Success

Success, defined as "the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors" by the ever helpful dictionary.com, basically sums up everything I have taken from this class. Anyone can write, but it takes a great deal more to write successfully. Within this class, I have learned what it takes to do this and what steps to take to get there.

Take this baby, for example. He has a fist and a mouth full of sand. Every baby that steps foot on a beach tries to take a handful of the soft, white powder surrounding them and shove it in there little drool filled mouths. It takes one dedicated baby, however, to overcome their mother's swatting hand at their prized filled fist before it enters their toothless jaws. This baby was successful- he shoveled up a handful of sand and piled it in his chubby little cheeks before his mother's hand could push his away.

Within this class, I have learned to be like this baby- I have learned how to write while considering my audience, process, reflection, etc. before my own "swatting hand", or laziness, boredom, and carelessness, swat my hands away from being a successful writer. The baby walking onto the beach, seeing the sand, and his little gears in his brain working can relate to the audience- you have to figure out each aspect of your writing before you start. The process is the act of taking the sand and placing it in his mouth; every bit of writing you do is considered part of the process. Last, that priceless look on his face is the reflection. He accomplished what he wanted; even though the taste might be rough and it might have been a hard process to get through, he is thinking of everything he has just accomplished just as we do in writing. The final factor = success.

Success comes in many forms, just like the success that Akon & friends felt in this video:

Successful writing comes to people in a variety of ways and each person has their own way of demonstrating it.

Nicholas Carr's Is Google Making Us Stupid?, he is writing a magazine article about a search engine everyone uses, however, he must take this very broad audience and narrow it down to attract the audience he wishes to grasp. He does this by successfully using language that is not over the top, but not too casual. He also seems to think that Google is, in fact making us stupid as he ends the article with Stanley Kubrick's dark interpretation of the world's future- that "our own intelligence [will] flatten into artificial intelligence". He successfully narrows the audience to incorporate both sides of the argument, but ends it with his own feelings on the matter at hand as he does not turn the audience away.

In Learning & Transfer, there is a specific process that is talked about for successful transfer. These include: how much you have learned initially about the original subject, understanding the material instead of just memorizing it, the amount of time spent learning the material, “active monitoring of one’s learning experiences”, or reflection, motivation to actually learn, the context of the initial learning, etc. Going about this process will lead to the successful transfer that is talked about throughout this passage.

Paul Auster in Why I Write talks about the reasons why he writes. For example, he says, "if there is a pencil in your pocket, there's a good chance that one day you'll feel tempted to start using it." While he does not talk about writing successfully, understanding and reflecting on why he does write is an aspect of successful writing.

SUCCESS- It's that feeling of completing and receiving an A on your research paper, the feeling of completing a rubik's cube; the feeling expressed by Akon and the Lonely Island; the feeling of missing your mother's swatting hand and shoving that fist full of sand into your watering mouth. Through this class, I have learned how to be a successful writer, and will utilize the things I have learned to remain a successful writer.