Maxine Hong Kingston, Three Step Responce

1) Velcro words/phrases

Dumbness

“I stand frozen”

“the first silent year”

silent

misery

“being a Chinese girl”

2) Emotions/Feelings

sadness

concern

shock

pity

anger

sympathy

3) Curiosity- questions?

Is she not good at English because she is so young or Chinese?

Was she really quiet for a whole year or is she stretching the truth?

Why didn’t the teachers pay more attention to her?

When did it get better?

*Free-Write for 5 minutes:

This made me feel a lot of emotions. I was able to relate to her because my sister was a shy kid when she was younger. The teachers neglected her and when she was in second grade my parents went in for a parent teacher conference and the teacher didn’t even know my sister. Things got much better when my parents put my sister in a different school (that same year) where the teachers would encourage kids to speak up and have a voice so that they could learn and be challenged. I feel like if all the Chinese girls were quiet, why didn’t the teacher do anything about it? I felt really bad for her, because it must have been so hard and on top of that- nobody cared. It was really easy to see this in my head. Kingston used many descriptive details that really evoked emotion in me, the reader. The way she used the word silent often and quiet just really hit me. It also made me sad to see that such a little girl, a kindergartener, could feel “dumbness.” I felt really bad for her.

On Writing Well Ch1-2

I can already tell that On Writing Well by William Zinsser is going to be one of my favorite “textbooks.” Reading chapters one and two was not just a simple and enjoyable task- it was also exceptionally informative. I loved how in chapter one he describes writing as “a craft, not an art.” To me this is very interesting because I would have expected answers like Dr. Brock’s about being a professional writer. I never thought of it as a craft or a job, something you have to work at every day. That thought tied into English class for me because when he mentioned a set aside time for writing every day, it is similar to us freewriting five days out of the week for ten minutes. In chapter one he also talks about how writing is a very personal work, there is no right way to do it and I can see a relation between that and English class, where we are encouraged to be our own selves and write about what we want by writing how we want to (within certain parameters).

The goal to not sell the reader on the topic, but on the writer is something that spared an ‘aha’ moment in me. It explains how I can pick up a book or an article on something that isn’t a topic that interests me yet it draws me in. It works both ways though, it is also one reason why I might be too bored or cannot finish an article on a topic that is really interesting to me. Zinsser explains it as the “aliveness” that keeps the reader reading. I think that’s a perfect description. I am very interested to see how humanity and warmth are two qualities so strongly expressed in this book, which he stated in the end of chapter one. I don’t really see how they go with professional writing, but I figure I will learn soon.

I related so strongly to chapter two because clutter is my biggest problem writing. I say unnecessary things, repeat myself, or circle around a thought instead of saying it, and has been a problem in my entire academic writing career. I learned that he thought the secret to good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. My English teacher in 10^th grade had us do a revision exercise that put every sentence by itself so we could see our paper sentence by sentence. It was one of the most helpful exercises I’ve done with writing and what Zinsser said reminded me of it and made me realize the importance of each sentence. I know one of the reasons I have so much clutter in my writing is because I do not have a clear head, and Zinsser said that clear thinking leads to clear writing. I just have so many thoughts that pass through my head and I try to write as many down as I can, but in the end I end up doing all the negative things I stated earlier- especially repeating myself.

When Zinsser gave the example that Thoreau, one of the greatest writers ever, simply wrote what was on his mind it really made the chapter come together for me. I understood everything about writing simplistically, but having the example really sent it into my memory.

Having the revisions at the end of chapter two was such a good idea. It was amazing to see them and they really made sense. I looked through them and they are just little things that I really struggle with thinking of on my own, like when he changed “two or three different” into “several.” It’s such a simple fix but I know I struggle with coming up with things like that on my own. I really look forward to reading this book and all the learning that will come with it.

Motivation

I am a transfer student who had to medically withdraw from university one year ago. When I was in high school and in my first college, I really lacked motivation. I would simply do the work with the least amount of effort to still get good grades. Ever since I was unable to continue college and had to withdraw- my motivation for everything has been higher than ever. I was able to take a lot of personal time to focus on myself and really strive to be the person I want to be.

My motivation is described perfectly by Daniel Pink’s idea of a third drive: the intrinsic reward. I want to do so many things, including college, simply for the satisfaction of doing them. Basically what I understand from Pink’s idea is that I’m going to college because it matters to me. Yes, I will get a college degree and that will be extremely helpful in the workforce but that’s not what motivated me to go back to school or to get the highest grades I can. What motivates me is myself. I know that if I study and work hard and really apply myself to the fullest extent, I’ll make myself really happy.

Another factor in my motivation is that I actually just really want to learn and know things. I am studying business because I enjoy learning about that. I want to know even more though. My motivation drives me to want to do the boring Economics readings because I want to understand it better. I would say that this part of my motivation is hugely helpful in getting me through things I don’t want to do, because I can look and see the end result. An example of this would be not wanting to read a textbook for homework, but I know that if I read it I will learn something that will help me further down the road. 

The way I see motivation is that I deserve to make myself happy and feel good after so many years of slacking off and tearing myself down, and college is one place where I know I can succeed in that- and that is all the motivation I need.

Watching the motivation videos and reading the articles really helped to spark a fire in my brain about motivation. I was so fascinated by both the videos, even though they were very similar, because he brings so many pieces of evidence to the table. The biggest and most powerful one to me was, “There is a mismatch between what science knows and business does.” I not only wrote that down and starred it, but I thought about it for a little while- and it still baffles me. I just am so confused as to why business is the way that it is still, even if they know it doesn’t work as well as other ways. I understand that it’s changing at a very rapid pace, but after being raised by two people in the field of business, it is a hard concept to wrap my head around.

Another thing that surprised me was the entire MIT experiment. I don’t really have much to say about it other than I found it really interesting that when being tested on the cognitive skill (rather than the mechanical skill) people did better without a reward. I find that fascinating. I can see how incentives (“If you do this, then you get that”) can block creativity, I just would have never thought that on my own until the data was put in front of me. I really loved all the articles and videos we used to help focus on motivation. I love learning and writing about things that interest me.