Reflection on Open Letter Draft

In this post I will reflect on the my draft based on the peer revision process by answering some questions from A Student's Guide page 253.

Tamlag, Nils, "Reflections of Tomorrow." 5/12/2015 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic

For the peer revision portion of this project I analyzed the drafts written by Lauren and Rachel.

1. Did you demonstrate an ability to think about your writing and yourself as a writer?

• Yes, I definitely think that I demonstrated an ability to critically think about my writing within my draft. I feel like I effectively analyzed how I have changed from a heavy planner and procrastinator to someone who gets my assignments done promptly and acknowledges every step of the writing process. I also brought up the fact that I am now more comfortable writing in genres I have never really been exposed to or been required to write within in the past. 

2. Did you provide analysis of your experiences, writing assignments, or concepts you've learned?

• I feel that my letter, although it mentions and summarizes many of the experiences, assignments, and concepts I have encountered in this course, I don't think that I have analyzed them enough. When I go back to revise my letter, I think that I will pay extra attention to talking about the effects of the many new experiences that this course enabled me to have.

3. Did your provide concrete examples from your own writing?

• I provided many hyperlinks within my letter to previous blog posts, major projects, and deadline instructions, however I definitely need to go back and directly quote from these sources to make my examples more concrete. Direct quotes would also help to prove how far I have come as a writer because of 109H.

4. Did you explain why you made certain choices and whether those choices were effective?

• I think that one decision that I could discuss in more detail was my decision in making moms my target audience for Project 3. I already mentioned in my draft that I was proud that I was able to write in a new genre and direct my writing at a specific audience, however I feel that going into more detail about how mothers were the perfect audience for my argument regarding legalization would really prove the thought that this class has made me put into my writing decisions and why these specific choices make my writing more effective. 

5. Did you use specific terms and concepts related to writing and the writing process?

• I did indeed mention the importance of identifying the conventions of a specific genre before one starts writing. The term convention was an important one throughout this course, however I feel as though I can go into a little more detail about how crucial they are to effective writing. I also briefly mentioned the QRG which was another pivotal term to this course, but I think that I can explain more about how it was so different from any other assignment I had in the past.

Draft of Open Letter

This post will contain a link to the rough draft of my open letter and specific things I want my peers to look out for when reading my piece.

Agyei, Nana, "Mystery Writers." 11/21/2010 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic

 Click here to access the rough draft of my open letter.

Dear Peers,
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read the draft of my open letter. I want to make sure that I have covered enough topics in my letter, and seem to be following the correct conventions of a semi-formal letter. So if you could look out for these concerns of mine, in addition to other generic/grammatical changes that would be great.
Thanks!!

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

In this post I will be reflecting on all of the writing that I have done this semester by providing answers to the 6 provided reflective questions for this deadline.

Beales, Mike, "Reflections." 4/1/2015 via Flickr. Attribution No-Derivs 2.0 Generic.

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?

Coming into this class and college as a whole, I was very used to a structured and one size fits all design to education that high school drilled into me, but this class was very different from what I was used to. Throughout this semester, I think that the biggest challenge that I faced was the freedom that I had to pave my own learning path. The ambiguity and open-ended nature of almost all of the assignments for this course was frustrating at times, because it definitely wasn't something that I was used to. However, looking back now I think that the freedom that this class gave me to develop myself as a writer and a student really made me more proud of my work.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?

I learned that pushing things off until the last minute only makes me more stressed out and lowers the quality of my work. Also, I discovered that with the right time spent researching a topic I can produce well-written works in a variety of genres, instead of assuming that the lame persuasive essays that I have written throughout my education were the only things I could successfully produce.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.

I learned this semester that differing genres are like different works of art. All genres are forms of expression, but they all differ in many ways, due to the fact that every genre has its own conventions. Understanding this concept will be crucial to being a successful writer in the future, because when I am given the challenge of writing in a genre that I am not used to, I know that I will have to research the genre and find its conventions, in order to properly emulate that specific category of writing.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?

I think really important skill that this course forced me to develop was my ability to perform research. I now realize that different types of sources-- general websites, scholarly sources, social media-- all offer different insight about a topic. Moving forward I will be knowledgeable of the fact that I will never have to directly use all of the sources that I read, but the insight that I gain from all of the research I do will make me more informed about my topic and help my work in the long run.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H?

