With each mistake that someone makes, you invariably learn from them. As I heard in class, Michael Jordon said he learned the most from his failures rather than his successes. Looking at it from that point of view, I have a lot to gain from my progress this semester, and a lot to learn. This will be an in-depth assessment of my workings so far into the semester, examining a variety of things from what I think I did well to collaboration assignments.
Starting out with what I think I have done well, one could say that I have plenty of strong voice and opinions. These strike out at a person not only in my papers but as well as in class discussions. The thing I think that I have done the best is participate in class. I am unafraid to contribute my opinion, except when I think I have done it enough. The topics that we chose to write about spark my attention or I usually think that I know something about it. I am aware that this class is for enhancing my technique in writing skills; that is why sometimes I do not always voice my opinion. I can save that for a debate class.
Along with things that I have done well, there are always things that I could do better. The main problem I am having is blatant surface errors. I think even after I review a paper carefully, there are still problems that distract my readers from fully understanding what it is that I’m saying. That makes my papers hard to read. A good paper is precise and is free from structural mistakes that detract from the substance of the paper. One goal I have set is to improve those obvious surface mistakes by spending more time editing the paper instead of carefully drafting it. Another thing that I would like to work on is to be less wordy. I am none to sure how to go about this, but I am aware that I lose my general audience by saying several things when it could have been said better by one thing. That statement right there just proves the problems I have with it.
These are a few things that I have learned, in particular, about myself. Other things that I have learned in this class would be the matter of education, and on the concise construction of an argument. I was aware of such a structure in debate, but I did not predict that the same framework could be used in my persuasive essay. Now knowing that they are the same animal, I think that I will be able to construct more persuasive papers. I think that this is fairly good in complying with some of the course learning objectives which has been set down.
Of those objectives, a few I had already met coming into class, mainly the part concerning the mindset of the student coming into your class. I already knew that writing was a lengthy process that took time to do right. That it was a form of communication, and consideration of audiences. I paid attention to my English classes in this area. Whether or not I heed this information, of course, is a different story. I believe I am doing better, and that revision becomes easier with each paper. The only way to get better is to keep writing. Another area, the one concerning the structure of the paper, I am a little less adept. While I have good ideas and thought processes, they are always foggy because of the last area of objectives that is very hard for me to meet, the actual skills of writing. The grammar, spelling, sentence structure, transitions, all of those things that are more like formulas than actual writing elude my grasp to know, comprehend, and apply. That by far is my worst area, and it hurts the other objectives. Especially about editing other’s papers. If I cannot detect my own grammatical errors, how can I possibly help them? Usually I resort to questioning their thought processes and logics of the arguments than the actual technique used to represent the arguments.
Now comes the time when I talk about how I have demonstrated my progress towards these objectives. I have made progress in the grammatical errors by taking more time than usual to revise, especially because in class it is required that I revise and edit the paper at least three times for peer revision. Since I do not think I needed to improve my thinking about writing, I did not make very much progress in that area. If you’re already at the top, it’s hard to go up. There’s always room for improvement, but that flaw pales in comparison to the simple mechanics of writing that I always fail at. I have made progress by writing the paper, waiting a day, and then looking at it again on real paper, but I still am not doing well. To correct this problem I am probably going to have my mother read my papers. I feel that I did do well by taking out a lot of problem sentences and rewording several paragraphs. My progress in the area of objectives concerning the thought process of the paper has improved the most, since upon the third revision I was able to remove a lot of tangents in my paper and replace it with relevant examples. Also sentences that did not add to my thesis were brutally taken out. When I get the mechanics of writing perfect and my thought process is unflawed, then and probably only then I can babble however I like.
A lot of these progresses came through my work in revising my paper. I have learned a lot about revision and what it takes. Especially by revising my English peer’s papers. They say that teaching actually teaches the teacher the most, and that was true for me in this case. There were things I saw my peers doing that made me wonder if I was doing the same thing, and made me check my paper twice for such errors. It is far easier to be more critical of someone else’s paper than your own. By revising I could remember the attitude I took towards my peer’s paper and remember to apply that to my own and I came out with a far better paper. Even thought I did not get a high mark on the paper I turned in, I am proud of it because it surpasses anything I wrote while in high school. Revision is a large credit to that, especially peer revision.
