Credible Commentors:

Screenshot from my computer - Washington Post

Gussie is the most credible commentor I saw after surfing through a hundred or so comments.  His sentences are relatively clear and easy to understand with no all capitalized word choice.  This person delivers the one defined idea that there was a problem with the handling of classified data that has to be addressed no matter what the situation with the source being a presidential candidate.  They are credible because they chose to only address the single point and keep within calm and concise language.  Although they did not state any single belief directly, their choice to look behind the political debate and at the root of the problem suggests credibility.

Screenshot from my computer - Washington Post

Henry leans on the lacking credibility side as he shows more emotion than reason.  Although, his comment is very well thought out and the humor is well placed.  His bias is very clearly present in showing his disdain to the progressive mindset which renders his comment as very one-sided.  However, his credibility also comes from the intelligence to realize the media frenzy has the ability to blind others by putting their beliefs first.

Lacking Credibility:

Screenshot from my computer - Washington Post

Emotions were definitely running high at the time of this comment.  Baltic used the all capital word choice and emotional language to convey his beliefs.  His credibility is ultimately lost when he concludes that punishment is necessary for those that think of themselves as above the law.  While it may be correct that those who commit a crime should be reprimanded, the context shows that Baltic was ultimately driven by anger to post this comment.

Screenshot from my computer - Washington Post

Les Wong is the typical conspiracy and all capital word user that one often sees on political threads.  The information he presents is erratic and heavily driven by emotion.  His beliefs are imbedded in this post, especially around the time he labels Clinton as anti-religion.  The audience now knows he is a devote Christian who does not like Liberals one bit.  His final characteristic is perhaps the most obvious trait of lack of credibility, the length and tone of the comment is written for the purpose of teaching those who are wrong and do not understand what he thinks is obviously right.  Any actual information is this post is hidden by his strong preaching characteristics and erratic writing style.

Calendar Reflection

After reviewing my calendar, it becomes even more clear how much I will have to rework my time management.  I am definitely not used to having hours of possible homework time interspersed throughout the day and not the high school schedule of classes in the morning, followed by extracurriculars, and homework for all 7 classes whenever I returned home.  This often meant starting homework around 10PM or later.  It is quite odd to actually have the time to do homework from mid-day to mid-night.

Lee, Josh "Studying Students inside of Powell Library" 28 Nov 2012

Having classes only a few days a week does make that workload significantly more manageable.  I have plenty of homework time early on in the week in which I can complete the bulk of the English work, leaving any final work for Friday and Saturday.  I can easily achieve the six hours of work leaving 3 to 4 days to dedicate to my other classes.  It might take a lot more planning and rearranging than I thought, but as long as the work load stays manageable, I should be able to make it all work.

Ignatius, David "The Hilary Clinton e-mail 'scandal' that isn't" August 27,2015

The article, written by David Ignatius an Opinion writer for The Washington Post qualifies whether or not the Clinton email scandal is actually the scandal it has been made out to be.  The background of the scandal is as follows, Hilary Clinton used a personal email server as opposed to the federal government server to send emails of a political nature, that may or may not have been classified.  Ignatius repeatedly uses the argument that her choice of using her unauthorized email is not a prosecutable offence, as this is far from the first time information has traveled along an unauthorized route.  The use of the personal email, is technically a crime, but the opinion Ignatius is presenting is how extensive the crime actually is.  Much of the news has been heavily focused on the action of using the server itself, but few focus on the results of any investigation.  It is also mentioned that neither Clinton's email nor the federal government's server were deemed authorized for sending the classified information that is claimed to have been sent by Clinton's choice.  During the heights of the scandal, questions from reporters were unavoidable, and there are many quotes of Clinton continually addressing the emails.  She has stated that it is at her discretion the bulk of her emails was released and there was no sensitive information in the work related and personal emails.

I chose one of the most persistent presidential campaign attacks before the entrance of Donald Trump as a candidate.  I have always been involved and actively trying to understand the chaos that can be our political system and the public response.  Since this story has circulated the media, I have been very confused about what the public was actually considering news.  There simply is no way to guarantee safe passage for information.  There is no 100% secure network that cannot be continually attacked or infiltrated by hackers.  It is amazing to me that the public could so desperately want to have every piece of information about one candidate but ignore the entire Republican compilation of candidates.  I find sexist, derogatory, racist commentary to be far more dangerous in a candidate than what the public has been told of Clinton's mistake, that she so far has aptly addressed.