Personally I think my most effective moment this semester was hitting publish on my blog post containing my final project 3 draft. I think that finishing my public argument should how adaptable I became as a student and a writer because of this class. I started this year with little to no knowledge about what a blog or blog post even was, but after doing a lot of hard work throughout 109H I was able to create my own blog post that I feel is worthy of being placed on a well-respected platform, with a definite target audience in mind. My ability to produce a piece of writing (a blog post for "hip" moms) so out of my comfort zone at the beginning of the semester, really showed my growth as a writer and thus is what I consider to be my proudest and most effective moment.

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?

I think that my least effective moment from this semester occurred during my formation of project 1. Throughout my drafting process of my QRG I knew that my research and information regarding my controversy only really acknowledged one side of the issue (the Uber side), but I didn't know how to fix this problem because I didn't have the knowledge that I now have about performing well-rounded and effective research, and I also didn't think I could resolve this concern without removing and re-writing large chunks of my work (something that I have now grown become very accustomed to). Thus, I just left my QRG alone. However, I now see that this was a stubborn and lazy way to deal with my issue and that I should have put the work in to perform more research and careful revision.

Revising My Writing Process

In this post I will reflect on my current writing process and time management skills, by reflecting on two of my earliest posts: "My Writing Process" and "Calendar Reflection".

martinak15, "259/365 Clock Work." 7/1/2012 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic

At the start of this semester I considered myself to be a writer who fell under the categorization of a "planning procrastinator". Before this class began my writing process consisted of heavy planning, somewhat rushed drafting, and little to no revision. However, I have definitely seen a lot of major changes in the way that I go about writing assignments. I still enjoy having detailed outlines that help me organize all of my ideas and support, but now I can really see the many benefits that dedicating a significant time to revision can bring to my work. Being forced to spend at least a week editing each of my projects--discarding/rewriting large chinks of my work, focusing solely on punctuation, getting feedback on my writing, and providing comments on my peers' work--really showed me how greatly my project could be improved due to careful revision. I now see that every aspect of the writing process is crucial in producing well-written work, thus I feel that I can now consider myself to to be a "Sequential Composer", because I have an equal appreciation for every step of the writing process. Also, I have gotten into the habit of looking over my work as I write, which is another aspect of why I can confidently classify myself into this category of writers.

Clearly, I am no longer a writer who relies solely on detailed planning, but what about the procrastinator portion of my self-proclaimed title? Well, when I wrote my "Calendar Reflection" post earlier this semester I figured out that I had allotted myself enough free time to successfully get all of the necessary work done for my classes each week, but in order to do this I would need to break the habit of saying I would do things "later". This was easier said than done, however. For the first few deadlines of this semester I procrastinated and caused myself nothing but undue worry and anxiety, however as the term progressed I actually started to follow the goals that I set for myself in my "Calendar Reflection". When I began to plan out my days and the work that I wanted to get done on those days (and actually do the work, rather than pushing it off) English 109H and all of my other classes became a lot less stressful. After dedicating myself to getting my assignments done early, the quality of my work work improved, along with my ability to have more time for fun.

Overall, I think this class has really proven the idea that the work you put into something really impacts what you get out of that task. Moving forward into next semester and the next three years of my college education, I will use the many of the skills that this class has provided me with. I will make a conscience effort to never let my old procrastinating ways get the best of me, because it hurts not only my mental well-being, but also how well my final projects turn out. Also, I will remind myself of the fact that every step in a process is important, even though they might not have seemed of great value to me at first, because each of those steps helps me to get closer to achieving my goals, whatever they may be.

Reflection on Project 3

In this post I will provide answers to the nine items on page 520 of Writing Public Lives, in order to reflect on Project 3.

Reimchen, Peggy, "Reflections: Colorful icy layers." 11/7/2009 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic.

• What was specifically revised from one draft to another?

One aspect of my project that I specifically revised from one draft to another was my attempt at appealing to my audience's emotions. I tried to get my readers to be emotionally invested into my argument by including a personal narrative, and by making sure to maintain a conversational but still intellectual tone.

• Point to global changes: how did you reconsider your thesis or organization?

I reconsidered the organization of my text by including more sub topics.

• What led you to these changes? A reconsideration of audience? A shift in purpose?

I mainly made these changes based on a reconsideration of my audience. I felt as though refuting more arguments against legalization would help to make my argument, which is pro-legalization, more convincing to my audience who will most likely be mothers, since moms typically like to have a lot of support and reasoning before making a decision.

• How did the changes affect your credibility as an author?

Adding more reasons to aid my argument in supporting the idea of legalization will undeniably boost my credibility as an author because these additional justifications will help to prove that I have quite a well rounded viewpoint on the topic. 

• How will the changes better address the audience or venue?

