Blog 14: Reflection on Media Unit.

            I find all the exercises we do in class (writing responses using claims, reasons, and evidence in google docs, groups, and forms) very helpful when trying to compose essays.

When I am in class everything seems crystal clear to me which I can’t say is the same way I feel during the practice CAT’s.

I do have a general idea of how my essay should look like, but when it comes to actually putting everything down on a piece of paper my mind goes blank.

What I find the easiest is summarizing. Also fining key ideas in a given passage isn’t troublesome for me. However the part that is difficult for me is giving specific examples for reasons that I mention in my thesis, especially writing whole paragraphs that actually would make sense to the reader. It is very hard for me to form my thoughts in actual clear and meaningful sentences.

Another thing that I find difficult when writing an essay is referring back to the text after I finish writing a summary. 

To be perfectly honest I much more enjoyed watching the movies “The Truman Show” and “The Marix” than writing summaries and responses to them. As well as “The Allegory of the Cave” I find both of them very perplex and I think it will take more time for me to fully understand their symbolic meaning. Although I do find them complicated I think that they are very easy to relate to. So when I get a difficult passege for me to relate to I can always try to use “The Allegory of the Cave”, “The Matrix” and “The Truman Show”.

CAT #2 was not as bad as I thought even though I don’t think I’ll pass. The given passage was really hard for me to relate to. I wrote my summary which I think is pretty clear. I wrote a thesis supported with specific reasons (I think three). Giving examples was the hard part. I couldn’t find a way to refer to the passage when giving my examples.

Since this way my second CAT I am not really worried because I know we will have more practice before the actual CAT.

            To make biggest improvements in my essays I have to stay focused on the topic to which I am responding to and concentrate on elaborating my own ideas (examples).