My process for this essay was to find all my quotes that I wanted to use first. I put together quotes I thought fit together and explained quickly why I thought they went together for my first draft. Then I went and tried to write an introduction with context. I focused on introducing my peers, our class, and Sherry Turkle. I tried to invite the reader in with my introduction as well. Then I focused on my body paragraphs, specifically introducing each quote, and offering an analysis on said quote. I then created topic sentences based on what the rest of my paragraph was saying, really trying to focus on encompassing everything I was saying. I also really focused on the “I say” aspect of my body paragraphs. Finally, after the peer reviews, I wrote my conclusion and focused on revising based on the points mentioned in class. This process was similar in a way to my last essay. I focused on the body paragraphs first, then the introduction, and the conclusion. My writing process was choppier this time, I did not try to write in the “correct” order. I wrote out my main ideas and then focused on making it flow. I think for the last two essays I was too focused on making it flow, rather than just getting all my ideas out first. I learned that it is more important to work with the quotes more deeply and really get all my ideas out, rather than focusing on how things flow and trying to write my paragraphs top to bottom. I learned that it is okay to jump around. This essay happened to fall during a time when I was swamped with work from my other classes, so I feel that I did really well with time management. I made sure I did not procrastinate and got a study room multiple times a week for multiple hours with my best friend. I also read my essay out loud to her, which not only let me realize where things did not make sense, but I also got feedback from her about my essay. I think my effort for this essay was the same as my effort for the last. I spent a good amount of time on each draft and for revision. This time though, because the rest of my schedule was so crazy, I did not get to meet with Anjana. If there was another major essay after this one, I would have liked to meet with her again, as I think she helps me focus on areas that need work or more from me.
This course has been incredibly helpful. I always thought myself as just a scientific writer and unable to do any kind of humanities writing. I know it is not my strong suit and was a little apprehensive about this class prior to starting it. However, after working on these three projects, I realize that I do have the ability to write in me, it just may take some practice to get it to show. I have appreciated how the practice (the three projects) have all been set up the same. That has really helped me in learning, adjusting, and revising my work. My process for working on the essay has been the same for all three essays. I follow the guidelines set for us when we are given the project and I have found that they separate the amount of work really well so that I am not working on too much all at once. I work on a couple hundred words at a time and that is really good spacing. I try not to work on revising until I have the entire essay “done” because if I start revising early I may change the direction of my paper that I had originally planned. That may not necessarily be a bad thing, and I may try it in the future, but like I said, I am still learning humanities writing so I do not want to do too much that I am not yet comfortable with all at once. I’d like to try some other things to work on writing brainstorming though, maybe just taking a physical piece of paper and writing out my thoughts on that without looking back at exactly where I was in my essay: it may give me a new perspective with different ideas on the direction I want to go in. Something that I wish I was able to do this time around that I did the first two essays is meet with Anjana. The end of this semester is so busy with my softball schedule and Anjana is only available on days that we have games. I was not able to meet with her, but I know that in the past, her review has helped a lot. I really liked the set schedule for turning things in for all three papers, I am a very schedule-oriented person and that helped me a lot, having set due dates for each piece.
For project 3, I was very focused on creating proper evidence and ties to my authors and providing evidence to back up my claims. I wanted my paper to be very compelling to probable readers, and I wanted to get them to start thinking about technology in a different light than just everyday usage. I wanted to bring to light that technology and the internet weren’t always the best places and that there were some dangers surrounding it that most people don’t realize. With those dangers I wanted to share that there is hope if we catch these problems early enough, we can find solutions, and stop them before the issues make themselves more apparent and start causing heinous problems, especially in our youth. I focused a lot on the prompts I chose when writing and how I could use them to best say what I wanted to. Once I found them, I focused on pulling at the seams and reading between the lines of some of my authors to better understand their texts and then use them to my benefit.
After I found all the information I needed, I focused on the structure of my essay, and how I wanted it formatted. I needed to figure out which evidence I wanted in what place, and how I wanted it to come across to the reader. I think with the essay compared to the others I focused more on the reader’s perspective and how I wanted them to take in what I was saying. In my previous essays, I was highly focused on structure, but I didn’t have a strong focus on what I was saying and how a reader could interpret it. I think I did really well with getting in more I say points and focused less on what my authors said. For next time, I want to try and work on more I say and structure. I want to find a balance between both instead of focusing heavily on one more than another. I enjoyed being able to work with my peer’s texts and learn about their viewpoints on technology, to then in turn use it to support my arguments about technology. I found the process of writing this essay a lot smoother than in previous projects with the help of my peers. I didn’t feel like I was getting writer’s block as much when I was working on this project either.
