My Last Blog Post

     This past week, I was sick and I had to drag myself out of bed to go to class. This was the first time in a long time I got this sick; my head was pounding, I had a high fever, my throat was throbbing, and I lost my voice. This was very frustrating for me since I love to talk. I tried to work on my writing challenge, but it was difficult for me, as I could not stay focused long enough to write anything. So instead of working on my 30-day challenge, I looked for TED Talks videos about writing style and did not find anything that I liked. But, I came across one video by Julian Treasure How to speak so that people want to listen. I feel this video related to my 30-day writing challenge because speaking and writing go hand in hand. On his video, he talks about how to speak powerfully in order to get people to want to listen. He said, “There are a number of habits we need to move away from and they are gossiping, judging, being negative, complaining, having excuses, lying, and dogmatism.” In writing I feel we need to do the same. I personally like to read only articles with true facts, and don’t care much about the other things like gossiping or complaining. He also talks about the word “HAIL not HAIL the one from the sky, but HAIL as to greet or acclaim enthusiastically, which stands for honest, authentic, integrity, and love.” I feel we should always keep this in mind when writing in order to create great pieces of writing. 

     As this assignment comes to an end, I feel I have learned some new information about different types of genres and places in Colorado. Even though I did not write every single day about places here in Colorado, I made sure I was writing something on a piece of paper. I wanted to get in the habit of writing more. I will continue to write every day to improve my writing skills.

Where Are We Going Today?

     Today, we are going to visit the Seven Falls. It is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This was one of my favorite places we used to visit when I was growing up. My parents would love to get away from the city, and this was one place we would end up. For the most part, we enjoyed each other’s company. I remember my mother would always pack the best lunches for this road trip. She packed the best “Tortas” (Mexican Sandwiches with ham, avocado and veggies) and a lot of fresh fruit for the long day ahead. My parents were always talking about their plans, what needed to be done around the house, and things to take care of for my grandparents. I learned at a young age that you need to take care of your parents thanks to these conversations. My brother and I were always fighting over some nonsense in the back seat of the car. My mother was always just telling my dad “Mira Los” (look at them), and my dad would say, “We're going back home if you guys don’t behave.” His words would always calm us down because we couldn’t wait to get to the Seven Falls. We loved running up the stairs and enjoying the view.
     The history of Seven Falls in Colorado dates back to 1872, when a man named Nathaniel Colby inhabited the 160 acres that included the present day Seven Falls and South Cheyenne Cañon. He sold the land to the Colorado Springs Land Company for $1000. In 1882 James Hull purchased the property for $1,300. Mr. Hull was an environmentalist who was disturbed to find the scenic splendor of the canyon being threatened by people chopping down the surrounding forest for its lumber. So, he founded Seven Falls in Colorado Springs, and built a stairway along the side of the Falls. He also installed a toll gate at the foot of the canyon and proceeded to do business. Back then, a local entrepreneur paid Hull $500 for the privilege of taking passengers by carriages, burros and horses to the Falls for 25 cents each. Business flourished and Seven Falls in Colorado Springs became a prominent tourist attraction. The Seven Falls cascading water reaches a total height of 181 feet. Visitors can experience it up close and personal via 224 steps on the staircase from the base of the falls to the peak.

Half Way Done

    
     I am more than half way done with my challenge, and I don’t feel I have dedicated as much time as I hope for this challenge.  I wanted to write more about Colorado, and different types of genres of writing. I’m failing miserably, and I’m not happy with myself. I wanted to gain a lot more from this challenge and it is not happening. Even though I have been writing every day, I am not writing what I originally intended. I’m noticing that there are way too many distractions for me to concentrate on my writing, and I am trying hard to ignore them. I am trying to stay focused on writing. I know there are many beautiful places here in Colorado to write about.

     Today while surfing the internet I came across this beautiful place named, Hanging Lake. Hanging Lake branch off I-70 just 10 miles east of Glenwood Spring in the spectacular Colorado River-Carved Canyon. This last summer I tried a few times to take my family and was not successful; every time we went the parking lot was full. We ended up exploring other places in Colorado and those created unforgettable memories. Hanging Lake would be a wonderful place to do some research as to the color of the water, history, rules and regulations. An informative essay could come out of this visit. 