My Writing Process

As a child, I wanted to write about anything and everything.  My writing process was simple, spend all day dreaming about a universe crammed full of unicorns, robots, world peace, space, time traveling, and anything else I could imagine.  Writing was the biggest all-you-can-eat ice cream cone that you had the power to create any time of the day and never run out of.  My current writing process, procrastination, tends to force choosing between that ice cream cone and an A+ essay.

lunamarina "Girl Eating Ice Cream with Dirty Face"

My perspective on writing still has hints of that overwhelming enthusiasm for imagination, but I often had to leave it aside in order to get the grade and on time.  One can't write a fictional tale about women superheros saving puppies and the world when you have an hour to write about whether or not the US decision to become involved in the Congo was beneficial to the country's stability.  

Timed essay writing brought a lost sense of purpose that diluted my great love of writing and transferred into procrastination.  I progressively started writing papers that were just good enough.  The first draft was the only draft and guaranteed that draft was written in that allotted time period or at 3AM the day before it was due.

Like most procrastinators if I'm devoted and passionate about a topic, I spend a significantly higher time on planning, drafting, revising, and rewriting.  I am a sequential composer at heart, but I tend to thwart myself through the art of running myself to the ground by committing to an overwhelming amount projects and passions.  I've been known for wanting to accomplish far more than is physically possible for a human.  I was that kid who wanted to be president of the universe, discover the new clean energy, achieve world peace, and be an ice cream maker on the side.

When I accomplish laying out my commitments in a feasible manner, I can spend any where from a solid couple of hours to a few days developing just the right subject matter, finding the exact order to present the information, and drafting powerful sentences or quotes to focus on.  I love experimenting to try to find that perfect outline for an essay and form the perfect argument.  It's my personal goal to find that happy medium of being able to time manage an essay to the point where I have time to bring out that imaginative toddler version of myself.

I believe that choosing the sequential composer writing style is most definitely the beneficial path to follow for at least my college writing life.  I can't say the procrastination will be totally eliminated - as it was a solid 4 to 5 years in the making - but for the purpose of becoming a better writer it is important to proactively stop procrastinating.

2015-2016 Writer Improvement Outline:

I.  What type of writer do you consider yourself to be?

      - I am a current procrastinator who consistently wrote papers in the shortest possible amount of time after drafting an outline such as this and spent little time on revisions.

      - I am also a sequential composer who loves spending an equal amount of time on formatting structure, ideas, and revising.

II. Is your writing process similar to the listed approaches?

Procrastination:

- I wait until the night/morning before to write or finish writing a paper, which only continues the cycle of lack of sleep.

- I only created one draft with minimal time left for revision.

Sequential:

- I spend an equal amount of time on all on forming ideas and executing them.  I also require having everything I want to write written down to control how much my thoughts wander.  If I do not have enough time or am unable to plan an essay, I tend to try to incorporate all of ideas and risk quality of my argument.

III. Strength and weaknesses?

      - I often did not remember what exactly I wrote in the previous paragraphs as I had to speed write the following next 5 paragraphs.

      - My writing did not develop past the AP writing style.

      + I always managed to complete essays in record times, with about a 20% rate of good essays.

      + I did become adept at breaking down an article or question quickly and establishing an argument, as it was necessary to be fast when a paper is due in a few hours.

IV. Conclusion

      - Procrastination effects sleeping, eating, and in general functioning as an actual living breathing comprehensible human.

      + Writing as fast as possible has little to no benefits while planning and actually enjoying writing is proven to lead to sleep, great essays, and allowing for a little imagination.

      + Planning your writing can lead to tasteful witty and punny writing, which is always a positive.

      + I did my time being stressed and creatively wrung out, changing my writing to more of a sequential writer will only benefit me.


Reflection:

Upon reading Landon and Michael's posts I gained two different perspectives.  My procrastination is not uncommon but it is also possible to be confident in your writing process while still being human and having a degree of procrastination.  I will never be able to eliminate procrastination from my life, but it is important for me to have a solidified writing process so I can improve and adapt.  I will make plenty of mistakes, but if I have a solid plan to improve, I am more likely to become a better writer.