Midterm Mentor Text Post

                As my group gathered outside of the library, most of us had only a general idea of what type of mentor text we were looking for. All of us knew that the mentor text we chose must involve writing or creativity in some shape or form. Other than that, we were all clueless…. Or at least I was.

                We knew that the mentor text must be in paper form, hence the reason why we had to go to a library of all places. Honestly, is there anywhere else you could think of that would have books, journals, newspapers, and magazines all in one place? Though, we all realized something: we haven’t been in the library enough to know what floor all these were on. This is probably the main reason why librarians are there, to help those clueless enough not to find their way around a 10 floor library.

Three cheers for librarians!

                Amazingly, we only figured out to read the signs about 3 minutes into us just standing next to the information desk. I’m glad it wasn’t longer, that would’ve been embarrassing. So, my group and I made our way up to the 2^nd floor and found ourselves wandering over to the periodicals. Reason? The periodical section seemed like the biggest section on the floor. Ah, the logic of simple-minded teenagers. 

                There we were, skimming through the rows and rows of books, very thick books too, and finding everything from chemistry to geometry. Yet, we couldn’t spot anything involving writing or creativity in any way, shape or form. Did I mention that they were all very thick books, too? Finally, we spotted a pile of magazines stuck in the middle of huge, enormous, GIGANTIC books. I was the first to zoom over to them in the hope that they’ll have something to do with what we need. Please, for the love of whoever’s up there, please be what we need.

I have to say that the top magazine was very misleading when it came to what the pile was about.

                Out of that pile of Quality Progress magazines, we found two articles that could be of use.

                The first one was a bust. Only vaguely, and with great difficulty, could we have linked it back to anything of use. The second one was much, much better. The article was called “Up and Away” in the June 2012 magazine of Quality Progress. In summary, this article talked about how to add more creativity into work. All of us agreed that the audience was definitely employees and bosses of businesses. Still, we learned a lot about the process of group creativity in the workforce that we can add to our jobs-of-the-future.

                Now this is where we sat and crunched down to do our work. The article was jammed tight with information and a short and simple, but quite effective writing style. Thus, it was decided that note taking was required…. Fudgesicle. 

These were just pages 18 to 24 in the magazine.

Don’t be intimidated by how many pages I have for notes. Some say I’m on the verge of becoming OCD.

                After a fair amount of time just taking turns reading the 6 pages (It didn’t seem that long – I swear!), we finally had an understanding not only for the information but for the writing style the author used. This is definitely something we can use in our futures. Anyways, we had to bring up the instructions for our project because, mainly, we forgot what we were supposed to do. Oops. 

                Then, we got down to the nitty-gritty and tried five minutes of writing in the style the author used. When I started, I found that I had a few seconds where I had to actually think about what I wanted to write. Ever get the moment where you’re faced with two things and you can’t choose between them? Yeah, that was me for about 30 wasted seconds. Yet, I got down to it and, man, did time fly! It only seemed like 3 minutes when one of my group members said that the five minutes were up. All I got through was one paragraph!

"There's a test you can take to see if video games are for you? Enter an online game and read the chat. You'll find that words are shortened, there are words you haven't even seen before and discussions that will have you looking on in shock. If you begin to understand some of the words and shortened sentences, the game will be a breeze. However, if everything's flying over your head, retreat. Now.

Only those who have the open...."

And that's how far I got before time ran out :)

                Afterwards, there was that momentary pause before we realized that we did everything we were supposed to do as a group. Thus, we packed up, placed the two magazines back, and headed for the exit as fast as possible! We all had things we had, or wanted to do, and we weren’t going to let one second go to waste!

                Now, what did I learn from all of this? I learned…. Ah, who am I kidding? I don’t want to write my reflection like that!

                The most creative thing one can do is adapt creativity to something you’d never expect it to be found in. I swear creativity’s like bacteria. I mean, how somebody cannot be engulfed by the boredom that an everyday job must have and think outside the box like this is incredible! I bow down in respect…. Repeatedly. This just saved me a lot of time for when I get older.

                I actually enjoyed the reading and writing style. I saw that she/he added a personal approach in the introduction and conclusion by addressing the reader. Then they sat back and let an instructional voice take over to present the information in the middle. Even then, I may have felt like I was sitting in a conference room but I never felt bored. It’s a miracle! Anyways, I found the introduction and conclusion a little similar to some of the writings I’ve done in the past. Though I’ve never taken an instructional voice until my rough draft of the literacy narrative… I think. Maybe I should have someone read it to make sure I’m not thinking of things that might not actually be there. That would be bad. Very bad.

                So, yeah. I plan on keeping those notes I took and even showing them to my parents, they might find them useful as well. Hoorah for notes, they’re much more handy than anyone would ever want them to be.