Hey everyone. How is everybody?
Well, I know I have titled this entire blog "Mallory's Way Of Life" and that is mostly what it is about. That, and improving my writing skills. However, I want to talk about what "way of life" means to me, especially right now.
I am an English major at Oakland University and before coming to Oakland, I was attending Oakland Community College as a Liberal Arts major. I graduated with the highest honors possible with a 3.9 GPA. That's awesome, right? WRONG! I am barely holding on to a 3.2 here at Oakland and I can't help but beg the question as to why. I am on the verge of graduating and it is really exciting yet discouraging at the same time. I just met with two advisers recently at Oakland and they both gave me the same advice: don't go to graduate school in the hopes of finding a job. Yeah....advisers at Oakland University are telling me this.
So why is this? I can only really complain that it is because of this economic recession that we are currently in. And what really bothers me is the fact that people don't know why it is that we are in this economic downfall. Again, I can only really complain that it is because of a little thing I would like to call "The Technological Age". My husband and I shop at all the big chain stores, more specifically Meijer. And when we go to Meijer it is generally when I get out of school at night so we usually go pretty late. Now can someone please explain to me why a place like Meijer has something like thirty open lanes and generally about twenty-five of those thirty check-out lanes are self-check-outs? AHHHH! A perfect example as to why there are no jobs; because of technology!
Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that I can take my laptop virtually anywhere and connect to a Wi-Fi spot for free in order to log into Moodle and do my homework at my local Starbucks or Caribou. However, people don't realize what this Technological Age is doing to our economy. Again, I don't mean to complain, but it is eliminating jobs severely!
Another thing people don't realize is that people are really struggling right now. For example, I was sitting in another one of my English classes today and a girl spoke up that people aren't really struggling; people just like to complain; and that there is enough money to go around to everyone. Now, I don't want to point fingers at anyone or make people feel bad, but it seems to me that this girl has no idea what it is like to struggle. She lives in the dorms at Oakland, drives a brand new BMW that her father bought her and does not even work, she just goes to school full time. Again, I am not trying to make anyone feel bad, but come on now! It has been my serious opinion that unless you are in a certain situation, you have NO idea what it is like.
All I am asking is for people to take a step back for once and try not to be selfish, and understand that not everyone has it like you.
Anyways, there is my quick little rant about the economy. Sorry if I offended anyone, but I feel strongly about my opinions.
Class was fun this previous Monday and everyone's ideas and opinions really helped me. I am going to try to expand on their ideas to make my Lyric essay even better than I thought it originally was. So, thanks everyone and see you next Monday!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Trying to improve a little?
Hey people. I guess this will be my next five hundred words for this week. To tell you the truth, I haven't had all the time in the world this week because of some family issues, so I can only do the one post this week rather than two. But I suppose that isn't the biggest deal in the world! (LOL!) By the way, don't worry! Everything is okay now :)
Anyways, I think it has been an exciting week. I am not going to lie, the lyric essay seemed a little confusing to me at first. But now that I actually sat down and got it done, I still think that I wrote more of an anecdote than a lyrical essay. As far as I am concerned, the lyric essay is supposed to be more detailed and imagistic than a regular ole' essay. Am I understanding that correctly? I sure hope so because I got pretty descriptive in my essay so I hope that it works. I wrote the essay as I saw things in my own head and in my own perspective, and it seems that from reading other peoples essays, that it what they did as well. But everyone's opinions are different, so I really don't know! AHHH!
How I am dealing with this class is simply this: make what I can of it, and hopefully my writing expands and improves. I am in two poetry classes right now as well, so I am getting the first person back into my writing. Which, I have to say, is absolutely fabulous! I have been writing the past two years trying to leave my opinions out of things (or trying desperately hard to hide my opinions) and only writing in third or second person because that is what every English Professor at Oakland University wants! (Probably most Universities, too.)
I have forgotten exactly what it is like to write about myself, my experiences, and my opinions within in the past few years. But now that I am getting back to it, I find myself trying to do it more and more, if not, pretty much every day. And I am not saying that writing every day is a good or bad thing, but it certainly is helping me. At least I think so. I was sitting in class the other day having one of my poems critiqued and the girl critiquing it actually found a grammatical error! I originally thought that my grammar was nearly perfect, but everyone can be wrong!
Apparently, I could use some help with grammar and structure as well as everything else. But I am mostly concerned with my revision process. I generally like to think that I do not need to revise because when I write, it comes out perfect the first time. *Buzzer sounds!!!* Nice thinking Mallory, but not so much! The truth of the matter is, everyone needs to revise at some point and it might as well be sooner rather than later, right?
Hopefully I will have more time next week after the workshop to do anything I can for my revision process. Anyways, see everyone Monday and have a great weekend!
Anyways, I think it has been an exciting week. I am not going to lie, the lyric essay seemed a little confusing to me at first. But now that I actually sat down and got it done, I still think that I wrote more of an anecdote than a lyrical essay. As far as I am concerned, the lyric essay is supposed to be more detailed and imagistic than a regular ole' essay. Am I understanding that correctly? I sure hope so because I got pretty descriptive in my essay so I hope that it works. I wrote the essay as I saw things in my own head and in my own perspective, and it seems that from reading other peoples essays, that it what they did as well. But everyone's opinions are different, so I really don't know! AHHH!
