Reflection on Project 1 Draft

I have learned a lot after reading and editing Jessi's and Tyler's QRG drafts. In this post I will discuss the "Audience" and "Context" of my controversy by responding to the provided questions provided on page 66 of A Student's Guide to First Year Writing, based off of my peers' reviews of my draft.

Sayer, Bretr, "Audience." 4/16/2011 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic 

Audience:

Who, specifically, is going to be reading this essay? Who am I trying to reach with my argument?

• The audience for my QRG is most likely going to be my peers, my professor, and anyone else who is interested in business/ the Uber controversy, and is able to find my blog.

Whats are the values and expectations? Am I adequately meeting those expectations?

• The expectations of my audience is to be be able to be informed about a topic, without being overwhelmed by the content or the way that it is presented. My current draft definitely contains informative content, however I still intend on making my paragraphs shorter and providing concrete details and evidence for the claims made in my QRG. 

How much information do I need to give my audience? How much background info or context should I provide for them without insulting their expertise?

• I personally think that a QRG should be able to provide its audience with enough background information to educate individuals on the topic, even if they have never heard about it before. I feel that providing too much content in a QRG is never an issue or an insult to a reader's expertise. Since a convention of a QRG is that it should be scannable and easy to read, if a reader already knows the content of a certain sub-heading, he or she can move on and chose to read a different part of the QRG that will provide him or her with new knowledge.

What kind of language is suitable for this audience?

• The language that a QRG should employ should be somewhat formal. Readers shouldn't feel as though they are reading a piece of writing that is overwhelming to comprehend, but they should also still feel as though the author of the QRG knows what he or she is talking about. The language that I tried to use in my draft is an attempt at happy medium between formality and understandability for readers. I want my language to make me appear credible, while still presenting my content in relatable fashion for my audience. 

What tone should I use with my audience? Do I use the same tone consistently throughout my draft?

•   I think that using an unbiased and informative tone is the best way to present my controversy to my audience. I intend on keeping the same tone throughout my QRG; because if my readers ever sense that I am leaning towards one side of the argument, then they will lose hope in my ability to properly represent both sides of the debate fairly. I hope that I have kept a consistent tone in my draft, while still allowing my own voice to come through and keep readers engaged.

Context: 

What are the formatting requirements for this assignment? Do I meet them?

• The formatting requirements of a QRG include an enlarged title, subheadings, hyperlinks, white space, short paragraphs, and visuals. In my current draft, I really just wanted to get the major arguments for both sides of the debate on the page. Therefore, I have a title, sub-headings, and white space, but still need to add images, hyperlinks, and other formatting that will make my QRG more appealing to readers. I will add the necessary features to fulfill the formatting requirements this week, now that I know that my content has made it past peer review.

What are the content requirements for this assignment? Do I meet them?

• The major content requirements for our QRG is to answer who is involved, what are they debating about, when did all of this occur, where is this controversy taking place, why is the controversy worth fighting about, and how is this debate being handled? I feel like I have adequately answered all of these essential content questions, in my draft. I definitely intend on going back into my draft and adding more detail to it, but for now I feel that I have the basis of my controversy covered in my QRG.

Does my draft reflect knowledge or skills gained in class in addition to my own ideas and voice?

• I would have to say yes to this question, solely based on the fact that before entering 109H I had absolutely no idea what a QRG even was. However, now I know what a QRG is and what it is supposed to contain, both in content and form. If we hadn't gone over the conventions of a QRG and assessed the credibility of different types of sources I definitely wouldn't have been able to make an effective QRG. Based on the knowledge and skills that class has provided me with I have been given the ability to subtlety interject my own ideas and voice into the content of my QRG because I am confident that I know the typical tendencies of QRG authors, based on the examples we went over in class.

Have I addressed any grammatical issues that my teacher highlighted in class or in my previously graded assignments?

• My teacher hasn't directly addressed any grammatical issued that I should look out for. However, I did make any grammatical changes that my peers suggested on my QRG draft. I will continue to look out for various grammatical errors that appeared in the "Clarity" portion of A Student's Guide, and certain mistakes that tend to continually appear in my writing.