Writing Suggestions Week 15

I LOVE THE WRITING IN THIS CLASS!!! Seriously I have never had a class that I get to be so creative with writing! I love getting to make up stories every week and just be whatever character I want! I think I say this all the time but it's so true! That's exactly why this is the second class I am taking from Professor Gibbs! This semester was very hectic for me because of how challenging my classes were and how crazy my work schedule got but I still had a blast! I chose to do the writing portfolio, mainly because I did not have the time to do a storybook! I was very disappointed though because I would have loved to make a Harry Potter Storybook because I had so much fun making my Shakespeare storybook a couple semesters ago! Nonetheless, I'm happy I chose that because I got to make my storytelling posts even more elaborate. I also liked that I got to have Professor Gibbs look at my favorite storytelling posts and give me such in depth feedback! Something I have ALWAYS been impressed with is how in depth she critiques stories! She has SO MANY that she reads, yet she still pays special attention to everything we write. For commenting posts, I would suggest to just be in depth and say everything you feel! People value honesty and want feedback so don't hold anything back! I really loved when people gave me constructive criticism so I would definitely want to do the same to others! Those are the comments that really made my stories better instead of just saying generic things. This class has DEFINITELY made my writing better. I learned so so much from every email I got from Professor Gibbs. It made me realize where I struggle with writing and how to get better! I know that in my future job, I do not have much writing that can be done but I hope to get some responsibilities that require writing because of how much fun I have writing! I may not be the best writer (I know I am not very good), but I love writing so much! Advice for future students would be to be as creative as you can be! There are seriously no limits with creativity and you learn so much about yourself! Don't hold anything back! I know that even though I won't use writing too much at my future job, I will need to be creative and this class definitely helped with that!

Reading Suggestions Week 15

I really enjoyed the readings for this class! I know that this may not be the case for everyone but I have troubles reading actual books quickly so maybe the only suggestion I can think of would be to make the times for reading longer. I felt myself rushing through the chapters sometimes because it was difficult to allocate time to read on top of my other classes! I really did love learning about those stories though because I did not know anything about Indian Epics! I definitely think reading assignment extra credit assignment would work well! I also really really loved doing the untextbook ones because I was still learning about Indian Epics but with shorter stories that seemed a little easier for me to follow! Advice I have for students is to manage time wisely and know when they are going to get the reading done! Also do not just work on your assignments the day they are due. Get a week or so ahead so you never have to scramble to get things done (like I ALWAYS did). It's funny because all throughout college I told myself I would stop procrastinating and now, 23 days away from graduation, I am FINALLY trying to work ahead in a class. I guess some habits are harder to break than others.

Essay Week 14

I have had lots of different types of experiences with writing. The first thing I can remember is my sophomore year of high school. I had a really great teacher who taught me a lot about writing. That was the year that I felt like being in all Pre-AP classes would be too heavy of a course load so I decided to take a grade level english class. This was my first time in high school to not take an accelerated level class. It was the weirdest thing ever. For the first time I was surrounded by people who really did not care whether or not they did good in their classes. Many of the people in that class did not care about getting into college one day. My teacher could tell from the beginning that I had different passions that the other students in my class. I learned a lot about creativity and writing in his class. He was the one I went to a couple years later to edit my college application essays. He challenged me a lot more because I would often come to him with help on my assignments and he taught me a lot about taking ownership over my writing. We wrote a very lengthy essay over To Kill a Mockingbird in that class. Whenever I think of that book I think of his class because that was the first time I studied it in school. In college I have not had too much experience with writing. This class has honestly been my favorite (which is why I am taking it as a second class with Professor Gibbs) because of all of the freedom to be so creative with writing. I took my college english classes in highschool so I never really had the OU english experience. I will definitely miss this class and getting to write creatively and I hope that when I graduate I will still be able to write. Something I really try to do is write people letters. I love snail mail and will probably try to use it more after I graduate!