For this project we had to choose two of our peers’ essays to incorporate with one of the four other authors we have worked with throughout the semester. During this project I started off by looking at both my peers’ writing I chose and the four authors we have worked with throughout the semester. While looking at the three sources I decided to work with I layed out where each author agreed, disagreed, and even their own thoughts. I found this project to be a little difficult to work with due to the fact there were three sources to work with. Yet there was a part that was easy during this project because there was more to voice an opinion from each other and myself. I found myself thinking harder into this project and thinking about what each other was writing about. It was much easier to meet the deadlines for each part of the writing project because once I started writing I kept going and just found myself getting all my thoughts out at once. After getting my thoughts out I would go back and rework what I said. Once I received feedback from my peer review I felt more confident in how to improve my writing for submission day. With my feedback I was able to go back and really focus on my revisions to improve my essay and reconstruct some sections of my essay so they flow better and make more sense. I was able to rework my thoughts throughout the whole project which was extremely helpful and beneficial to me in the long run. Some adjustments I will change in the future is to think about what and where certain sections of my thoughts will be in my essay. I think that thinking of where each thought will be for each section will be beneficial because instead of just throwing words and thoughts together in random places and going back to rework and rearrange basically the whole essay it would be better to think and then almost categorize each thought. I believe that I had more effort in this essay than my other projects from the semester. I found myself engaging in each author’s thoughts and thinking of what they each meant in their respective articles. Also I think with there being three sources there was more room for my own opinion and ways to incorporate other ideas from past projects as well as class discussions.
Jack Thurmond
ENG 110
Jessie Miller
Apr 19, 2024
Journal #26
I felt that my third project shared similarities with both my previous projects but it did also have differences in my process. This process started out differently as we were using our classmate’s work as well. This was very different to me and obviously changed my writing process due to that. I had to think differently in planning my essay than in my two previous assignments. Even in the last essay, we used three different authors but it is not the same as using our classmates. Instead of comparing all three essays equally as I did on the last project, I had to split it differently. I had to remember Sherry Turkle is the main author and has the most credibility so this essay was more about using her work and my two classmates to supplement that. This led me to have a different perspective of thinking from my previous projects. I feel as though this led me to spend more time mapping out my essay and creating my thesis than I did in my previous essays. This essay also seemed like a quicker turnaround to me which I felt sped up my writing process and at times I did feel rushed. I think this led me to spend less time on certain aspects of my essay than I did on previous projects. I did see a lot of similarities to my second project. Both essays contained three authors so the format ended up being similar. I also felt like my editing process was similar to these two projects. This consisted of more editing as my drafts went along as opposed to doing the bulk of the editing after I finished my writing. This way of editing works way better for me as I feel like I miss fewer of my mistakes and can make bigger changes as it is easy to change a lot of my essay when it is still early in the process. Since I have changed my editing process I feel like I am making way stronger edits and I find editing way easier. I was happy with my ability to place my analysis more spread out instead of being too clumped together at the end of my paragraphs. I think this helps the strength of my writing and it also makes it easier for my readers to understand my point and agree with me.
My process for project #3 began very similarly to that of the previous project. I began by writing an outline, where I could collect my thoughts and work on some of the important sentences in my essay, such as my topic sentences and thesis. After that, I began putting my ideas onto the page. At the end of my first draft, was our peer review process. I received some very insightful suggestions from my classmates. One repeating piece of advice was that I was repeating myself, and needed to cut out some of my redundant sentences. Additionally, my peers told me that I needed to incorporate more “I say” into my paper. Instead of just writing about Carr, Thurmond and Arvidson I need to add where my opinion stacks up compared to theirs. After the peer review, Professor Miller’s grading and comments came in. Through his advice I was able to note that the main place I needed to improve on from my last project was my body paragraphs. Professor Miller told me that my body paragraphs could use with better organization. This aligns with one of the comments that my peers had for me. They suggested that I used the Barclays format to connect the ideas of the different writers I was writing about. There were also instances in my paper where I definitely could have done with more analysis and insight into the quotes that I inserted. Improving my body paragraphs took up the bulk of the work I spent on this essay in revisions. After doing that I turned to my conclusion. I wanted to make sure that my conclusion successfully wrapped up all the ideas I had on the topic. I made sure that I connected my ideas to the larger scale. Why do my ideas matter? What can the reader take from this essay that is of importance? My final step was to go over the whole paper and to proofread it. I read it aloud twice to make sure that my grammar was correct, and my sentences were organized well. Additionally, I wanted to make sure that my ideas were clear and that the reader, who might not have read Carr, Thurmond, or Arivdson’s work would understand my writing. After going over my essay, I noticed that I wanted to add more I say to the writing. There was a disproportionate amount of writing about the other authors, and not enough about what I believe.
