I am a true believer in continuous learning and self-improvement. I believe that each individual has a responsibility to work on identifying those aspects of his/her personality that they must improve on. Whether soft or hard skills, physical or mental abilities, a man can be better in any thing. That is to say, better than he currently is. Being better than yourself is key to being a better individual.
I have been working on figuring out what I need to improve on for some time now. I am the kind of person that gets easily excited about things and starts on something quite fast. However, I lose the interest as fast as I get it. One of my problems in the past was that I do not follow entirely through with my plans to improve a certain aspect of my personality, however excited i get about this in the beginning. This is one of my weaknesses. I recognize it and I want to change it. This rubric of the blog is my attempt to overcome this "weakness".
The purpose of this rubric is to document my progress in becoming a better reader and writer. The reason why I selected this area for improvement is because I noticed that I am not a good reader and/or writer. I should rephrase it, I could be a much better reader and writer.
I like reading. I think it is essential to being successful at work and personal life. Among many things it helps one keeping relevant. I read everyday. I read articles in magazines and newspapers, I read books, fiction and non-fiction. I read course-related materials like case studies and text book chapters.
I do read. But I am not satisfied with what I get out of reading. Being a hard-working person does not guarantee the best results. My shortcoming has been the low level of information retention and understanding of the text.
I discovered a course on how to be a better reader and writers.
I am going to record my progress in this rubric.
Analysis and Critique
Lecture 1.
Great writers are great readers.
Active, engaged reader.
Layout of the course...
Piece of writing #1
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Competition
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Lecture 3 (using combination of writing genres to enhance work)
How literature can help
A piece of writing has 3 lives
1. When we read it for the first time and have no knowledge of the text
2. When we read past our initial reaction and try to interpret the information presented in the text (reflect on the text)
3. When we come back to the text, armed with both our initial reaction and the results of the analysis that we conducted
Re-reading.
Engaging writing: genre definition
Expectation of the audience.
Do not dash the expectations of the reader about the form/nature/genre of your writing (begin a mystery novel with sonnets)
Make the most of utilizing the major genres
Five major types of writing:
Prose (fiction - 3rd person, omniscient) - sub-genres
Poetry - the use of writing that uses language in unexpected or unconventional ways, rhythm, patters, rhyme
Drama - something that's performed in front of the audience. What the characters say and how they say it plays the cenral ... we have to suspend our disbelieve (4th wall)
Essay (formal tone, argumentative approach, making a claim and support it with the sentences to follow) - easy to define - piece of writing that seeks to persuade or informs and place in a particular position
Auto-biography - the story of a life told by the person who lived it
Historical fiction - combination of auto-biography and prose
Auto-biographic essay
Protest letter:
Leash law for dogs
Dear City Council,
I am writing to ask that you consider establishing an off-leash area of the park (city) park for (the) local dogs, many other (areas of the) communities have designated (the) off-leash areas for (the) pets of the citizens and these are usually carefully monitored and have strict rules about (the) interactions between animals and cleaning after them. This would be a positive thing for both the dogs and their owners.
Thank you for considering this request.
Punch it up a bit to make a more persuasive request.
Use conventions of poetry to grab a reader's attention:
what is the letter about? about dogs and doing something nice for them
--> find more interesting choice of words to refer to these animals
Begin the letter with
It's not for nothing that dogs are often referred to as man's best friend. These furry four-legged friends provide companionship and love to their owners.
Then Essay
Auto-biography
As a dog owner for many years and having lived in many different communities, I've seen first hand how off-leash areas in parks are beneficial to dogs and provide members of the community even those who are not dog owners themselves a chance to enjoy watching these friendliest of animals of all play and interact with one another.
Drama and Fiction
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Lecture 4
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