How I am dealing with this class is simply this: make what I can of it, and hopefully my writing expands and improves. I am in two poetry classes right now as well, so I am getting the first person back into my writing. Which, I have to say, is absolutely fabulous! I have been writing the past two years trying to leave my opinions out of things (or trying desperately hard to hide my opinions) and only writing in third or second person because that is what every English Professor at Oakland University wants! (Probably most Universities, too.)
I have forgotten exactly what it is like to write about myself, my experiences, and my opinions within in the past few years. But now that I am getting back to it, I find myself trying to do it more and more, if not, pretty much every day. And I am not saying that writing every day is a good or bad thing, but it certainly is helping me. At least I think so. I was sitting in class the other day having one of my poems critiqued and the girl critiquing it actually found a grammatical error! I originally thought that my grammar was nearly perfect, but everyone can be wrong!
Apparently, I could use some help with grammar and structure as well as everything else. But I am mostly concerned with my revision process. I generally like to think that I do not need to revise because when I write, it comes out perfect the first time. *Buzzer sounds!!!* Nice thinking Mallory, but not so much! The truth of the matter is, everyone needs to revise at some point and it might as well be sooner rather than later, right?
Hopefully I will have more time next week after the workshop to do anything I can for my revision process. Anyways, see everyone Monday and have a great weekend!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Improving My Writing
Hey everyone. My name is Mallory Gayer (Etheridge). I just got married in August so the double name thing might be a bit confusing, but I promise to always include both my maiden name and my married name.
I am an English major at Oakland University and plan to graduate in May. (Keep your fingers crossed for me!) I first decided to take this class for the simple fact that I need to fulfill all my elective credits and it fit into my schedule nicely.
Now that the first class is under our belts and I am pretty aware of what is to come for the semester, I hope to not only improve my writing skills, but hopefully become more creative with my ideas. I generally have A LOT to say and I have many opinions, so expressing my ideas and opinions won't be difficult. However, I seem to have lost those opinions a little bit only because nearly every class, whether it be English or Math, all professors want their students to leave their opinions out of it. I guess that is because you aren't technically supposed to write in first person. And even though that is okay for the majority of courses, getting back into expressing how I feel might take me a little time. I need to get used to it again!
The theme I am choosing is fairly simple, so I hope that it works. I would like to be able to examine my writing, my revision process, and etc. to go a few steps further. I know that my language, grammar, etc. are in good shape, so I want to mostly look at exactly what topics and etc. are being written about. I would also like to follow and be able to discuss these topics in a manner so that everyone understands what I am talking about, be able to relate to that topic(s) on a personal level, and hopefully get my readers to get a reaction so that they want to know more about the topic at hand.
I suppose that my number one goal for the blog is to write more. Again, I have somewhat lost interest in this type of writing specifically for this course because it seems that all of my other classes want to get people away from writing like this; which, by the way, is no fun at all for me or for anyone. I remember taking a creative writing class in high school and it was probably the most fun I had because I did not feel restricted when I was writing. I just sat down, grabbed pen and paper and wrote whatever it was that came to my mind. Granted, I wrote some pretty weird things, but I think that is what makes writing fun. I want to be able to get back into that state of mind and just have fun and not worry about if my professor or my audience is going to give me a bad grade.
I have high expectations for the course, so hopefully I can reach them while at the same time let loose and have a great time! I also look forward to reading other people's work because I think it helps me sometimes to read their opinions because everyone's opinions are different!
Everyone have a great weekend and I hope to hear from everyone soon! See you Monday!
I am an English major at Oakland University and plan to graduate in May. (Keep your fingers crossed for me!) I first decided to take this class for the simple fact that I need to fulfill all my elective credits and it fit into my schedule nicely.
Now that the first class is under our belts and I am pretty aware of what is to come for the semester, I hope to not only improve my writing skills, but hopefully become more creative with my ideas. I generally have A LOT to say and I have many opinions, so expressing my ideas and opinions won't be difficult. However, I seem to have lost those opinions a little bit only because nearly every class, whether it be English or Math, all professors want their students to leave their opinions out of it. I guess that is because you aren't technically supposed to write in first person. And even though that is okay for the majority of courses, getting back into expressing how I feel might take me a little time. I need to get used to it again!
The theme I am choosing is fairly simple, so I hope that it works. I would like to be able to examine my writing, my revision process, and etc. to go a few steps further. I know that my language, grammar, etc. are in good shape, so I want to mostly look at exactly what topics and etc. are being written about. I would also like to follow and be able to discuss these topics in a manner so that everyone understands what I am talking about, be able to relate to that topic(s) on a personal level, and hopefully get my readers to get a reaction so that they want to know more about the topic at hand.
I suppose that my number one goal for the blog is to write more. Again, I have somewhat lost interest in this type of writing specifically for this course because it seems that all of my other classes want to get people away from writing like this; which, by the way, is no fun at all for me or for anyone. I remember taking a creative writing class in high school and it was probably the most fun I had because I did not feel restricted when I was writing. I just sat down, grabbed pen and paper and wrote whatever it was that came to my mind. Granted, I wrote some pretty weird things, but I think that is what makes writing fun. I want to be able to get back into that state of mind and just have fun and not worry about if my professor or my audience is going to give me a bad grade.
I have high expectations for the course, so hopefully I can reach them while at the same time let loose and have a great time! I also look forward to reading other people's work because I think it helps me sometimes to read their opinions because everyone's opinions are different!
Everyone have a great weekend and I hope to hear from everyone soon! See you Monday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)