Free Write for Tuesday 1/31

1. Respond in images. No periods.

What does your home town have to teach the rest of us? Compare detailed specific parts or stories from your hometown or the place you wrote about last week to Missoula. Try and employ as many images as you can. 

2. Ask twenty questions relating to the missoula bioregion that you could find out the answers to. 

3. Who are you? What are you supposed to do? How does where you are connect to who you are and what you need to do?

Home Work Tuesday 1/31

For your homework today, first watch this video. While you watch, notice how the speaker says "we wondered" and "we tried to find out" and "what would happen if...". 

Once you've watched that, read "Writing the Sketch" in the CW 104 and the example sketch starting on 105. Read "Moving from Sketch to Draft" 106-109.

Then write two rough drafts of 350 words each for your life place essay. You can revise one from your free writes, but do the other one all the way from the start. Let questions drive your writing. By Wednesday at 5, email these to your group. 

Read your partner's rough drafts and choose the one you think is heading in the best direction. Then write a paragraph response to one sketch from each of your partners with ideas for expansion and questions to answer (you should have the same number of responses as partners). Skim chapter 14 in the CW and use it to help guide your response or shed light on any problems you might have. Pay attention to "The Reader's Responsibility" on 595 and "Methods of Responding" 599. Email me your response before class Thursday. We'll spend a chunk of Thursday workshopping these drafts.

Hello

     My name is Dayle, it’s not short for anything like some think. Danielle does not in anyway condense to become Dayle. Most people have never seen Dayle spelled the way that it is in my name. Most of the time it’s just Dale, which, more often then not, makes teachers believe that I will undoubtedly be a boy. I am not a boy. I was a tomboy when I was young and I am very good at particular sports, but I have grown into more of a girl with time. I’m very interested in music, particularly in opera. I’m a high soprano going on two years. In grade school I was an alto because I could read music, but in college I was gently forced to become the enemy of the alto, the high (sharp) soprano.  I plan to make both performance and education a big part of what I do in the future. I will probably make no money in life but I am content with that knowledge. My biggest challenge is learning new languages, but because of my wonderful choice in majors I have to take German. I can sort of write a sentence in German, but what I’m really hoping is that I can write an essay up to college standards in English.    

A few words about Matt Hill

I should start with my name as it is usually a good place to start. My name is Matt Hill. If you want to know more about me read the rest of this, if not just stop, but I would prefer if you kept reading. It does not really matter to me. I don’t write for other peoples benefit. I don’t write for my benefit. Most of the writing I do is just because I want to. That’s not really true. It’s mostly because I have to, but I don’t consider that writing. It is more like work. Writing should not be work. Now back to me. Things I like would be something I could tell you about. People like it when they have something in common with someone. Maybe you and I have something in common, whoever you maybe, that makes you want to read more of what I write. Myself, I like to kayak. That’s the short and narrow of it. I can never think out anything for too long without going back to kayaking. If you are wondering too I consider kayaking the act of paddling a craft down a river while trying not to die and having the most fun. Not that thing you do when you go on vacation in Mexico or wherever and you look over the side at some fish. No I whitewater kayak. It is the bee’s knees. That and skiing. I guess there is a bit more to me. Now you’re going to be saying “now he is going to define skiing for him” eh? Yup that is exactly what I am going to do. I telemark ski. That’s the one where you lift your heel. Like they say: “free your heel ski for real”. To me I would say that telemark skiing and kayaking are the only two things that can ever pull my attention away from each other. I could be looking at kayaks online then someone is like “bro! Check out these new skis I got!” I would be turned around so fast checking them out. I would say I know more than the average bear about them as well and kayaks too. Man do I know a whole mess of stuff about kayaks and kayaking. Let’s not start okay? Good.

Free Write for Thursday

1. What is sustainability? Do you feel like you have a handle on the concept? Is there more you'd like to know about it? What questions do you have about sustainability? Do you feel like you live sustainably? Is U of M a sustainable campus? Expand on why you think it is or isn't.

2. In a new document:

Tell me about a natural place you love, one that you've known for a good amount of your life. Why is that place important? What makes that place important to you? What stories do you have about that place?  Have you learned things in that place you couldn't learn anywhere else?

Can you tell me what the weather is like there? How was the geography of the area formed? What threatens that place? Has it changed since you first knew it? Will it be there in 50 years? How will it look in 100 years? Do you have any responsibilities to that place?