After completing and submitting my third essay of English 110, I am left with a plethora of thoughts. For starters, I felt like this go around I had a lot more to say. By the end of my essay I believe I had three words to spare! Condensation has never been one of my strong suits so this was a little bit challenging, and a problem that I had yet to encounter in my other papers. Similarly to the last essay, with three authors and papers there was so much content to consume! Picking quotes was difficult because I found myself wanting to incorporate a lot of their thoughts more so then my own. I do think that in this paper I was able to balance the “they say” and “I say” a lot better, more so than my first and second papers. It is still something I struggle with, that’s without a doubt, but I think that I’m becoming stronger and more confident in my writing.
The process as a whole has become easier for me. I found that in this paper I was able to work freely and swiftly on my drafts. I didn’t feel pressured to get it “perfect” the first time around. When the time for revisions came around, I really tried to focus on using your comments from the first and second essays, as well as the comments left from my peers to solidify my paper. I tried to make the “I” voice more concrete and stand on its own. I must confess that I didn’t really agree or understand a lot of the comments left by my peers, but I used what I could and went off of past experiences to strengthen my essay as much as possible. I feel a lot more accustomed to the peer-review process and think that I can give sound and solid advice, using the practices of other students and my own ideas to really hone in on improving the writing skills of myself and others. Overall, I think I did pretty well on this project and hope to continue to improve on my future essays.
I few specifics that I got better at were my thesis and my conclusion. I think the constant practice and the two times I met with Anjana helped a lot with this. I think this differed because we had three sources swell as ours, and this helped me a bit. I was able to connect the sources and express my thoughts with them. I did not look at the three sources as different ideas, but I used them more as arguments and I agreed with both sides. This definitely helped me I my body paragraphs with the they says I say part. One thing that surely helped a lot, and is very easy to do, is reading out loud. I think as a student this is one of the bigger keys to a good essay. It is very simple to do, swell as extremely helpful to your essay and to you. Reading out loud, allowed me to find run on sentences, or just ideas that did not make sense. For this essay I think the revision part was the biggest help. We read my essay in class, my first draft, and I really got some god ideas starting from there. In class it really helped me figure out my thesis swell as the main points I was trying to make in the essay. One thing I might change in the future is finding quotes first before even coming up with a thesis or my ideas. I kind of want a steady base of quotes, to lay my writing foundation over. Finding useful and helpful quotes will also strengthen my body paragraphs. Another thing I think went well, are the check ins. I will use this going forward and give myself dates and deadlines to keep me on track, and check in with my professors.
I personally felt as if the writing process this time was a lot smoother than any of the other projects I have completed throughout the duration of this course. With the brief time limit that was given in class, I was able to pour my active thoughts onto the paper without overthinking my points. I strongly believe that this method made for a great chunk of work (in my opinion), and that I do arguably better under pressure. I also enjoy having checkpoints present throughout the weeks to motivate me to complete a portion of my writing gradually. With such efforts, I was able to launch into the finalization of my review process quite rapidly in comparison to my other projects. Most of my corrections were minuscule– either in rephrasing sentences, amplifying my word choices, or adding clarification on items such as my thesis or my body paragraphs. When it came time for the peer-revision process, I only had a couple major concerns I needed to work through.
As it comes to what I could do better next time in the future, I suppose I could give myself much more ample time to meet with outside resources. I found that with just the few minutes I had discussing my thesis with both my professor and peers alike, I was able to amplify my writing. I could also do a better job at my word selection—maybe instituting clever methods of linking words or weaving in a repetitious theme all throughout my writing. I feel as if this could be a very wise maneuver and would most definitely ensure the interest of my readers.
