This paper was the first time my revision process was actually a genuine part of my paper writing experience. I never really changed that much as a writer in my old work. I would always focus a lot on my rough draft and try and perfect it into a final draft on my first try writing it. I learned that this is not the right way to handle this. In past writing I also know that my papers are usually filled with many quotes and not enough of my thoughts. In order to avoid this when I wrote my rough draft for this paper, I focused on writing my thoughts out first then added in evidence to support my thoughts. I did the reverse of what I usually do and it seemed to work in my favor. One of my criticisms is that I could have used better quotes to go with my points and that is a fair criticism. In the future I will do the same revision process but instead I’ll try and dig deep into the text in order to find the best quotes to illustrate my ideas. The peer edit process also helps, especially when your classmates really challenge your ideas or really get into critiquing your work. It helps having multiple eyes on one project.
Two of my greatest critiques on this paper were my organizational skills and my long summaries in paragraph. I always felt that long summary was needed because as a student we have to write to an audience with a limited to no understanding of a text. However, some of the paragraphs I wrote were a page long or 3/4s of a page long. These paragraphs are simply too long and I need to paraphrase my ideas in order to cut down on the length of these paragraphs. I was praised on my analysis of my quotations in the text. I would like to choose better quotes in my next work but I will continue to take the same steps I did when working with quotes since I was praised for my analysis. I will also work on shortening summary. I need to just use summary in my introduction paragraph in order to establish the foundation and then jump into my ideas. I think I kept going back to the text when I could just be focusing on my ideas which takes away from the paper. I will focus in on these aspects when I’m constructing my next paper in order to not be too wordy and get to my point faster. This will result in a clearer paper and will all in all be better for my organization and paragraph size issues presented in this paper.
When I began reading our texts I would honestly not put much thought into it. I would read the whole text and take notes on key points I liked. However, I would not dive into the paper and really try and dissect each point being made. My annotations skills were weak regarding this paper and I am aiming on strengthening them for the next paper. Some techniques I can try is some we have been working on in class. One of these which I really like is when we dissect paragraphs. I find it very valuable taking a claim and finding its evidence per paragraph. Then when I’m writing my paper I can use these notes to find quotes to easily match up to my claims. I just have to look through and find a claim that fits mine, then use evidence from that in my paper. By using this strategy, I believe I’ll be able to connect with the text more resulting in better quotes and a deeper understanding of the texts.
I thoroughly enjoyed the peer edit process. I think it is a pivotal piece to the recursive process and it benefits not only the person who’s getting their paper edited but also the person who is editing their paper. I enjoy peer editing because I can look at someone’s work and see what they’re doing that I am not. Some of my classmates used quotes that I really liked and did not notice before I started peer editing. I would try and use these quotes and try to implement them into my paper. I also enjoyed looking at the format of some of their papers. I would again ask myself how they differed from mine and look at it that way. It also helped when people looked at my paper. Everyone in the class is very good at giving peer review and it really helped when multiple eyes are looking at a paper. I put in full effort when peer editing so I expect my classmates to. If this occurs then peer editing is a very beneficial tactic for not only the reader but the writer.
All throughout high school I wrote MLA format papers so it wasn’t a difficult task for me to do. However, some things I still struggle with when working with the format are in text citations and formal citations on a work cited page. I used easybib and perdueowl in order to help me with these small errors. I learned that the correct way to cite a book in a paper is (Author page number). However, this actually is not necessary at all times. If you introduce an author before a quote you do not need to cite them after it. I found this very interesting since I’ve been forcing an author’s name after a quote my entire life. All other aspects of MLA I already knew from my years of experience with the program. I was given full points when it came to MLA format so in order to keep this for my next paper I just need to remember the rules I learned this time around and implement them in the papers to follow.
I noticed simple errors in my paper with grammar. The biggest issue for me was that my eyes would self correct these errors and I would not see them in the present but in the future I would be able to pick them out. I used a couple of strategies to make sure my grammar was ideal and I had no silly punctuation errors. I made sure to look at the paper multiple times with fresh eyes. I also read my paper out loud and if a sentence or phrase sounded funny I would just tweak it a little to better convey my point. Some of my phrases were odd but by doing these tactics I was able to avoid them being on my final product. I definitely see the value of learning these rules and grammar skills now while the year is still young. The faster and more we learn now the better shape we will be in the years to come so I am all for learning new grammar I did not know before. This will allow for cleaner papers in the future.