Homework Thursday January 26th

Read "Valley High, Valley Low" by Heather McClafferty, and the preface to Life Place by Robert L. Thayer (which you can download on e-reserve through the library website under writ 101. The password is writ 101. Review the handout on the Life Place essay which you can find on the blog under assignments. Be prepared to take a quiz.  

About Me

My name is Acea Stops and I am from Crow Agency, Montana. I am, for the most part, a Native American of the Crow Tribe. Of all the things that I love, I love my family the most, they mean a great deal to me. It would upset me if any members of my family came upon any bit of bad luck or were the least bit fortunate in any situation. I love being social and also having a lot of laughs. What intrigues me the most in life is the fact that others’ upbringing is in most cases far different from my own, and what I mean by this is that I grew up in a Native American community, with all the ambitions to get out in the world and succeed; whereas most people back home only wish to stay there because of some odd sense of safety or fear of the outside world. What is also very intriguing to me is that I now have the opportunity to get out and experience a wide variety of things, and most people don’t have the chance or else don’t choose to. I am very passionate in being true to myself. I am very proud of who I am, where I come from, what interests me and what I have in store. I love the fact that I am here in Missoula and I know that this is where I ought to be. What made me decide to choose this specific college is the fact that both my parents attended here right out of high school, as well as my favorite high school teacher and a few of my peers that are older than me. I plan on using college to help me get to my goal career, which is becoming a math teacher and teaching the younger generations from my hometown.


I am actually quite excited for this writing course because at the moment I am not that great of a writer and I’m hoping to improve on being able to get my thoughts into structured sentences. At the beginning of high school I absolutely abhorred having to write at all, but by my junior year I built an interest in writing after my language arts teacher constantly brought up the idea of using writing to express myself. Although I would call myself an inexperienced writer as of right now, I plan on being far from that by the end of this semester. 

About me

     My name is Scott Sandridge, there are many things that interest me. I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and Seattle, Washington. One of my desires in life is to learn and experience a plethora of different things and to constantly try to push the limits of what I am capable of. Some of the things I am currently interested in include economics, which is the focus of my study here in Missoula, as well as history, which is more of a hobby for me. Those are also some of the things in which I believe I have a decent amount of knowledge about, although I am by no means any kind of expert and still have much more to learn. 
     As I mentioned earlier my Major in college is economics, but that of course doe not fully explain the purpose for my existence here. My primary goal in college is to get a solid foundation in both economics as well as the Chinese language. I feel that using these two things in combination will give me an advantage in the job market when I graduate in a few years. Previously I desired to major in History, but with the current economy,  I feel like a History degree would not be a worthy investment of my time.  
     The only reason that I write is when I have some kind of obligation to. Rarely do I sit down and write anything for pleasure. Unless I have an obligation to write, you will be unlikely to see me writing. In the past some of the issues that arose with my writing was that I would get hung up on minor details that I felt were not perfect and tend to miss the big picture. Instead of just pushing forward to improve the overall product, minute details would consume me and ultimately degrade the quality of the final product. I am not sure what the ideal place for me to write would be, I almost always write at my desk at home (wherever that is). Perhaps I could explore other places to determine whether changing my writing environment could have the potential to improve my writing.

My name is Kristian Stipe and I am from whitefish Montana. I was born there. I grew up there. It is one of my favorite places in the world. I love to ski, so growing up in whitefish was a big plus. With Big Mountain less than 15 minutes out my front door, skiing was always a possibility. I have been skiing since I was roughly 18 months old.  I am pretty active outdoors. I grew up without TV. When I say without TV, I mean we only had PBS. Since I grew up on PBS I watched a lot of Nature and Nova, lots of science shows. My parents are both computer geeks. I have been surrounded by computers my whole life.  I am at college for a couple reasons. Mainly I am interested in higher knowledge. I want to know more. I enjoy learning new things, mostly science.  I am at college for a chemistry degree. I really want to do research for something. I am not interested in working for the oil companies, which is basically my only other option other than research if I have a chemistry degree. I am also considering getting a minor of sorts in education. I wouldn’t mind teaching chemistry either.  I live with my girlfriend off campus. I have been going out with her for close to two years now. I love her very much.  I know a decent amount about skiing and chemistry, the reason they are my two major interests. I don’t do much writing; I am a pretty terrible writer, unless it truly intrigues me. The only worthwhile things I ever written was an essay about procrastination, and a research paper about stem cell research.  The reason those were half way decent was because I was actually interested in them. I’m not sure writing can do a whole lot for me, with the career path I am choosing. There will be scientific papers I suppose, so I guess it is slightly important for me to learn to articulate myself well.  I am very unmotivated when it comes to writing. I usually just don’t care.  I just don’t. It is hard to focus on one thing at a time for me. I don’t particularly enjoy writing. So it makes my writings even worse. When I try to write about something I’m not interested in I just hit a wall and start to give up. My ideal place to write would probably be in a library, where I hopefully won’t get too distracted. In my own space at home I usually end up getting distracted unless there is a major deadline. I never really get stuff done until the last minute

