blogs seem to be one the rise, term papers have strengths that blogs don’t and that will always allow for term papers to still stay around for as long as we have writing. Blogs may seem like a lesser form of writing but allow for specific strengths that can’t work in a 20 page paper. They both have very strong arguments for both, but they are both equally valid forms of writing in the modern age.
Richtel, Matt “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times, http://www.newyorktimes.org. 20 Jan. 2012.
Jake De La Paz
Professor Lucas
College Writing 21
3/11/2022
Midterm reflection
I love to write, for the past three years I have been exploring this passion by taking creative writing classes. When I first came into this class, it was quite jarring to write an actual formal paper for the first time within a few years. The main one I can think of was the analytical paper we wrote in class, it challenged me to really write something in a more professional manner compared to my more bold way of writing. That was probably the first time in my college career that really challenged me to improve the way that I write.
The first time I wrote the original draft for that paper in class, I wrote it the same way I would write my original creative papers. I would try to put my own voice into it, to make it seem like you know who’s writing it. I used things like first person, and strong diction while trying to make my point. My professor even wrote some comments about it, saying that it might alienate my reader. Over the past month or two, I’ve learned to write more formally compared to how I would write things in high school. Using more appropriate words for when I want to write an analysis paper and putting less of my own thoughts in has really become more natural for me over the past 2 months or so. It’s been very refreshing to be able to write formal papers where I have real guidelines that aren’t just something based around myself or something I’m interested in. It’s not only the writing itself that has challenged me but aspects of these papers like citations have also been a hurdle for me to overcome.
Citations have always been a problem for me whenever I write anything, and there are many times where it just feels a little weird when I use them. Most of the time it really messes with the pacing of the paper I’m working on because of the fact I struggle to find a good spot for most of the citations. I think it’s very difficult for me to make someone else’s words feel nice and natural next to another person’s set of words. The last thing I always struggle with when it comes to citations is that sometimes I usually cannot find something that fits well with what I’m talking about. I either have to write around a citation so that it fits well or I just look until I find something that fits well enough. There are multiple times in class where I’d be trying to write something, only for me to sit there for a good twenty to thirty minutes simply looking for something that would work well in my paper. It’s always been a struggle for the longest time for me, it must have something to do with the fact that it’s not my own set words, but that’s kind of the whole purpose of citations in the first place, which is to use someone else’s words that are more credible than your own. That’s not the only thing that has given me some trouble throughout this class, the last thing that challenged me was the reading that I had to do to even get the citations.
Before this class, I of course knew how to read, but I learned how to read with more of a purpose and to actually take things from the words that I read. While I was writing papers and looking for citations, I had to actually read passages in order to find good enough quotes that worked in the papers I was writing in class. At first, I would just skim through pages just to find something that might work in my paper, but that didn’t really work as well as I wanted it to. So I had to actually read with more of a purpose and retain more things from the pages. It’s been really helpful even outside of class, I’m able to read more efficiently and overall better.
Overall, this class has challenged me quite a bit over the past few months, enough so that I would have to evolve and change around it. Learning new skills and using them over the span of this class has become pretty normal. From learning how to write in a more academic form to learning to do citations better. It’s been challenging yet enjoyable, and I feel this class will help me for years to come.
Jake De La Paz
Professor Lucas
College Writing 21
4/25/2022
A Look Back
This class definitely challenged me quite a bit at the start. Having to adjust my how wrote entirely was a little bit a of shock. I was mostly used to writing my papers mostly informally, putting a lot more of my stronger voice into it. I’d use a lot of I’s in a paper which was about analyising a form of writing and had nothing to do with me personally. This was my first and most important challenge within my class.
Though I’ve written few papers since my original analysis, I honestly thing that this one is the most important one out of all of them. Though I wouldn’t call this one the most difficult or even my favorite, it had the most impact on my skills this year. It was the perfect one to come back to writing to. I’d never really done an college analytical essay before I quickly learned it would be the norm “Analysis is the kind thinking that you’ll most often be asked to do in college…” I’d spent a few years before this not really doing anyform of formal writing, mostly doing creative writing projects that used a heavy amount of my voice in it. Once I started working on this paper, I did the same that I always did, use my voice to try to spice up a paper. I quickly learned that this wasn’t necessary nor was it beneficial to my paper. So once I got my first corrections back, I had begun to learn how to write more formally while making these corrections leading to a much better and more formal form of writing. Without this paper, I’m sure I would’ve struggled a lot with the other parts of this class.