These changes will better address my audience because the audience of my argument because it will show them there are indeed a plethora of benefits of legalization with regards to the youth of America. If my readers are able to see that the many pro arguments that I present outweigh the typically faulty justification for opposing legalization then I have achieved my purpose.

• Point to local changes: how did you reconsider sentence structure and style?

In my drafts I reconsidered my sentence structure in regards to the complexity of my sentences. I made a conscious effort to simplify my sentence structure. I also tried to achieve an conversational, but still knowledgeable and believable style of writing.

• How will these changes assist your audience in understanding your purpose?

Since I really tried to prevent my argument from seeming to complicated or verbose I helped my argument in achieving its purpose of portraying the idea that the issue of legalization does not have to be so complicated and aggressive, like other arguments make it seem. I want my audience to see that legalization simply must occur, because it will benefit the young people of America tremendously, which is something that my readers would really value.

• Did you have to reconsider the conventions of the particular genre in which you are writing?

Due to the fact that I have been writing in the blog genre all year for the many deadlines that we have completed, I never really had to reconsider the conventions of a blog post. However, when composing my drafts I did make a conscious to keep my sentences and paragraphs brief, as mentioned above, because I typically. Besides trying to maintain brevity in my writing, emulating the genre examples that I found wasn't too hard of a task.

• How does the process of reflection help you reconsider your identity as a writer?

This reflection process has definitely made me aware of how far I have come as a writer this semester. Before 109H began I had no idea what a blog post even was, but now I have written one that I feel is worthy of going onto a respected site. I now realize that I can do way more than what I originally expected from myself in August, when given the freedom to do so. I now see that I am able to adapt my writing style and my formatting choices, in order to satisfy a specific audience and that I can and must employ many rhetorical strategies, in order to appeal to my readers' decision making processes, no matter what style or type of writing I am working on. It is quite apparent to me that my identity as a writer has been improved substantially, my writing can adapt to different genres and different audiences, and I am happy that I have gained the tools and knowledge to do so.

Publishing Public Argument

In this post I will include a link to the final draft of my public argument. I will also provide a link to a Google Doc containing the information needed to grade my project on the Project 3 rubric.

Anne, "Finish/Start." 7/4/2009 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

Click here to access my final draft.

Click here to access my evaluation of my work for grading purposes.

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

In this post I will answer the four provided questions so that I can reflect on the direction that my draft appears to be heading right now.

Plas, Danny, "Reflections." 7/30/2011 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

 For the peer revision portion of this deadline I analyzed the drafts of Jenny and Charles.

1. Who reviewed your project 3 draft?

• Jenny, Lauren, and Rachel all took the time to review my project 3 draft.

2. What did you think or feel about the feedback you received? Be explicit and clear. Tell me what helped or what confused you about the feedback you got.

• To be honest, the feedback that I got from my peers kind of made me a little concerned about the direction that my project is heading in. Rachel and Lauren definitely sensed where I want my argument to go, but it was clear that Jenny didn't really see the true purpose of my argument. Jenny clearly didn't understand the refutation argument type that I was trying to employ, which made me wonder if everyone else would feel this same way. However, Rachel and Lauren commented on my draft after Jenny and they seemed to definitely see what I was trying to accomplish. I don't think that I should let one reader make me question my argument as a whole, thus I will try to clarify some of the things that Jenny clearly didn't understand, but I like the overall essence of my piece and don't want to change the overall purpose that I am trying to achieve too much.

3.What aspects of Project 3 need to most work going forward [Audience, Purpose, Argumentation, or Genre]? How do you plan on addressing these areas?

• I think that the aspects of my project that need the most work are genre and argument. I feel that minor changes to the way my project is formatted to fit my genre would improve it greatly. For instance, I could make my subheadings in bold and bigger font to make them stand out, and I could incorporate an image (maybe a table or graph) to limit the amount of wordy statistics my work contains. As for the argument aspect of my project, I think that appealing to my audience's emotions more would be a smart decision. For example, I could incorporate a personal narrative that could make my audience relate to my argument more and make it seem like I have more credibility on the topic.

4. How are you feeling overall about the direction of your project after peer review and/or instructor conferences this week?

• Despite some questionably harsh critique from one of my peers, I still like the direction of my project so far. My meeting with you a few days ago reassured me that I was definitely on the right track. Therefore, I will make the revisions that we discussed at our meeting and a few additional ones, in order to hopefully clarify any concerns that Jenny, Rachel, or Lauren had with my draft. Overall, I am pretty confident in the direction of my public argument thus far.