Additionally, I most definitely think for next time I should try and introduce a new perspective on the subject I am discussing. I find that when I stick to a thought for an extended period, such as the effects of technology, I find myself either becoming distracted or unable to focus for long spans of time. Perhaps if I had to write another technological-based paper, I would discuss the improvements in what a technological mind could offer, and how there is active supporting evidence for such claims. Of course, this discussion is still very much up in the air, but it could lead to an intriguing and captivating humanities read. Ultimately, I believe that the methods I have reinforced throughout my time in this English Composition course have been crucial in expanding upon my writing and literary functions.
My process for this essay felt much different than the first two essays we have focused on this semester so far. For starters it took me much longer to actually finish my first draft compared to our first projects. That was because for the first time we had to introduce three writers and discuss the similarities and differences in all of the writings. For me this was a first, and for that I was very cautious I felt about everything that I was doing and honestly I did not know how I was going to approach this project. At first I honestly felt like I was going in the wrong direction, but I stuck to it. I continuously worked on the project and tried to rely off our rubrics. What I feel truly changed this whole entire essay around personally was the peer review. Getting to actually read and understand how others approached this project as well helped me a lot. Not only that, getting reviews from my peers and discussing what went well and what I could improve on got my right back in motion with everything. After that day I went back to my dorm and got back to work and I honestly felt like I was floating on water after that. Everything finally came together the way I wanted and I was truly happy about the results. The biggest learning point for me after this project was honestly that not every writing you are working on is going to be done right away. To get your writing to the way you truly want it might day a few days or even a week, and there is nothing wrong with that. In conclusion I would say this essay helped me become a better writer and not only that I feel very prepared going into our final project.
After completing the final major writing assignment of my freshman year at college, I feel fulfilled. I tried my best to learn from every mistake, each criticism, and every misspelled word. I know I tried to give my best effort, and in turn I can only wait and see if the hard work paid off. I understand in life you can work as hard as you want but at the end of the day it sometimes just won’t turn out the way you want it to. And I can accept that. I used to see a bad grade as extremely discouraging, thinking all the work I put in was a waste of time. However, upon reflection at the end of the year, I can confidently say that I’ve outgrown this immature mindset. I’ve grown to utilize all the information I’ve absorbed over the past weeks to enhance my thinking and not only become a better writer but also a better human being. This, I believe, is what most people overlook about the humanities. It’s not merely about reading and writing; it’s about how you engage with the material. We learn to read at what age? Six? Undoubtedly, there’s a wealth of valuable information to be absorbed, which can then be applied to our lives. I do believe it’s up to us to engage in this critical thinking and learning. It’s our responsibility to steer conversations and to ensure our tasks are completed. A past English teacher has said words that still ring true to this day for me, it’s smart to be smart, and it’s dumb to be dumb. These words remind me to always stay diligent at what I do and always have a smarter approach to my life.
When it comes to project 3 the process was more concrete than previous writings I’ve done especially in high school. The outline for the writing process was significantly helpful as we built on our paper incrementally rather than trying to build a whole essay from scratch in one sitting. I was able to make constructive moves to further my essay without deadlines that were reasonable. I appreciated the peer review part of this project as well because I found it really helpful to get others’ views and opinions on my writing to really help me recognize what I need to dedicate my revision process on. Also, this project topic revolving around technology was very familiar as this was a focus in our previous writing assignments. Therefore, I was prepared for what kind of information I was working with and helped make my setup easier as I had a good handle on ideas and how to address them in my paper. I would like to mention my success in addressing the authors and their views as well as incorporating the “I say” in my writing as I believe I did well on highlighting these aspects. I spent time ensuring the authors who I was going to be incorporating in my work clearly and I knew bringing in my own view and whether I agree or not was a crucial part to this assignment. With this being said my work towards these particular pieces paid off, as I really enhanced my essay through these elements. When it comes to what to practice in the future, I think following a method similar to this one with composing multiple drafts is manageable and less overwhelming. So, I will most likely follow this outline when I have to write essays later on. Lastly, I think this time around I spent a significant amount of time on revision and really understanding the peer feedback I got in order to end up with an essay that I can say I am proud of. However, I think it wouldn’t hurt to go over my essay again at least one more time just in case I pick up on anything that needs fixing or adjusting that I didn’t see previously.
