Victory Lap

Hi there,
I'm not sure if any of you guys will actually see this...but for my victory lap I wanted to include a picture of the most adorable dog that kept me company while I finished up this English Project.

Congrats to us for making it through the semester, and have a great break/ rest of your college career!!

Reflection on Open Letter Draft

In the following post I will be reflecting on the work I did for the Open Letter. I will also talk about how peer-editing helped me understand this project more.

Qedem1611. "Christmas Lights Colors Holidays Decoration Water" 6/11/2014 via Pixabay. CCO Public Domain. 

I peer-edited Ayra and Kelly's drafts of their open letters.

1. Did you demonstrate an ability to think about your writing and yourself as a writer?
I think that through my draft I was in fact able to express my thoughts and feelings about myself as a writer and with the work that I am able to produce. I think that my draft did a good job of evaluating the good and bad aspects of my writing process.

2. Did you provide analysis of your experiences, writing assignments, or concepts you have learned?
Yes, I talked about the past writing projects we have completed this year, and I analyzed them to talk about what worked and what did not work for me. I also evaluated how helpful it was to learn about genres and what kind of impact they will have in the future.

3. Did you provide concrete examples from you own writing (either quotes from your writing or rich descriptions of your writing process)?
Yes, I included several hyperlinks to past blog posts that I have completed over the course of the semester.

4. Did you explain why you made certain choices and whether those choices were effective?
I tried to talk about why I made choices the way I did. One particular example is when I talked about how using outlines help me, especially the outline I made for Project 2.

5. Did you use specific terms and concepts related to writing and the writing process?
I used specific words that I thought we emphasized in class like genre and conventions. I also included the specific names we gave to the different types of writers that we could be.

Draft of Open Letter

In the following post I will point out the points I think my peer editors should look for while they read my letter.

PetarM. "Writing a letter" 2/25/2012 via Wikipedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0 License. 

HERE is my draft of my Open Letter.

Hi there,
In my draft I feel like I have successfully included what I needed in order to answer the prompt, however, I feel like overall it's not as detailed as I could have made it. I would love some help with where I could include more, and what type of examples would help make this letter more informative. Also, I'm not sure that I included enough examples in my letter body to help get the point across and answer the prompt, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

In the following post I will answer questions in order to reflect more on my writing process and how it has evolved over the course of the semester.

Koul, Anirudh. "London Bridge (Tower Bridge): Reflection on the River Thames"
 4/5/2009 via Flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0 License.  

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall? 
I think the biggest challenge that I have had to face this semester was finishing all my work on time. Especially since some of the deadlines were very extensive in the amount of work that needed to be completed it sometimes was difficult to make sure that I am able to produce work of good quality.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills? 
I reinforced that my time management skills are awful, but I think my writing and editorial skills are improving. For many of the writing projects I wrote many drafts and between each copy I made many changes that helped in producing a good final product.

3. What do you know about the concept of a 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer. 
A genre is a category of writing that dictates the format of the piece. The specific conventions of a genre refer to how the text is laid out, what type of visuals are present, etc. By knowing a genre and its corresponding conventions its possible to successfully write in a new genre.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?
I think this class forced me to address my bad time management skills and to work on how to plan out a long term assignment so it gets done on time, and not at the last minute. Also, learning how to write in different genres will help as the writing I did in high school is guaranteed to be very different than the writing I will do in my engineering classes.

5. What was the most effective moment from this semester in 109H?
I think the most effective moment that I have had during this class was right after we turned in our first assignment. After we finished this assignment it allowed me to reflect on how much I had learned in such as short time.

Not only have I learned many different technologies like Blogger and Coggle, but I have also learned the conventions of different genres like blogs and QRGs.
  

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

One of the least effective moments that I have had this semester was doing a Coogle for the rhetorical  analysis. I typically find mind maps and pre-writing useful, but this Coggle was about information that I didn't really need to focus on. 

Revisiting My Writing Process

In the following post I will reflect on how my writing process and time management skills have changed from this course.

LeMasney, John. "When in doubt, visit your library" 5/25/2015 via Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0 License.  

Looking back on my original Writing Style post I realize I was way more optimistic than I should have been. I recognized that I was a procrastinator, but I assumed that I would be able to change this habit. However, I conclude that after my first semester as a college student I am still a procrastinator.

I also had hoped to become a heavy planner, and the original plan was to look at the deadlines on Sunday, and spread out the work throughout the week. This goal has been a little more successful, but I have not been able to space out my writing or assignments as much as I had hoped.

From this course, especially with the large workload that we have had to manage I see that while my time management skills still suck, I am a very motivated and focused student that will get the work done on time, even if it all gets pushed to the last minute.

I think this motivation is harder to teach than time management so I think the skills that I have will be useful for the future in my career.