About Me

          My name is Sam Smith, I love many things but especially my family, friends, and my home. I learned this about myself over winter break. I have always loved my family, close friends and home, but I didn’t realize how important they were to me until I left them for a few months to the far away state of Montana. Coming home and being in their presence again made me realize how much I enjoy the state of California, the city of Sacramento, and the relationships that I have built up for my entire life.

          I am passionate about being successful and getting to where I want to be in life, which is working in the field of business management. I am intrigued by music and athletics which is why I want to work in one of these fields when I grow up as a manager. I love entertainment, people can be entertained by such odd things and there is so much money in the entertainment business. The possibilities are endless and I think this is why it intrigues me so much. I know more about surfing than most people, especially people here in Montana. I grew up in Elk Grove, California which is a suburb of Sacramento. I lived about an hour and a half away from Santa Cruz, one of the greatest surfing beaches in the world in my opinion. Therefore I surfed just about every weekend and stayed in my grandparents beach house. I have 8 years of experience and have surfed with a couple of surfing legends, something most people can’t say.

          Writing can help release feelings, it can help get out emotions that cannot be said as easy. I usually write when I am frustrated and can’t vocalize what I am trying to say. I have always been a pretty decent writer, I need to improve my vocabulary to make my papers sound better, and I also need to get better with procrastinating. My papers tend to not live up to their full potential due to the lack of time that I put into them. An ideal place to write for me is in a dim room with music on alone. I tend to work  better with music and alone with very few distractions. Therefore I usually begin my writing with a paper and pen to lessen the amount of distractions that I would face on the computer such as Facebook and Stumbleupon. Another ideal place to write is outside, in nature, away from people. I tend to get distracted very easily at the beginning of writing when I don’t quite have a solid idea and structure for what point I am trying to make. Therefore being isolated is a key to success for me, especially with the beginning steps of starting a paper.

About Me

My name is Victor Mauro, I'm 19 years old and I was born and raised in Whitefish, Montana. I grew up loving the outdoors and constantly being active. I always found myself strapped into a snowboard on Big Mountain, or seated firmly on top of motorcycle. I played football ever since I was a little butter ball in fourth grade, up until my junior year of high school.
I find joy in writing as long as I can relate to the topic, or if it intrigues me enough to hold my attention. I don't have any intentions of pursuing writing as a career, but I do find it to be a very useful stress reliever. I think writing is a very efficient way of expressing emotion in a necessary manner, and that's probably what I like most about it. Hopefully this class will broaden my horizons a little bit in writing and help me be a better writer.

Hi!

My name is Briana De La Chance and I am a Pre English major. I love to write and can’t wait to learn more about it.  

I grew up in Montana, Missoula mostly. I have two older sisters and a younger brother. All four of us love writing. I like to credit my mother who was always telling us to tell her stories and to write them down. I have so many notebooks full of stories I wrote throughout the years some starting as early as first grade. My family has always encouraged my writing and pushed me to come back to school and get a degree in English so I can write for a living.

I have a 14 month old son. He inspires me. Until I had Paxton I didn’t think about how important it was to further my education. Paxton makes me want to be a better person. He makes me want to be more than what I am now. I recently took a poetry class and having Paxton in my life has really made me a better writer. Some of my favorite poems that came out of that class were about Pax.

I am super excited to further my writing knowledge. I am hoping to come out of this class a stronger writer.

Greetings!

My name is Jessie Mazur.  I am 18 years old and from Whitefish, Montana.  I am majoring in Political Science with a focus in American Government and Journalism and majoring in art.  I am also a cheerleader for the University.  

I am intrigued by people and politics and how they work together.  I think it is very interesting how people and their governments interact, hence my major.  I want to go into government, or perhaps political journalism. 

I love painting.  I have never taken an art class before but I paint a lot in my free time. 

I actually really like learning and I just want to soak up as much knowledge as possible before my parents stop paying for my school and make me go into the real world.  I like having knowledge.  