12 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 26”
My process for this essay was to find all my quotes that I wanted to use first. I put together quotes I thought fit together and explained quickly why I thought they went together for my first draft. Then I went and tried to write an introduction with context. I focused on introducing my peers, our class, and Sherry Turkle. I tried to invite the reader in with my introduction as well. Then I focused on my body paragraphs, specifically introducing each quote, and offering an analysis on said quote. I then created topic sentences based on what the rest of my paragraph was saying, really trying to focus on encompassing everything I was saying. I also really focused on the “I say” aspect of my body paragraphs. Finally, after the peer reviews, I wrote my conclusion and focused on revising based on the points mentioned in class. This process was similar in a way to my last essay. I focused on the body paragraphs first, then the introduction, and the conclusion. My writing process was choppier this time, I did not try to write in the “correct” order. I wrote out my main ideas and then focused on making it flow. I think for the last two essays I was too focused on making it flow, rather than just getting all my ideas out first. I learned that it is more important to work with the quotes more deeply and really get all my ideas out, rather than focusing on how things flow and trying to write my paragraphs top to bottom. I learned that it is okay to jump around. This essay happened to fall during a time when I was swamped with work from my other classes, so I feel that I did really well with time management. I made sure I did not procrastinate and got a study room multiple times a week for multiple hours with my best friend. I also read my essay out loud to her, which not only let me realize where things did not make sense, but I also got feedback from her about my essay. I think my effort for this essay was the same as my effort for the last. I spent a good amount of time on each draft and for revision. This time though, because the rest of my schedule was so crazy, I did not get to meet with Anjana. If there was another major essay after this one, I would have liked to meet with her again, as I think she helps me focus on areas that need work or more from me.
This course has been incredibly helpful. I always thought myself as just a scientific writer and unable to do any kind of humanities writing. I know it is not my strong suit and was a little apprehensive about this class prior to starting it. However, after working on these three projects, I realize that I do have the ability to write in me, it just may take some practice to get it to show. I have appreciated how the practice (the three projects) have all been set up the same. That has really helped me in learning, adjusting, and revising my work. My process for working on the essay has been the same for all three essays. I follow the guidelines set for us when we are given the project and I have found that they separate the amount of work really well so that I am not working on too much all at once. I work on a couple hundred words at a time and that is really good spacing. I try not to work on revising until I have the entire essay “done” because if I start revising early I may change the direction of my paper that I had originally planned. That may not necessarily be a bad thing, and I may try it in the future, but like I said, I am still learning humanities writing so I do not want to do too much that I am not yet comfortable with all at once. I’d like to try some other things to work on writing brainstorming though, maybe just taking a physical piece of paper and writing out my thoughts on that without looking back at exactly where I was in my essay: it may give me a new perspective with different ideas on the direction I want to go in. Something that I wish I was able to do this time around that I did the first two essays is meet with Anjana. The end of this semester is so busy with my softball schedule and Anjana is only available on days that we have games. I was not able to meet with her, but I know that in the past, her review has helped a lot. I really liked the set schedule for turning things in for all three papers, I am a very schedule-oriented person and that helped me a lot, having set due dates for each piece.
For project 3, I was very focused on creating proper evidence and ties to my authors and providing evidence to back up my claims. I wanted my paper to be very compelling to probable readers, and I wanted to get them to start thinking about technology in a different light than just everyday usage. I wanted to bring to light that technology and the internet weren’t always the best places and that there were some dangers surrounding it that most people don’t realize. With those dangers I wanted to share that there is hope if we catch these problems early enough, we can find solutions, and stop them before the issues make themselves more apparent and start causing heinous problems, especially in our youth. I focused a lot on the prompts I chose when writing and how I could use them to best say what I wanted to. Once I found them, I focused on pulling at the seams and reading between the lines of some of my authors to better understand their texts and then use them to my benefit.
After I found all the information I needed, I focused on the structure of my essay, and how I wanted it formatted. I needed to figure out which evidence I wanted in what place, and how I wanted it to come across to the reader. I think with the essay compared to the others I focused more on the reader’s perspective and how I wanted them to take in what I was saying. In my previous essays, I was highly focused on structure, but I didn’t have a strong focus on what I was saying and how a reader could interpret it. I think I did really well with getting in more I say points and focused less on what my authors said. For next time, I want to try and work on more I say and structure. I want to find a balance between both instead of focusing heavily on one more than another. I enjoyed being able to work with my peer’s texts and learn about their viewpoints on technology, to then in turn use it to support my arguments about technology. I found the process of writing this essay a lot smoother than in previous projects with the help of my peers. I didn’t feel like I was getting writer’s block as much when I was working on this project either.