Image Information: Cover of To Kill a Mockingbird taken from Wikipedia

Week 14 Storytelling: The Nerd and the Beauty

My name is Lesley Simmons. I have never been the most attractive girl or he most talented or the most popular girl in my school. I have always wanted to climb my way to the top. I never believed it to be possible but one day I thought all of that would change. Apart from my flaws that I feel I possess, I know one thing for sure is that I am an excellent artist. I have been winning art competitions since I was in kindergarten and next year I plan on going to the Savannah College of Art and Design on a full scholarship. Just because I do not have many friends doesn't mean i can't dominate art like I do. Well one day the most popular girl in school found herself in a pickle. I was working on my art project at the workshop when I saw the most popular girl at school crying over her project. She had a lot left to do and I could tell that she did not know how to finish. This was our final art project and if we failed this one we would have to retake the art class in the summer and we would not be able to walk at graduation. I knew what I had to do. I went over to her and asked kindly if she needed my help. She told me she would love that. I told her I would help her if she would just acknowledge me and say hi to me in the hallways. Maybe that way people would talk to me. She agreed and passed her project.

I saw her in the hallway last week and, of course, she said nothing to me. I walked up and said hi to her and asked how her friends liked the art project. She asked me who I was and made all of her friends laugh. That one really hurt. I was completely convinced that she would be changed and realize that it was possible to do something nice for someone else. I guess I should blame myself for thinking that she would change. It was very embarrassing but it ended up working out for good. I sat by myself outside that day at lunch, crying. A boy named Micah came up and asked me what was wrong. I began talking to him and told him what was wrong. When I told him my name, he told me he recognized it from my art on display. Turns out he’s going to SCAD next year as well. Goes to show that you can’t trust anyone but any situation can fool you.

Image Information: Original photo from The Lion and the Crane

Author's Note: I wrote my story based on The Lion and the Crane. In that story, the crane helps the lion and then expects something in return but the lion is selfish and does not do anything for the crane. My story was similar in that a girl needed help like the lion and did not reciprocate the help.

Bibliography Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Week 14 Indian Fairy Tales

Indian Fairy Tales Unit 

The Lion and the Crane

• The crane helps the lion get a bone out of his throat but when the crane wants something in return, the lion does not help. 

The Broken Pot

• This is a story about being greedy. The man is planning out everything he will buy using the rice and eventually is the one that causes there to be no more rice. 

The Magic Fiddle

• The beginning of this story reminds me of Joseph and the dream coat from the bible. The brother's wives try to kill their sister but she takes revenge on them in the end. 

The Cruel Crane Outwitted

• The crane tries to outwit the fish but ends up getting outwitted by the crabs. 

The Tiger, The Brahman and the Jackal

• The tiger tries to kill the Brahman but instead the brahman and jackal trick the tiger to go back into it's cage. 

Harisarman

• The Harisarman starts poor but is eventually given everything he could ever want.

The Charmed Ring

• The story reminded me of a mixture of Lord of the Rings and the prodigal son from the bible.

The Talkative Tortoise

• The tortoise was riding with the ducks but fell because of the fact that he opened his mouth. 

The Gold-Giving Serpent

• The Brahman's son tried to kill the serpent but he turned around and killed him instead.

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

• The robbers learned not to trust everyone

Why the Fish Laughed

• This one was my favorite because it had such a deeper moral than just about a fish. 

Essay Week 13

I absolutely love this photo because it is definitely something that is such a struggle in today’s world. I am definitely victim to this sometimes because I often struggle with correct punctuation when writing. I’ve gotten a lot better, however, with using correct punctuation in texts. Texting has become such a HUGE thing in our generation that it seems people have lost their ability to correctly type. I see people making these common punctuation mistakes so much. I love this cartoon because when I first looked at it, I actually thought it was going to be something clever and have cats and dogs falling from the sky. I thought maybe it would be talking about people taking things literally. I have seen something similar to this that says “let’s eat grandpa” and “let’s eat, grandpa.” Then the caption says “punctuation can save someone’s life.” I thought that was pretty hilarious. I know that one year my grandma visited for a week and made me super paranoid about correcting people about the correct form of me and I when grouped with other people’s names. It made me crazy about it which makes me constantly correct my friends about it. I feel like texting could be a small contributor to why people are so lazy about using correct grammar and forms of words. I think the thing that drives me the craziest about texting is when people use abbreviations like “rn” after typing a long paragraph. I just think that if you can type out every other word in your paragraph, you can definitely type out the words right and now. I will definitely never understand that. All these things are frustrating  but I am definitely not one to talk because I still make the same mistakes over and over in all my stories in this class. I especially use comma splices too much. I think that as long as people know what they need to work on a change can eventually be made.