When I write it is usually articles.  I have tried creative writing but I’m not very good at it.  I really like feature writing and opinion pieces.  I like exploring topics and making complicated issues relatable to the public.  

Learning to write comprehensive research and persuasive essays will be a great skill to have if I continue into the political field. It’s so hard to get your message across in the political world now-a-days without it being twisted into something else.  So it would be awesome to be able to articulate my views with comprehensible essays.  

I don’t like writing about things that I’m not interested in I guess like everyone else.  Also like most people, I procrastinate.  I don’t do well under timed writings.  I’m a perfectionist, and that doesn’t really work when you have a time limit.

I am really good at editing though.  I was the editor of my journalism class in high school and edited about 30 articles a month so I got really good at editing formal writing, making it flow, and understandable and correcting grammatical errors.   I am good at grammar, but I kind of suck at spelling.  But there is Google and spell check so I am not too concerned about that.  

Hey my name is Mac Adams. I am from Whitefish, Montana. I enjoyed growing up there skiing and playing soccer. I am at here to pursue a degree in Political Science. Politics have always interested me because of the key role it play in our every day lives. I plan on going to law school after i graduate. I am looking forward to expanding my writing ability because i know it needs some work!

Hello!

     Hey there! My names Nicholas McClure and I'm a freshman here at the university. I plan on majoring in chemistry. And end up researching, and/or in a lab learning new scientific concepts. I'm from a small town in Vermont. I love to snowboard, polevault, longboard, bmx, slackline, and rockclimb.
     I've never been the person to read nor write. But I do enjoy doing both. I like to write a lot of poetry and nonfiction. Its amazing what topics, ideas, and visuals will come up with writing poetry. Writing allows me to save my ideas and thoughts so I can come back to them. My ideal place to be writing is on a comfortable chair in a room with lite music in the background. Music tends to get ideas flowing through my head when I write.
     I tend to have ADD when I read or write. I have a hard time keeping focused on a text. But when a topic really interests me, I have no trouble getting mentally focused on the text. So when I write, I tend to write about topics that interest me.
     I'm excited for this class and the gain ill get from it. Hopefully with much writing, I'll soon be a much better writer. Which will help me with my upcoming classes.

About me!

Who am I and what are my passions are not always the easiest questions to answer, seeing as my passions often change. I am a freshmen, and my name is Haley Shovlin. I always have a passion for the happiness of others, and my family. My passions go farther than this, but im not great at the whole “think of your passions and spill them on paper” business. I am intrigued by the people around me and finding new things I love. Most recently I have discovered the love for baking, over the last couple of years. I am interested in finding new ways to bake goods that no person has seen, or are at least very uncommon. The cookie dough stuffed cupcakes, s’mores cookies or the ice cream cone cupcakes were definitely a hit amongst my hometown. Most people do not know as much about sign language and the culture of the deaf as I do. After studying the culture for 3 solid years I have a great understanding for the topic, and can almost sign fluently. Sign language is also I passion I forgot to mention. I am rather good, which always help to make me enjoy a task. But as well as being good I enjoy the fluid motions and conversations I can have without speaking a single word. The emotions shown in my face and the drastic movements of my body expressing exactly what I want other people to understand is so intriguing to me for the oddest of reasons.

I write mostly when I am forced to, to be completely honest. When I do write without being pushed, I usually am writing out of a strong emotion. Whether I am upset or angry, I usually write to express my feeling at the time being to further help me with that similar emotion in the future. Writing hasn’t done all that much for me in the past few years, except for help me get my emotions out. When I am overwhelmed I write to get out my thoughts, put them on paper and have them vacate my mind for the time being. The problems I face are usually how to word exactly what I am thinking in either a grammatically correct or understandable way. I am not always the best at putting words on paper when they are flying around in my jumbled up mind. Ideally I write in a room with dim lighting, with a bright computer screen flashing the words before me to guarantee I see what I am putting on paper. I usually write alone, laying on my stomach and nothing else around me, to keep me from being distracted. Writing is not my passion, most likely because I am a poor writer, in my opinion at least. I use it when I need to, or when I am forced to write for school, such as now. But if I am taught to become a much better writer I might find joy in it somewhere.

