Week 8 Progress

Overall, I'm very happy with the progress I've made over the first half of this class. I'm especially proud of the fact that I have not missed any assignments yet, even though I have terrible time management skills and have cut it close a couple of times. Despite these shortcomings, I do seem to have a fairly successful and repeatable routine that I have followed. I have probably enjoyed writing the stories the most, which is crazy for me to say, as those were the assignments I had the most hesitations about. I have not done any of the extra credit options so far, mostly because I have been able to complete the regular assignments in time, and with my schedule, it gets difficult to fit any additional classwork in.

Over the rest of the course, I hope to continue to complete the assignments and avoid falling into the trap of slacking off on some of them once I reach the number of points. I may start focusing almost exclusively on my project the final 2 weeks once finals and everything begin ramping up, but I do not plan to do that at this time. I might look into trying some different writing styles, but I also am a perfectionist, so it might not be successful, which would stress me out tremendously. These may be things for me to work through and try to use to better my writing abilities.

Believe in yourself

Source: Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

Feedback wanted

Source: picryl

Feedback In:
Overall, I would say I've been pleased with the feedback I've gotten from people. I especially find it nice when someone comments on multiple stories, or both stories and my project, as it makes it seem as though they're interested in the stories, making me want to work that much harder and try that much more to perfect what I have written.

Feedback Out:
I feel like I have been able to give good feedback for some of the other students in this class, but I must admit that it's difficult at times. Everyone has written some very good stories, so I sometimes find myself struggling to comment and feel like my suggestions can improve their writing.

Blog Comments:
I feel like I know people fairly well from this class. As I said earlier, it's really awesome seeing the same person comment on multiple posts, and I've tried to do that with a couple of people whose stories and everything sounded super interesting. I'm overall fairly happy with my introduction and what my blog displays of me for everyone else to see.

Looking Forward:
The rest of the semester, I'm going to try and work on my feedback some more. Even though I feel like I have been successful at leaving quality feedback, I believe that I can still improve and leave even better feedback. Additionally, I want to continue following some of the other students' work and see how their writing evolves, much like I know mine has this semester. I feel like the comment wall and my introduction have been beneficial, and that I've received good feedback that I will use the rest of the semester.

I allow myself to do things imperfectly.

Source: Growth Mindset Cats

I decided on this picture because one of my struggles is trying to make things perfect my very first time, even when I have multiple drafts I need to turn in. This made things challenging in English classes, as some of my teachers/professors wouldn't accept papers that didn't have a certain number of revisions completed. I've been working on not allowing myself to stress such a large amount over these things.

Week 8 Reading and Writing

So far this semester, I have really surprised myself with some of the stories I've written. Although they may not be the best stories or always the most creative, I feel like they're much better than I felt I was capable of when the class began. I feel the same with my project, although that is a little bit more difficult. I feel like I am constantly straddling the line and fighting between having too much detail, so much to the point of blowing through the word limit, and not having nearly enough. The battle is much more challenging that I anticipated it would be, as I find myself writing as if I am scared that I will cross that limit and be unable to trim it down successfully.

I've also enjoyed the stories that we have each week. When I first saw 15,000 words each week, I was a little intimidated, but as the semester has gone on, I find it easier and easier to read the stories and glean what I can from them.

I'm extremely excited to continue the class during the rest of the semester. Although it can be a little more time intensive than I thought it might be when I first enrolled, I find it quickly being one of my favorites that I've had in my time at OU. My time management skills still need a little work (I am writing this hours after I told myself I would, after all), but I find it easier to complete the assignments in a timely and quick manner than I did at first.

Source: GoodFreePhotos

I really enjoy this picture compared to some of the others, mainly because I've always been a fan of these kinds of angles for pictures and videos. I'm always intrigued by the views from a lower perspective in movies, such as the ground level shot of people running and all you see is their legs/feet, so I feel like this picture is a no-brainer for me.