Hannah Cooper
Personal Journalism 339 –W 9:00am
Summer Quarter 2015
Personal
Journalism has taught me many new ways of thinking about writing in a lot of
ways. This course has shaped my perspective on writing by increasing my skills
in creative writing and more formal, as well as learning from other students
through our class blog posts and concepts from our class.
One component
of this personal journalism course I especially enjoyed was the process of writing in our journals
itself. I generally like to write but don’t always make the time for it unless
there is a deadline. However, this course gave me the desire to make time
because for one, there was freedom with guidelines. In other words some written
content was only read by a small audience which was less pressure. Second, I
felt I could write down even small details that stood out to me without having
a specific format, as far as the personal journal goes. The concepts from class
and readings provoked a lot of thought.
One concept
that stood out to that we discussed in class was identifying patterns in our
writing. Some of the patterns that I noticed in my own writing in this time
frame was, I used words that associated a feeling (genuine, love, relax) are
some of the words. I went to the beach or other nature spots to write, that’s
where I found most inspiration. However, sometimes it was hard to begin writing sometimes. I swear, I
would think of something I wanted to write down at the most random times and
then when I sat down, I would draw a blank. One of the tips you talked about in
class Z, was to just set a time for yourself to write, and don’t stop until
that time is up. I found this helpful because I didn’t feel so much pressure to
write a master piece in the first two lines ‘haha.’ I usually didn’t write
straight 30 minutes, but I’d spend a time frame of about two or whatever hours
and take breaks in between writing sessions. The first five minutes of the
writing sessions, I practiced the first order thinking qualities and thoughts
that I would jot down. These thoughts would be random and sometimes the
spelling would be incorrect or super just--- out there. Then I would be ‘warmed
up’ and actually write with more a purpose in mind or theme.
At times I would write multiple pages with
different topics, and other times just a page or rant. I found it impossible to write in my own
house, expect on the patio. The personal journal is easily transported and
accessible anywhere, which worked well for me. I could leave my house and still
have the opportunity to write and escape.
A personal journal is my own. Someone could read the journal, but they can’t
change those words on the paper. That fact is sort of scary, but at the same
time liberating. On a computer for example, content and text can be deleted by
a quick button.
The journal provoked questions I thought of. For
instances if I looked back at a week old journal entry I would ask myself why
did I feel that way? Was it the feeling temporary? What did I focus on? Why?
A process means there are steps and growth along
the way, the journal helped me in the writing process through routine and
practice of the art of writing itself. Each week it was interesting to identify
patterns or ‘unpatterns.’ Either way, I discovered there are reasons for mostly
everything and its’ important to ask questions like why?
Writing things
down helped with my memory and paying more attention to specific small details
that I may not have kept note in my mind. When I went back and read my journal
entries when organizing my final journal project, it brought me back to the
moment when I was writing and the feelings I had at that time. It was a way to
reflect and see if there was any progression made, or if the feeling I had then
was temporary or still lingering.
Creating and
maintaining the blog was super cool too-----!!!. It definitely peaks my
interest—style---blog---writing---I eventually want to add more to my blog and
start another one. It got me more comfortable formatting blog posts, and
familiar with that writing style.
As far as the blog responses go, it was a little more difficult to get in that habit, but it is super important to engage with your audience for a couple of reasons. One, is I love getting read back on what people liked/disliked because it helped coordinate my next blog post. If the audience responds more to one blog post than another, I would take that into consideration and able to adjust and be more cognitive of the content I’m writing about.
As far as the blog responses go, it was a little more difficult to get in that habit, but it is super important to engage with your audience for a couple of reasons. One, is I love getting read back on what people liked/disliked because it helped coordinate my next blog post. If the audience responds more to one blog post than another, I would take that into consideration and able to adjust and be more cognitive of the content I’m writing about.
Communication
as we have learned is a two-way process, meaning it is extremely important to
read feedback from who ever are reading and respond to them. I find it very
helpful when people reply back because it lets me know there is someone ‘behind
the computer,’ which makes it feel more personal. The feedback provokes thought and allows me
to go back and reflect like I mentioned earlier. Someone may respond to a post
I made and ask a question that I had not thought of prior which helps me really
dip deep as to the message I was trying to convey and if that message got
understood.
One of the assignments from class where we had to analysis
another person’s journal opened up my perspective on the process of writing.
For one, I was looking for an article to write about which is part the
beginning process, and I personally find articles I wasn’t planning on coming
across but really spoke to me! It was neat to read other people’s personal
thoughts because it made we realize we are all a little crazy.
Art and
Distance section was interesting also because after I felt freer to write the
content not so essay-like with more hidden meanings. I think I meant home after
the art analysis class and wrote and poem and was like, “Oh yeah that’s art.”
Haha. Like an art piece, a piece of writing can have many meanings and symbols.
I find that particularly interesting about both (art and writing pieces).
I
am definitely going to continue keeping a handwritten journal. Its’ helped me
in a lot of ways especially with being more aware to detail. Writing down my
thoughts is like therapy, I always feel better and more accomplished after. I
have found that most feelings or emotions are temporary in terms of a reaction
towards a situation. For example, one bad day at work doesn’t mean the next day
will have the same outcome. In fact it has a greater chance of being better
because I was able to acknowledge the feeling by writing it down and then
figuring out a solution to make the next time a better experience! Of course
not all of my journal entries were rants; many were writing down the little
things that made me feel good like a new recipe I want to try or documenting
moments that stood out to me.
To sum it all up, I want
to highlight a few--- for me was our class discussions and blog posts, the art
analysis, the journal project, listening to music during class during our free
writes, and readings from the book Project
Happiness, which all provided me with a desire well to, ‘never to stop thinking about thinking and
writing.’
Sincerely,
Hannah Cooper