For this project we had to choose two of our peers’ essays to incorporate with one of the four other authors we have worked with throughout the semester. During this project I started off by looking at both my peers’ writing I chose and the four authors we have worked with throughout the semester. While looking at the three sources I decided to work with I layed out where each author agreed, disagreed, and even their own thoughts. I found this project to be a little difficult to work with due to the fact there were three sources to work with. Yet there was a part that was easy during this project because there was more to voice an opinion from each other and myself. I found myself thinking harder into this project and thinking about what each other was writing about. It was much easier to meet the deadlines for each part of the writing project because once I started writing I kept going and just found myself getting all my thoughts out at once. After getting my thoughts out I would go back and rework what I said. Once I received feedback from my peer review I felt more confident in how to improve my writing for submission day. With my feedback I was able to go back and really focus on my revisions to improve my essay and reconstruct some sections of my essay so they flow better and make more sense. I was able to rework my thoughts throughout the whole project which was extremely helpful and beneficial to me in the long run. Some adjustments I will change in the future is to think about what and where certain sections of my thoughts will be in my essay. I think that thinking of where each thought will be for each section will be beneficial because instead of just throwing words and thoughts together in random places and going back to rework and rearrange basically the whole essay it would be better to think and then almost categorize each thought. I believe that I had more effort in this essay than my other projects from the semester. I found myself engaging in each author’s thoughts and thinking of what they each meant in their respective articles. Also I think with there being three sources there was more room for my own opinion and ways to incorporate other ideas from past projects as well as class discussions.
Jack Thurmond
ENG 110
Jessie Miller
Apr 19, 2024
Journal #26
I felt that my third project shared similarities with both my previous projects but it did also have differences in my process. This process started out differently as we were using our classmate’s work as well. This was very different to me and obviously changed my writing process due to that. I had to think differently in planning my essay than in my two previous assignments. Even in the last essay, we used three different authors but it is not the same as using our classmates. Instead of comparing all three essays equally as I did on the last project, I had to split it differently. I had to remember Sherry Turkle is the main author and has the most credibility so this essay was more about using her work and my two classmates to supplement that. This led me to have a different perspective of thinking from my previous projects. I feel as though this led me to spend more time mapping out my essay and creating my thesis than I did in my previous essays. This essay also seemed like a quicker turnaround to me which I felt sped up my writing process and at times I did feel rushed. I think this led me to spend less time on certain aspects of my essay than I did on previous projects. I did see a lot of similarities to my second project. Both essays contained three authors so the format ended up being similar. I also felt like my editing process was similar to these two projects. This consisted of more editing as my drafts went along as opposed to doing the bulk of the editing after I finished my writing. This way of editing works way better for me as I feel like I miss fewer of my mistakes and can make bigger changes as it is easy to change a lot of my essay when it is still early in the process. Since I have changed my editing process I feel like I am making way stronger edits and I find editing way easier. I was happy with my ability to place my analysis more spread out instead of being too clumped together at the end of my paragraphs. I think this helps the strength of my writing and it also makes it easier for my readers to understand my point and agree with me.
My process for project #3 began very similarly to that of the previous project. I began by writing an outline, where I could collect my thoughts and work on some of the important sentences in my essay, such as my topic sentences and thesis. After that, I began putting my ideas onto the page. At the end of my first draft, was our peer review process. I received some very insightful suggestions from my classmates. One repeating piece of advice was that I was repeating myself, and needed to cut out some of my redundant sentences. Additionally, my peers told me that I needed to incorporate more “I say” into my paper. Instead of just writing about Carr, Thurmond and Arvidson I need to add where my opinion stacks up compared to theirs. After the peer review, Professor Miller’s grading and comments came in. Through his advice I was able to note that the main place I needed to improve on from my last project was my body paragraphs. Professor Miller told me that my body paragraphs could use with better organization. This aligns with one of the comments that my peers had for me. They suggested that I used the Barclays format to connect the ideas of the different writers I was writing about. There were also instances in my paper where I definitely could have done with more analysis and insight into the quotes that I inserted. Improving my body paragraphs took up the bulk of the work I spent on this essay in revisions. After doing that I turned to my conclusion. I wanted to make sure that my conclusion successfully wrapped up all the ideas I had on the topic. I made sure that I connected my ideas to the larger scale. Why do my ideas matter? What can the reader take from this essay that is of importance? My final step was to go over the whole paper and to proofread it. I read it aloud twice to make sure that my grammar was correct, and my sentences were organized well. Additionally, I wanted to make sure that my ideas were clear and that the reader, who might not have read Carr, Thurmond, or Arivdson’s work would understand my writing. After going over my essay, I noticed that I wanted to add more I say to the writing. There was a disproportionate amount of writing about the other authors, and not enough about what I believe.
