Reflection on Project One

In this post I will be answering the provided reflection questions.

Dischner, Zack, "Bouquet." 10/21/2010 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic

What challenges did you face during the Quick Reference Guide project and how did you deal with them?

• I think a major challenge that I encountered will the QRG project was the ambiguity of the content and direction that I could take my writing. Remaining organization of my many thoughts and goals for my outcome really helped my writing. I also struggled with deciding what information, from the plethora of sources that I have read about my topic, to include in my QRG. I dealt with issue by constantly asking myself how I as a audience of this writing would want the material to be presented and what they would want to learn about.

What successes did you experience on the project and how did they happen?

• My QRG vastly improved when I took the time to look at the provided examples of what a QRG should look like and how it should present information. Also, I think that I adequately explained the controversy without being too specific. I think that reason I was able to do this was due to my exploration of several sources of media and gaining a lot of background knowledge from that research.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find the most effective for your project? Why?

• Going over the conventions of a QRG was very important for my success at writing a QRG. Our analysis of QRGs, which ranged from basic formatting to what the true purpose of this genre is, really helped me. Finding unbiased sources, writing short paragraphs, and making a real effort to keep a readers attention were all things that I knew I had to execute in order to make an effective QRG. I also think that hyperlinking to the sources that I used, and to enable my audience to read further on the topic really helped my project.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find were not effective for your project? Why?

• Typically, when I've completed English projects of the past the thought that the more information you can stick on the page the better. However, in this genre the lengthy and predictable paragraph approach is not the way to go. Less is more with QRGs. 

How was the writing process for this project similar to other school writing experiences you’ve had in the past?

• This project was similar to other school writing experiences because it was planning intensive, took a decent amount of time to complete, and called for a lot of revision. Covering both sides of an argument was important to developing arguments within a lot of past assignments, and yet again this was crucial in the success of my QRG.

How was the writing process for this project different from other school writing experiences you’ve had in the past?

• This project as a whole was a lot different from anything that I have ever experienced in my schooling thus far. The writing process for this assignment was totally new to me, but I truly enjoyed the freedom and ability to discover on my own. Writing in a totally foreign fashion, regarding both blogs and the QRG style, was overall a rewarding experience, because my success was solely dependent on my own willingness to accept new challenges. No one was holding my hand.

Would any of the skills you practiced for this project be useful in your other coursework? Why or why not?

• Time management was a huge part in succeeding with this first project. Knowing that the work was going to get done unless effort was truly made inspired me to always keep working hard. I was able to creatively explore an issue in my future field and gained the skills to successfully conduct research and communicate my ideas with an audience. These skills are pivotal, not only with other coursework, but the adaptability that I was forced to experience within this project will be crucial in life as a whole. 

Reflection:

After reading the "Reflection on Project One" posts by Breanna and Sam I see the three of has have a lot of similar thoughts about the posed questions.

I enjoyed commenting and reflecting on these posts by my peers because it was nice to know that there were a lot of similarities between our experiences in project one. One aspect of this project that all of us agreed upon was the fact that this series of assignments called for a lot of planning and revision, like a lot of projects we have done in the past. Also in one way or another, we all talked about how important time management was to the completion of this first major project. Brianna and I agreed that this project was also quite different from a lot of writing assignments that we have worked on in the past because of the many freedoms that it gave us. Tyler, on the other hand, felt like this project was very similar to a most writing projects he has composed.