Dylan Vandiver

10/12/14
UWRT
Ms. Rothwell
Rothwells Crazy Ideas(in a good way)
Throughout this class so far, we have worked on many assignments and activities. These
assignments and activities have been diverse. We have worked on reflections, free writes, played
cards, created a book, narratives, peer editing, and many more. Everything we have done has
given us a chance to experience different styles of writing and can help us figure out if a new
style will work the better for us.
The final draft of the Balloon Ride project is a piece that helped me understand the
writing goals. The detailed information combined with my first person view of how I learned
how to play soccer assisted the audience in understanding the situation. Knowing the audience I
was writing for, which was my fellow classmates and Ms. Rothwell, affected the way I wrote my
paper. I explained the way I learned soccer in a way that my audience would comprehend what I
was doing. I would not have to write about the basic fundamentals and could have written more
complicated steps based on a different audience who was more familiar with soccer, such as a
soccer coach. For example, in my paper I explained how I learned to pass, dribble, and shoot. For
a soccer coach, they would be more interested in reading about how I learned to move with and
without the ball, keeping shape, and defensive form.
Using specific detail describing the practice field, helped support the dominant
impression of the setting of my paper. The elements of the location such as, being surrounded by
a church, mulch Company, and woods, showed how little Wallburg, my hometown, was familiar

with the game and how little it was respected. I realized by his broad shoulders which shaped
his intimidating features and booming voice that he lived down the road from me, Danny. He
greeted me by saying, Drop that ball. We dont use our hands here. These descriptions and
actions that I used to describe my coach support the impression he gave me as a child. I tried to
make the reader feel empathy of the intimidation I felt from his tall stature, features, and
booming voice.
The difference from the first step of this project, the 70 minute free write, to the final
draft showed my improvement as a writer. Revision has become one of my stronger steps in
finalizing a paper. I picked one topic from my free write assignment to write a paper on. After I
had written the rough draft of the paper, I had the paper looked over by my partners and Ms.
Rothwell. I took their constructive criticism and suggestions, such as adding dialogue, work on
the point of view, adding more detail, and applied them to my final draft. My most important
issue I needed to fix was writing in a single tense. I read over my paper, and focused on certain
paragraphs to completely change to the first person point of view. I added more detail in
situations. I pass the ball bouncily over the patches of grass to him, he lays the ball off, I run up
full sprint, and kick the panels out of the ball! I launch the ball way over the goal, headed for the
mulch company. I impressed myself with the power behind the shot. This example about when I
was learning how to shoot, better explains the setting, what was happening, and how I felt
through this lesson. Dialogue was suggested to add more when I was learning the specific skills.
Here is when Danny was teaching me how to pass, Turn the hip of the leg of which foot you
would be passing with, bend your knees for balance, swing your leg through the center of the
ball, lock your ankle, strike the ball under control with the inside of your foot and follow
through. and he supported me after my attempt by saying, You did well, but itll need some

work. That is what practice is for. This inserted dialogue helped describe the characters and
circumstances. The final draft of the Balloon Ride project was, in my opinion, my best
understanding of purposefully revising.
The Altered Book reflection was a good example of successful use of specific
information to support my book and why I included that specific content. The narrative section
of the reflection assignment asked me to go in detail about my decision to put what I did in my
book. For each page, I explained my motives for putting each picture under each topic. For
example, for my art page, I wrote, I believe music is the greatest form of art in how artists and
musicians express themselves through their music. This demonstrates the specific information
to support my opinion of pasting music pictures on my page. I gave a brief description which
supported my reasons for everything I pasted in the book about myself and my views.
My letter to Ms. Rothwell was an example of my understanding of my audience. When
responding to the letter that I received, I needed respond appropriately because I was addressing
my writing professor. I could not use a Whats up? to greet my professor. I could not use slang
words that I would use with my friends. I needed to stay professional and show respect to my
audience. I text differently than I email my professor because of the relationship I have with my
audience. If I did not understand my audience, I could easily offend my professor by the way I
present and express myself.
My writing process is primarily the same with everything I write. The process differs
based on the type of writing it is. In free writes, research, reflections, and revising I usually take
the same basic steps. Sadly, I waste time and put off starting my paper. I do not always use my
time efficiently. Personally, starting a paper is always the most challenging part, but for some
reason I cannot make myself begin writing in the middle of a paper. I will do random activities

around the room. For example, I will juggle a soccer ball in our common room, do some
pushups, watch sports, explore around campus or just talk to people while I think how to start the
assignment I am working on.
Once I build up the motivation to sit down and initiate the process and create an idea of
where I should start, I set up somewhere I will be comfortable. This location is either in my room
at my desk or in the common room on the couch. This decision depends on what each site
consists of. Are there other people here? How the lighting is in each room? How many
distractions are in these rooms? Do I need to charge my phone? Essential questions, right?
When I am set up and ready to start, I pick a Pandora station to listen to. This depends on
mood. The range of music stations could be from trap music Migos, upbeat Daft Punk, chill Kid
Cudi or good vibes Red Hot Chili Peppers. No matter what I pick, there is always music playing.
I cannot think properly and work on homework without the background noise of some type of
music.
Also, I cannot completely finish an assignment without being distracted. I will often take
breaks when working on an assignment. Working in increments of 15 minutes is typical, until I
finish a paragraph or when I finish a thought. When I take my break, I will do the same random
activities I mentioned earlier or check my phone. It gives my brain a break from work because
my brain no longer produces high quality work after exhaustion. I do not write down ideas, make
an outline, or think ahead of time except when I am trying to begin. I write what is on my mind
about the topic, not in a free write sense, but what is on my mind with a ongoing thought of how
to edit the paper and word it in the most effective way. Once I complete a paper, either myself or
a classmate will read over the document and edit the mistakes found.

An easy goal that I hope to meet by the end of the semester is having more motivation
and focus to write. I want to enjoy writing rather than dreading it every time there is an
assignment. I hope that I can figure out a way to think about writing as a stress reliever. My goal
is for writing to evolve into an activity where I can express what I want to say and put my
emotions into it. If I feel like this when writing, it will enhance my focus. The enjoyment will
keep me occupied and aid me in working more efficiently on my assignments.
A middle goal that I hope to meet by the end of the semester is to find a more effective
writing process to make me a stronger writer. If I can find a way that works for me that I am
comfortable with to organize my writing, it would positively affect the quality of my writing. I
could figure out ahead of time, what the topic is, what the setting is, who the audience is, where I
would need detail for the audience, and map out a more organized paper.
A difficult goal that I hope to meet by the end of the semester is to more effectively
revise my own paper. I want to have the knowledge to read over my paper as if it is not mine and
figure out how to revise it. Since it is my work and my paper, I have a bias over the quality. I
might think that there is nothing to fix, even though there are things that other people would
notice to make the paper stronger. I want to have the ability to be able to see the parts where I
can strengthen the paper and revise it to the best of my ability. Not just simple spelling or
grammatical errors, but to figure out how to make the paper flow. For example, in my Learning
Soccer paper, I do not think I would have been able to figure out that I would need to fix the
point of view problem.
Overall, I thought I did well on this midterm reflection. I believe that this paper was well
organized. I found it easy to write about my writing process and set goals for myself looking
forward. The most difficult part of the paper was including specific detail throughout my paper

and adding examples. My favorite part of the assignment was writing about my writing process. I
was able to reflect about the process I go through when writing a paper and almost any other
assignment. Ms. Rothwell will enjoy my paper and approve of the changes I made in my paper.
She may still tell me that I needed to add more examples but overall I think she will like it. She
will probably give me feedback on my paper for future reference on what I could do to make my
paper stronger too.