After completing and submitting my third essay of English 110, I am left with a plethora of thoughts. For starters, I felt like this go around I had a lot more to say. By the end of my essay I believe I had three words to spare! Condensation has never been one of my strong suits so this was a little bit challenging, and a problem that I had yet to encounter in my other papers. Similarly to the last essay, with three authors and papers there was so much content to consume! Picking quotes was difficult because I found myself wanting to incorporate a lot of their thoughts more so then my own. I do think that in this paper I was able to balance the “they say” and “I say” a lot better, more so than my first and second papers. It is still something I struggle with, that’s without a doubt, but I think that I’m becoming stronger and more confident in my writing.
The process as a whole has become easier for me. I found that in this paper I was able to work freely and swiftly on my drafts. I didn’t feel pressured to get it “perfect” the first time around. When the time for revisions came around, I really tried to focus on using your comments from the first and second essays, as well as the comments left from my peers to solidify my paper. I tried to make the “I” voice more concrete and stand on its own. I must confess that I didn’t really agree or understand a lot of the comments left by my peers, but I used what I could and went off of past experiences to strengthen my essay as much as possible. I feel a lot more accustomed to the peer-review process and think that I can give sound and solid advice, using the practices of other students and my own ideas to really hone in on improving the writing skills of myself and others. Overall, I think I did pretty well on this project and hope to continue to improve on my future essays.
I few specifics that I got better at were my thesis and my conclusion. I think the constant practice and the two times I met with Anjana helped a lot with this. I think this differed because we had three sources swell as ours, and this helped me a bit. I was able to connect the sources and express my thoughts with them. I did not look at the three sources as different ideas, but I used them more as arguments and I agreed with both sides. This definitely helped me I my body paragraphs with the they says I say part. One thing that surely helped a lot, and is very easy to do, is reading out loud. I think as a student this is one of the bigger keys to a good essay. It is very simple to do, swell as extremely helpful to your essay and to you. Reading out loud, allowed me to find run on sentences, or just ideas that did not make sense. For this essay I think the revision part was the biggest help. We read my essay in class, my first draft, and I really got some god ideas starting from there. In class it really helped me figure out my thesis swell as the main points I was trying to make in the essay. One thing I might change in the future is finding quotes first before even coming up with a thesis or my ideas. I kind of want a steady base of quotes, to lay my writing foundation over. Finding useful and helpful quotes will also strengthen my body paragraphs. Another thing I think went well, are the check ins. I will use this going forward and give myself dates and deadlines to keep me on track, and check in with my professors.
I personally felt as if the writing process this time was a lot smoother than any of the other projects I have completed throughout the duration of this course. With the brief time limit that was given in class, I was able to pour my active thoughts onto the paper without overthinking my points. I strongly believe that this method made for a great chunk of work (in my opinion), and that I do arguably better under pressure. I also enjoy having checkpoints present throughout the weeks to motivate me to complete a portion of my writing gradually. With such efforts, I was able to launch into the finalization of my review process quite rapidly in comparison to my other projects. Most of my corrections were minuscule– either in rephrasing sentences, amplifying my word choices, or adding clarification on items such as my thesis or my body paragraphs. When it came time for the peer-revision process, I only had a couple major concerns I needed to work through.
As it comes to what I could do better next time in the future, I suppose I could give myself much more ample time to meet with outside resources. I found that with just the few minutes I had discussing my thesis with both my professor and peers alike, I was able to amplify my writing. I could also do a better job at my word selection—maybe instituting clever methods of linking words or weaving in a repetitious theme all throughout my writing. I feel as if this could be a very wise maneuver and would most definitely ensure the interest of my readers.