Hey there

Hey there my name is Shayleen, I am a freshman, and I came here from Colorado. I have three brothers two that are older, one that is younger than me. They are truly the closer to me than anyone. Most people would think that having three boys around would be tough but I wouldn’t change it for anything. They are probably the reason that I am so interested in soccer. I have played ever since I could kick a soccer ball. Even when I wasn’t playing I was around it because of my two older brothers. I played soccer until my junior year in high school, but because of medical issues I had to give it up. But I am not afraid to kick a ball around or play a pickup game for fun, pretty much anything along those lines. Even though I can’t play any more I am sure that I could tell you more about soccer than most people. I wouldn’t be able to tell you everything but most things yes I could. I love anything to do with sports either playing in a game or just watching it on TV.

I am here at the University going for a degree in elementary education with a minor in special education. I came to Montana because it is one of the top schools for elementary education and I believe that I will be able to get more out of it here than at most other schools. I picked a minor in special education because I grew up with cousins who had problems and they were never treated fairly in a class. If I can make one child feel a little more equal to the other students, than I know I made the right choice by going into that major.

Honestly I know that I should say that I love writing and would do it all the time if I could, but the truth is I am not too big on writing. I do love to write letters but that is about it when it comes to writing anything for me. If I am not asked in a class to write a paper or something, than I am pretty sure you would never see me writing. When I do write if I have to my favorite place is somewhere with a lot of noise even if a sports game is going on. I grew up around the loud noise of yelling every time a team lost or boys punching each other over something pointless. Anywhere loud and noisy and I could write anything. I could never imagine a better place.

Hello :)

My name is Jess Neary, I am a freshmen pre-journalism major this year and also a designer on the Kaimin newspaper staff. I love photography, writing, my three dogs, my family, and my friends. I came to UM because of its excellent journalism school and hopefully it will propel me to a career that I truly enjoy.

I used to write to let out a lot of negative emotions when I was younger such as my parents divorce. Now I keep a journal and sometimes I don’t write it in for months, but usually late at night, I get an idea that won’t go away until I write it down. I love going through my journal because I chose my topics carefully enough that they still hold true today, instead of just some flimsy moment in my life that won’t matter in a month. Writing allows me to describe my emotions, because sometimes I find it hard to voice them. So instead, writing it out allows me to figure out a solution or understand how I’m feeling.

My ideal space to write in is my bed, late at night when I’m inspired about something that is meaningful or my family’s lake house in upstate New York on Lake Ontario. All you can hear is the waves rolling up against the shore and the breeze on your neck. I like to imagine myself there a lot when I do write at home just because it holds a lot of memories for me as a child. It’s a place that never changes. Even when my family has sold the property off and it’s lost forever, when I write, I hope I can still imagine myself there. 

Just a bit about me

Hey guys! My name is Annaleigh  Newall  and I am a freshman here at University of Montana. I am from a small town north of Seattle called Mount Vernon. I have 2 siblings, a younger sister, who is almost 16 and a younger brother who is 11. I have danced since I was 8 years old. I have competed with dance for 8 years and I taught dance for 2 years to 2-10 year olds. Dance is my passion. I tried other sports before I stumbled on dance, but found dance to be my passion. I love anything to do with dance, whether it’s taking a class or teaching or performing on stage. I feel that compared to the normal person, I know a lot about dance., but there's still always more to learn. In fact, I am minoring in dance here at UM. My  major is business management. I am hoping to open my own dance studio when I grow up. I have always found writing to be one of my stronger suits. It is definitely not my favorite, but it’s not something that I hate doing either. When I do write, it is generally just to complete assignments that are required of me in school. I am not the type of person to just sit down and write just to write. I also enjoy writing letter! I love getting mail. Some problems I have had with writing are using correct formats that are required. Also, I sometimes have trouble with making sure that I am staying on topic while I am writing. But other than this, writing has always come naturally to me. I have always been good at spelling and punctuation and connecting my thoughts to paper. My teachers throughout my schooling before college have always told me that I have good voice in my writing. My favorite place to write would probably be at my kitchen table at home with a nice hot coffee next to me. Growing up with siblings and a kid friendly house, I am used to there always being noise when I am doing homework so I can’t work when it’s too quiet. But, if my favorite kitchen table spot isn’t available, then I will gladly choose a comfy chair in front of the fireplace with a warm fire going and that same coffee.

Welcome to Writ 101, writers!

Your homework: First, write a blog post introducing yourself. You can use your in class free write if you like but be sure to revise it. Then, start digging into what sustainability means by watching this video. Read the syllabus, the wikipedia page on sustainability, and pages 79-82 in the Curious Writer as well, and come to class Thursday ready to take a quiz over these subjects and talk about the concept of sustainability.