Who Knew Their Are A Lot Of Rules To Follow

     There are different rules you need to remember about the specific genres. Most importantly, you must be efficient in the way you communicate with the audience you're trying to reach. Like I mentioned before, this is my first time back in school in a very long time. Therefore, I need to educate myself on these rules. My professor recently assigned a few assignments, and they were required to meet a specific guideline in order to receive the full credit one example is “MLA formatting.” When the assignment was assigned, I had no idea what that meant; therefore, I needed to research nor did I have an idea what that stood for, and I went to this website: Purdue OWL.It shows you how and what the steps are to create a MLA document. While doing research, I also ran into this website for APA Format, MLA and APA I found they are similar but different in their own way. I know both formats are going to be very useful in order to create documentation/papers for school. MLA for example is used for English Class and APA is more for social science types of documentations.

     While doing some research on the internet, I came across this website: Ways to improve writing in college. I like all the tips: "Tip #1: Write every day," is a good habit to have because it helps build skill and habit. "Tip #2: Take your time." It’s important to take your time when writing because you need to learn to capture the audience's attention. "Tip #3: Quality is always better than quantity." This one is so true when writing because in some cases you can go and on when writing and not really saying anything. That is why the quality is better.  "Tip #4: Ask for help." I find this one very helpful to me. I have always been afraid to ask for help with my writing, but I know now it's ok to ask for help. Its helps to improve your writing."Tip #5: Practice proofreading." It always helps to read out loud to make sure your writing make sense.

What Is Going On With Me

     Oh, my God!! I thought this was going to be a lot easier, boy was I wrong…Before the challenge, I thought I was ready for this 30-day writing challenge. I even came up with an idea and created a calendar in which I would be learning different types genres, and different places in Colorado with one representing each day of the challenge. Today, I was writing about doing some research and I ran in to this website about different types of writing styles: Four Types of Writing. I like this website because it gave some good information about the different styles out there. Yet, I’m not sure I'll be able to follow it as I would like to because I have more homework then I planned for. Thanks! Denise (she is my professor) said, “The honeymoon is surely over.”

     I am a very proud and blessed mother of 4 little boys. I am  married to a wonderful man who is very supportive. My family requires a lot of my attention with sports, school functions, homework and the day to day errands. My mom job can be very challenging to say the least. On top of balancing my home life, I have to be writing every day for my English class. Oh yeah, let’s not forget I need to learn how to blog for this class as part of the assignment. I tend to over think things when in some cases it is a lot easier than I think.

     Today, I was doing some research and found this website: Build your own blog. I know my first step is to target my audience. I know this website is going to be very useful and informative with my blog.

           

A Little About Me

 Hi! Everyone. My name is Roxanna, and I recently enrolled at Red Rocks Community College. I have been out of school for a long time. I never thought I would be sitting in a class room again. I made the choice to return to school because I definitely enjoy learning. I knew this was the perfect time in my life to be in school, and there is no other place I would rather be. I understand there are going to be a lot of challenges that I will be facing on this journey. I look forward to my bright future.

     When I was growing up, I struggled because I did not speak English. It made it a challenge to communicate with my teachers. It was very difficult for me; I remember my teachers were mean to me, and they would hush me all the time. It came to the point when I stopped talking in school. I couldn’t reach out to my parents because they did not know English; they only spoke Spanish. I did not have the support that I felt I needed to be a successful student. I have been carrying that with me for a long time, and it has been hard to let go of my feelings. I know in my heart that if I would have had what I needed back then, I would have continued on to college after high school. I know it is never too late to start something new.

     Fast forwarding to my English class today, my professor assigned a 30-day challenge as one of our major assignments for the semester. I decided to do a writing challenge, and I plan on gaining a lot of knowledge from this challenge because I know I need to work on this skill. During this challenge, I’m going to work on different types of genres. One resource, besides the internet, that I will be using is The Bedford Book of Genres a Guide & Reader. We are using this book in my English class, and it is very informative. At the beginning of the semester, the class was required to read the beginning of the book, and the section we read was about Rhetorical Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Now knowing that Ethos is represented as the credibility of the writer/composer, Pathos is an appeal using the emotional side to reach the audience, and Logos is the logic and connection of the facts to the point of the genres, I feel I have a better understanding of how to interpret any reading, writing, and visual ads. With this knowledge I gained from this reading. I plan to incorporate it in my writing and also write about different locations in Colorado. Here I go. So wish me luck!