Additionally, I most definitely think for next time I should try and introduce a new perspective on the subject I am discussing. I find that when I stick to a thought for an extended period, such as the effects of technology, I find myself either becoming distracted or unable to focus for long spans of time. Perhaps if I had to write another technological-based paper, I would discuss the improvements in what a technological mind could offer, and how there is active supporting evidence for such claims. Of course, this discussion is still very much up in the air, but it could lead to an intriguing and captivating humanities read. Ultimately, I believe that the methods I have reinforced throughout my time in this English Composition course have been crucial in expanding upon my writing and literary functions.
My process for this essay felt much different than the first two essays we have focused on this semester so far. For starters it took me much longer to actually finish my first draft compared to our first projects. That was because for the first time we had to introduce three writers and discuss the similarities and differences in all of the writings. For me this was a first, and for that I was very cautious I felt about everything that I was doing and honestly I did not know how I was going to approach this project. At first I honestly felt like I was going in the wrong direction, but I stuck to it. I continuously worked on the project and tried to rely off our rubrics. What I feel truly changed this whole entire essay around personally was the peer review. Getting to actually read and understand how others approached this project as well helped me a lot. Not only that, getting reviews from my peers and discussing what went well and what I could improve on got my right back in motion with everything. After that day I went back to my dorm and got back to work and I honestly felt like I was floating on water after that. Everything finally came together the way I wanted and I was truly happy about the results. The biggest learning point for me after this project was honestly that not every writing you are working on is going to be done right away. To get your writing to the way you truly want it might day a few days or even a week, and there is nothing wrong with that. In conclusion I would say this essay helped me become a better writer and not only that I feel very prepared going into our final project.
Project #3 Reflection
After completing the final major writing assignment of my freshman year at college, I feel fulfilled. I tried my best to learn from every mistake, each criticism, and every misspelled word. I know I tried to give my best effort, and in turn I can only wait and see if the hard work paid off. I understand in life you can work as hard as you want but at the end of the day it sometimes just won’t turn out the way you want it to. And I can accept that. I used to see a bad grade as extremely discouraging, thinking all the work I put in was a waste of time. However, upon reflection at the end of the year, I can confidently say that I’ve outgrown this immature mindset. I’ve grown to utilize all the information I’ve absorbed over the past weeks to enhance my thinking and not only become a better writer but also a better human being. This, I believe, is what most people overlook about the humanities. It’s not merely about reading and writing; it’s about how you engage with the material. We learn to read at what age? Six? Undoubtedly, there’s a wealth of valuable information to be absorbed, which can then be applied to our lives. I do believe it’s up to us to engage in this critical thinking and learning. It’s our responsibility to steer conversations and to ensure our tasks are completed. A past English teacher has said words that still ring true to this day for me, it’s smart to be smart, and it’s dumb to be dumb. These words remind me to always stay diligent at what I do and always have a smarter approach to my life.
When it comes to project 3 the process was more concrete than previous writings I’ve done especially in high school. The outline for the writing process was significantly helpful as we built on our paper incrementally rather than trying to build a whole essay from scratch in one sitting. I was able to make constructive moves to further my essay without deadlines that were reasonable. I appreciated the peer review part of this project as well because I found it really helpful to get others’ views and opinions on my writing to really help me recognize what I need to dedicate my revision process on. Also, this project topic revolving around technology was very familiar as this was a focus in our previous writing assignments. Therefore, I was prepared for what kind of information I was working with and helped make my setup easier as I had a good handle on ideas and how to address them in my paper. I would like to mention my success in addressing the authors and their views as well as incorporating the “I say” in my writing as I believe I did well on highlighting these aspects. I spent time ensuring the authors who I was going to be incorporating in my work clearly and I knew bringing in my own view and whether I agree or not was a crucial part to this assignment. With this being said my work towards these particular pieces paid off, as I really enhanced my essay through these elements. When it comes to what to practice in the future, I think following a method similar to this one with composing multiple drafts is manageable and less overwhelming. So, I will most likely follow this outline when I have to write essays later on. Lastly, I think this time around I spent a significant amount of time on revision and really understanding the peer feedback I got in order to end up with an essay that I can say I am proud of. However, I think it wouldn’t hurt to go over my essay again at least one more time just in case I pick up on anything that needs fixing or adjusting that I didn’t see previously.