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I think the narrative assignment was my favorite assignment out of all five. In the other four assignments, I learned valuable skills that will no doubt help me in my future endeavors whatever I decide to do with my time after undergraduate, but the creativity in the narrative assignment made me feel like a little kid again. It was a little tough figuring out what I wanted my assignment to be about, so I decided to take a few occurrences from books and movies I enjoyed while growing up. Imagination is important to have and I’m very grateful I got to put it to use in a college writing class context.

This assignment was particularly challenging because it was a group assignment and it hard to get everyone together to work on it and mesh well enough together to where we could play on each other’s strengths and help build on our weaknesses. It was awesome having someone there to tell me if something didn’t make sense or if it wasn’t worded properly. The biggest take away from this assignment I can think of is that I learned a lot from being able to build this project together with other like-minded college students. I had the section of the target audience and demographics and I nailed that part so overall I am very pleased with the way this assignment turned out.

This was my first time writing a strategic news piece, having the power to swing someone’s favor one way based on just how you worded something. One of the main things I struggled with on this assignment was GSP errors and having extra words in there that didn’t need to be there. Also, I had no idea beforehand how much I had misusing quotes in previous assignments like stand-alone paragraphs are where quotes should go in a strategic assignment like this one.

Before this assignment I had never learned how to write in AP style formatting, I was always used to writing in MLA style formatting. It was pretty tough at first. I had to switch between the Purdue owl website on AP writing and what I was writing many times. I finally got the hang of it thanks to you and your wonderful teaching ways, as well as from a few peers who were never hesitant to lend a helping hand. For them and you, I am truly grateful.

In many of my classes in my past few years at Texas Tech I have had to draft up a resume, and each time I learn something new. With your class Professor Paulk I learned that it is strong to talk about your passions, skills,and interest. I have also never learned how to write a cover letter before, and I am thoroughly happy I was able to add that to a list of my abilities. Furthermore, I have learned that it does not take a genius to be able to write a paper, but just someone who is willing to teach you and guide through the many low points in life.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.