Summary and Response

The comic strip titled Two Questions by Lynda Barry is about a girl who used to love to draw. The two questions "Is this good?" and "Does this suck?" creeped into her life when she was in first grade. The two most popular girls in her class really liked the picture she drew, her teacher even liked it too. Her next drawing wasn't as good. It made the people in her class think she was stupid, dirty and lame. She stopped drawing for her own pleasure, and started listening to the critics. She wanted everyone to like her again, so she kept asking her self "Is this good?" "Does this suck?". As she grew older, she noticed kids stopped drawing, one by one. Then, she started to realize that those two questions made her dread drawing, and it made her lose that happy feeling she used to get. Her advise is to draw for yourself, not for other people. Express yourself and draw what makes you happy.

I can relate to this story because when I was young, I kept a diary and I loved writing short stories in it. As my school career went on, I stopped writing for myself and started writing for the grade. If the instructor gave us a controversial topic, I always chose the side that was easiest or what I thought the teacher would agree with. I never wrote my own feelings down. After reading this, I realize I can write for myself AND still get a good grade. Sure it has to be in MLA format and all instructors have their own criteria, but I can still find a way to make the paper my own :)

Hourihan Blog Post

1. A blog has many features. For example, According to Meg Hourihan's article What We're Doing When We Blog a blog has the posts collection, links, and the time stamp. The posts collection is a neat feature because the newest posts are always at the top of the page, which means we don't have to scroll through and find what has been changed or added. The author of the blog can also post links. The links can help reference where the information is coming from. Lastly, the time stamp allows others looking at the blog posts to see how recent that post is, and it can help them figure out an update pattern.

2.Before September 11th blogs were primarily personal dairies. But now, blogs have become very popular and used for media purposes. 

3. I feel like keeping a blog in this class is easier than turning in a whole bunch of papers. I also think it is a great way to express yourself because you can have backgrounds and what not. The only disadvantages I see is that when you post something it is very public, and some people might not like that.

4. Blogging is kind of like "self publishing", or a free write. There are no limitations and no rules, just write what ever you would like :)

Why is writing important?

My life goal is to become a doctor. Doctors use writing to document important findings and then then publish them into books and what not. Doctors will need to be skilled in communication because sometimes doctors have to be the bearer of bad news. They have to figure out a way to tell you the bad news lightly, and so you can understand everything that is going on.  My writing will have to improve during my college career because I will have to become accustomed to writing research and thesis papers. Although, writing and communication is very important in most career goals :)