Now I would like to talk about my favorite thing to work on in this class which was the research project, something that I continually got more passitonte about the more I look into to it. I worked on the topic of music streaming which is a pretty deep rabbit hole than you would think at first. The injustices in the industry are massive, artist’s will normally only receive 0.007 cents per stream. The companies mostly profit off of you using their platform, giving only a fraction of a fraction to the artist. Big companies like spotify are like this and many more do the same. The reason I enjoyed working on this one a lot more than anything else is because I believe that if someone were to read it, maybe the facts would make a change in their life, like using a different streaming platform, digitally buying the music. I don’t think It would change the outlook on the whole of humanity, but if one person were to read it, maybe they would change how they would listen to music, and that’s honestly good enough for me.
I’ve enjoyed this class thoroughly, and I’ve grown throughout it learning new writing skills each time a new project would show up. The most important one was the first one of the bunch, teaching me how to really writing formally instead of trying to put my voice in it. My favorite being the research project, leaving me with new outlook on things as well as changed beliefs. This class has help me invigorate my writing skills and I only wish to use these fueled flames to work even harder has more challenges comes my way.
“The 5 Analyitcal Moves.” Writing Analytically, 8th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2019, pp. 4
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Midterm Reflection
Jake De La Paz
Professor Lucas
College Writing 21
3/11/2022
Midterm reflection
I love to write, for the past three years I have been exploring this passion by taking creative writing classes. When I first came into this class, it was quite jarring to write an actual formal paper for the first time within a few years. The main one I can think of was the analytical paper we wrote in class, it challenged me to really write something in a more professional manner compared to my more bold way of writing. That was probably the first time in my college career that really challenged me to improve the way that I write.
The first time I wrote the original draft for that paper in class, I wrote it the same way I would write my original creative papers. I would try to put my own voice into it, to make it seem like you know who’s writing it. I used things like first person, and strong diction while trying to make my point. My professor even wrote some comments about it, saying that it might alienate my reader. Over the past month or two, I’ve learned to write more formally compared to how I would write things in high school. Using more appropriate words for when I want to write an analysis paper and putting less of my own thoughts in has really become more natural for me over the past 2 months or so. It’s been very refreshing to be able to write formal papers where I have real guidelines that aren’t just something based around myself or something I’m interested in. It’s not only the writing itself that has challenged me but aspects of these papers like citations have also been a hurdle for me to overcome.
Citations have always been a problem for me whenever I write anything, and there are many times where it just feels a little weird when I use them. Most of the time it really messes with the pacing of the paper I’m working on because of the fact I struggle to find a good spot for most of the citations. I think it’s very difficult for me to make someone else’s words feel nice and natural next to another person’s set of words. The last thing I always struggle with when it comes to citations is that sometimes I usually cannot find something that fits well with what I’m talking about. I either have to write around a citation so that it fits well or I just look until I find something that fits well enough. There are multiple times in class where I’d be trying to write something, only for me to sit there for a good twenty to thirty minutes simply looking for something that would work well in my paper. It’s always been a struggle for the longest time for me, it must have something to do with the fact that it’s not my own set words, but that’s kind of the whole purpose of citations in the first place, which is to use someone else’s words that are more credible than your own. That’s not the only thing that has given me some trouble throughout this class, the last thing that challenged me was the reading that I had to do to even get the citations.
Before this class, I of course knew how to read, but I learned how to read with more of a purpose and to actually take things from the words that I read. While I was writing papers and looking for citations, I had to actually read passages in order to find good enough quotes that worked in the papers I was writing in class. At first, I would just skim through pages just to find something that might work in my paper, but that didn’t really work as well as I wanted it to. So I had to actually read with more of a purpose and retain more things from the pages. It’s been really helpful even outside of class, I’m able to read more efficiently and overall better.