Peer revision is such a good collaborative tool, as well as the workgroups. I think I did well because I always lead groups in ideas. However, this could be seen as a weakness as well, since the other people need to develop their leadership qualities and put forth their own good ideas. I think I need to be careful so as to not stifle other’s opinions and encourage them to participate. That is not to say that the people in my workgroup, Lindsay Carlson and Scott Pham were not willing to participate. I will say that because I came up with the answers first that they thought about it critically and voiced their opinion on it, and usually a modified version was turned into the teacher.
I do not particularly enjoy telling what my peer’s strengths and weaknesses are, I am not taught to be overly critical, but here is what I think, nonetheless. Lindsay is very good at taking something and modifying it so that the idea is better than before, while Scott is keen on making sure that every preset of the question is answered. However, I feel that they both could come up with ideas if they had thought about it for a while and asked more questions of the instructor so as to understand. This was particularly clear on the persuasive essay block of instruction; they were confused. Since this was something I had studied for so long, it was very easy for me to take control and explain what each thing was and provide ideas for the exercise. At the same time I feel that it probably stifled any creative ideas that they may have had. Perhaps they are too afraid to ask the instructor questions. I am not so I did not have a problem with it. I think of our group overall we work well, but I would like to see them take charge and let me contribute suggestions instead of leading the assignment. I enjoyed the peer collaboration on the editing of our papers, Jacob Jameson is a great person to work with and takes constructive criticism very well, as well has some great input. I can honestly say he helped me immensely with my problem of over wording ideas and some common grammatical errors as well. With the help of his revision, I was able to progress in the style in which I write my papers.
Writing papers will always be something that will be difficult for me. Subjects such as science and history come easier. Although, I understand how intrinsic English is to every other subject, and if it is a weakness, I must work harder. I do have a few talents, but I will remember the goals that I set for myself and the objectives that must be qualified for this course. Never before have I been in a course where discussion and the ideas of my peers influence the subject matter so much; this makes the subject interesting. Collaborating with my peers is something I enjoy and look forward to doing for the rest of the semester, and with the accomplishment of these small personal goals I can go on to the bigger ones that require being talented in English, such as graduating from college. Making mistakes once is fine, forgetting them and refusing to learn from them only dooms me to repeat it and will inhibit my overall goal of graduation, which would be the biggest mistake of all.
What Dr. Watson Had to Say:
First, I would like to comment briefly on your early question about editing others’ papers when you don’t have a handle on editing and revising your own. There is a great deal of empirical evidence which shows that first, we are all much better at editing others’ writing than we are our own, and second, that editing and revising other people’s writing actually quickly improves a person’s ability to detect such errors in their own work. So you should make a point of focusing on such things when you look at others’ writings, as that is one of the most effective ways to develop your own editing and revision skills, as you yourself note later in your essay.
While there are still far too many distracting surface errors in this piece of writing, I can see definite improvement. It might help for me to point out a couple of specific instances of problematic phrasing: one instance is your use of the non-existent term “these progresses.” Progress isn’t an object, and the word doesn’t take a plural form. Another is when you use the phrase “every preset of the question”; I don’t know what a “preset” of a question is, and I suspect you may be using the wrong word here (although I am not sure because I have not checked a dictionary). As I read your essay, it became clear to me the you have a clear awareness of your specific areas of weaknesses—this is actually the first step to improvement. And I do note definite improvement in this area in your writing, thus I am sure that continued practice will result in continued improvement.
But I don’t want you to get the wrong impression here just because I began by noting the weaknesses in your paper. In all other aspects of this assignment, I see very good work, even excellent work. You have thoroughly analyzed and reflected upon all the areas specified in the assignment, and you have provided specific evidence that demonstrates all of your claims. I also think you have an amazingly well developed sense of self-awareness. I expect you will find this to be one of your greatest assets. The ability to be self-critical is essential to improvement. Good work on this task! A-