Image Information: Cats and Dogs taken from Online Course Lady

Storytelling Week 13: The Golden Bird

There was once a group of three pirates named Rusty, Grayson, and Deana. Rusty was next in line under his father, Eduardo Estevan, to be the captain of his ship called The Wolfeburn. Grayson was his best friend and right hand man on the ship. Deana was one of the two women that were allowed to be pirates on their ship. The men ran this ship for twenty years before allowing women aboard. Rusty met her when they were on shore in a small town in the Caribbean. They fell in love instantly so he brought her along, knowing he wouldn’t be able to continue on without her. Eduardo made a promise to a woman named Missy, his old mistress, regarding the future of his ship but the outcome of the promise was to send Rusty to a desert island for four years. Missy hated Rusty and eagerly sent him away at the first chance she got. This broke Eduardo’s heart but he knew it had to be done. Rusty was allowed to bring Grayson and Deana with him to help him survive on the island. Eduardo saw the island of Gllewedwyynd in the distance and knew the time was coming. They said their goodbyes and Rusty reassured his father they he would see him again in just four short years.

While on the island, they found that survival came a lot easier than they thought. One day while she was looking for some food, Deana saw the most beautiful golden bird. She thought that one of the feathers would make the most beautiful necklace that could remind her of home. The lorikeet bird was the national animal from her country, Clank. She woke up to their song every morning. When she saw a golden one, she was instantly in love with it. She came back to Rusty and told him about the bird and that she would be so overjoyed to have one of this bird's feathers.

Rusty went out in search of this bird to get a feather for his love. When he got to the bird, it began to attack him and he realized that instead of taking a feather he would kill it and have all of the feathers. Right before the bird died, a human appeared. It was the righthand man, Tel Edwards, of their biggest enemy named Don Pedro. Don knew where Rusty was being marooned and wanted nothing more than to kill him. Tel was a shapeshifter so he disguised him as a golden lorikeet and had him fly over. He was going to try to bite them in their sleep and get rid of them from the seas for good instead of just four years. As he was dying, he changed his voice and cried out in fear in Rusty’s voice to scare Deana. He then died and Rusty was able to bring the feathers of the bird to her. She was so sad when she realized that the bird was actually a villain, but was happy that she got a feather and felt safer now that he was gone.

Image Information: Photo of Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth on the desert island, inspiration for my story taken from Jack Sparrow Gallery

Author's Note: This was a retelling of The Golden Bird from the Ramayana unit. The original story takes place while Rama and Sita are exiled in the jungle. Ravana's brother Maricha takes the form of a golden deer and runs past Sita. Sita asks Rama to capture it for her. Rama goes after the deer for Sita.When Rama hits the deer, Maricha comes out of the deer and cries out for help in Rama's voice. Sita is alarmed by this and runs to help. Instead of being based in the Indian Epics era, I made the characters pirates. They were marooned on a desert island instead of being in exile in the jungle. The woman in the story sees a golden bird instead of a deer and she wants the feathers from it. The main pirate,Rusty, also has his close friend with him and the girl he loves. Just like in the original story, the bird actually was a bad guy in disguise. I got this idea from thinking about Pirates of the Caribbean when Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth are marooned on the island. I listen to the POTC soundtrack when I study which is how I came up with using them for my story. I wanted to keep my story happier so I did not make Deanna get kidnapped like Sita did in this story.

Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)