Overall, this class has challenged me quite a bit over the past few months, enough so that I would have to evolve and change around it. Learning new skills and using them over the span of this class has become pretty normal. From learning how to write in a more academic form to learning to do citations better. It’s been challenging yet enjoyable, and I feel this class will help me for years to come,
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Understanding Both Sides
Throughout this article, there are two sides being brought up, blogs or the traditional term paper that we have used throughout the years before the internet. There are many credible people that advocate for both sides and they will be credited through his paper. There are also a few studies that display the benefit of both forms of writing. Both have very strong arguments for both sides and this analytical paper will show these both sides in detail. First up is the more modern of the two, the blogs.
Blogs are a recent development compared to paper only recently having begun to be used in the academic scene. It has many arguments, for one, it’s shorter than the average term paper. This allows them to be assigned more often and completed in quicker succession while putting less stress on the student. They are public as well and allow for quicker feedback not only from the teacher but also from the peers of the students. It also allows for anyone to read the blog, not only the peers due to its publicity. A professor named Lunsford did a student by collecting 16,000 writing samples from Stanford students between the years of 2001 and 2007. This study has shown the writer’s writing skills and their passions began to evolve as blogs began to be used regularly. Though some of these pros may seem quite strong, they may also be considered a con. One of the main cons is its length compared to a term paper, “Writing term papers is a dying art, but those who do write them have a dramatic leg up in terms of critical thinking…” (Matt Ritchel)
Though there aren’t many pros mentioned about writing term papers, it has that one massive pro in its ability to allow for more critical thinking due it’s extreme length compared to the blog format. This one pro is one of the main reasons that a teacher would pick term papers over blogs, critical thinking is a very important skill in general and wanting to teach it could be the one thing that pushes teachers to use term papers. The length also allows it for these term papers to be far more interesting and intriguing when put next to blogs. Though it’s length may be one of its strongest attributes, it’s also one of its weaknesses. Mentioned in the article, one of the main reasons that the term paper is dying out is due to the fact that there isn’t enough material to actually make a term paper with. Mr. Fitzhugh says “Writing is being murdered. But the solution isn’t blogs, the solution is more reading…”. Even a while before blogs were introduced, term papers still seemed to be falling out of the norm. There are many examples throughout the article when they mention that even in the early 2000s, long term papers were not very common for the average college student, “The National Survey of Student Engagement found that in 2011, 82 percent of first-year college students and more than half of seniors weren’t asked to do a single paper of 20 pages or more…” (Matt Ritchel).
There are plenty of pros and cons to both term papers and blogs. One might have a large strength, but this strength can be shown to be a weakness as well. The other might have many pros and yet it could have one glaring issue. One thing is for sure though, these formats are both valid forms of writing, just one may seem more appealing than others. Though blogs seem to be one the rise, term papers have strengths that blogs don’t and that will always allow for term papers to still stay around for as long as we have writing. Blogs may seem like a lesser form of writing but allow for specific strengths that can’t work in a 20 page paper. They both have very strong arguments for both, but they are both equally valid forms of writing in the modern age.
Richtel, Matt “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times, http://www.newyorktimes.org. 20 Jan. 2012.
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Hello World!
Welcome to WordPress! This is your first post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey.
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1st post: An introduction
Me at a charlotte knights game Hi, this will be my first time ever posting on this blog, so let me give anyone who is reading this a warm welcome. Though I’m pretty sure that my professor will be the only one who will actually read this in its entirety. I have yet to even introduce myself to the rare reader who might end up coming across this, my name is Jake De La Paz and at the time of writing this I’m currently in my second semester of my freshman year at highpoint university. I’m currently majoring in game design, which will segway really nice into my hobby I want to talk about.
I love video games to death, they have allowed me to make some of my best friends that have stuck by my side for many years. Though I believe that video games aren’t just a hobby but an art form that needs to be explored more. We have only scratched the surface of beautiful and interesting stories that can be told through games. Games allow for another level of interactivity that is completely unparalleled to anything else in media, allow for people to stay attached to a world for longer than two hours, and get really emotionally invested. There are few games I can think of that do this, games like Red Dead Redemption have some of the best writing of any game I have ever played and shows that games can be a beautiful form of interactive media. In conclusion, I’m a big ole nerd that likes to ramble about stuff he enjoys
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