Reflection on Open Letter Draft

Reflection on Open Letter Draft 

Peer review is a great resource to use in order to improve upon one's writing. Below is my reflection on the peer review process and my first draft of the open letter. 

I peer reviewed both Aaron West's draft along with Bailey Mattox's draft. Upon reading Aaron's draft I was happy to see that we have a similar length in our letters. He effectively used some great hyperlinks to earlier blog posts which I think might be effective if I added to mine. Aaron had really solid claims but needed to expand a bit more with his analysis which I think is similar to my draft. Contrarily, Bailey's draft was very long and had great depth. That being said I think her draft can be cut down a bit in order to still convey the main messages yet be more concise so the reader does not get bored.

Samdogs, "Christmas Cookies"12/3/08 via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution. 

"Revision" Questions: 

• Did you demonstrate an ability to think about your writing and yourself as a writer? 
• The revision process helped me recognize how important it is to get a different view on one's writing in order to perfect it. That being said, while I conducted peer review it helped me recognize that writing is really just an interpretation of the world through the writer's eyes. As I continued on with my work it was even more apparent that writing is my expression of myself. 
• Did you provide analysis of your experiences, writing assignments or concepts you have learned? 
• Analysis is one of the areas which I always struggle with in my writing. While I feel as though I am capable of putting different facts into a writing assignment I feel as though I find difficulty in analyzing this material appropriately in order to make a unique work that is my own. The revision process helps me to recognize where the analysis is lacking and then determining how to make it a better piece of writing. 
• Did you provide concrete examples from your own writing (either quotes from your writing or rich descriptions of your writing process)? 
• For this specific piece of writing I mostly used hyperlinks to refer back to previous blog posts and writings. While at points I did refer to specific quotes I mostly utilized these hyperlinks in order to allow the readers to fully appreciate the entirety of the blog post or deadline assignment. 
• Did you explain why you made certain choices and whether those choices were effective? 
• Although usually I have more difficulty with explaining my choices I feel as though the informal letter genre really allowed me to express the reasons behind my choices. It's easy to acknowledge the choices but then takes an extra step to effectively convey to the audience the importance of the decision I made. Revision always allows me recognize how to do this more effectively. 
• Did you use specific terms and concepts related to writing and the writing process? 
• By referring to previous blog posts as well as deadlines I was more capable of indicating the important terms and concepts throughout the course. I tried to convey to the audience the terms and concepts which I had the most trouble with and what I was able to improve upon and what I had more difficulty with. 

Draft of Open Letter

Draft of Open Letter 

Gassen, Chris. "Christmas Spirit" 12/6/14 via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution. 

Linked below is my draft of the Open Letter course final. After doing some research on the genre of a semiformal letter I feel as though my conventions are correct but I could be totally wrong. While editing could you please focus on:

• Conventions of the genre?
• If I covered all the content assigned.
• If I have enough references to outside sources? 
• If the letter is long enough? 
• In general if it sounds good? 

LINK TO MY DRAFT OF OPEN LETTER 

THANK YOU!!!

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences 

Writing experiences are instrumental to helping a person determine what type of writer he or she really is. Below is my analyzation of my writing experiences throughout English 109H.

Travis. "Christmas-Tree-Wallpaper-christmas-8142630-1024-768" 12/7/12 via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution. 

• What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall. 
• The biggest challenge which I encountered was working my way out of the classic 5 paragraph type of writing which I was accustomed to and learning how to utilize multiple different genres of writing. That being said, the QRG and public argument were such interesting ways of writing but in order to fully understand and utilize the genres I had to first get over the hill of going out of my comfort zone in the writing process. 
• What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?
• In the past I always thought that what I had to say with my writing as well as my editorial comments was somewhat insignificant. During this course I realized that what I have to say is important and that more often than not the comments I have on other people's work is in sync with other peer editors. I realized that what I have to say is just as important as anyone else's and it was exciting to come to the realization that I am more capable at writing in many different genres rather than only being able to convey my ideas and opinions in one way. Additionally, I realized that in order to time manage everything I have going on I can't do any of my work in my dorm room. I realized that I have to get out and about and do my work with lots of different breaks in order to produce my best work.
• What do you know about the concept of "genre"? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer. 
• Throughout projects 1, 2, and 3 I feel like my understanding of "genre", or the type of writing which one does, has increased. I have come to the realization that depending on the genre which someone is writing is will convey a different message to the reader. Understanding this concept is instrumental because knowing the genre which one is writing in will make him or her more capable of effectively conveying the intended message within the writing. 
• What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework? 
• English 109H introduced me to a number of different types of writing, especially those which were published publicly. That being said, I think as I continue on with my education I will probably learn more specifics about a few genres of writing that are used especially for my major. This could be some sort of act of public speech or it could be a formal type of writing. 
• What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H?
• I think my most effective moment from this semester in English 109H was when I published my Public Argument in my blog post, "Publishing Public Argument". I felt as though throughout projects one and two I had really been trying to fully understand not only my topic but also the genre which I was writing in. I believe that the end of project 3 I really had a firm grip on every aspect of the project. It was so exciting to have really taken everyone's revision recommendations and then compile them with my own ideas to create something that I felt really worked well as an actual public argument that could have been published somewhere. 
• What as your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?
• My least effective moment in this semester of English 109H was when I published my project 2 final in my blog post "Project 2: Final Draft". Both projects 1 and 3 felt pretty good to me but for some reason I feel as though I had not accomplished much in project 2. That being said, I don't think that my publication of project 2 was the best. 

Revisiting My Writing Process

Revisiting My Writing Process 

Each individual is shaped by his or her own writing process. After having completed all the work for projects 1, 2 and 3 for the course I have decide to revisit what I stated as my writing process at the beginning of the course. 

McIntosh, Johnathan. "Xmas Lights DC" 2004 via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution.  

In my first blogpost entitled "My Writing Process" I recognized that I used to be "a somewhat procrastinating heavy reviser type of writer". Although this was true in the past I feel as though throughout the course I really focused on attempting to procrastinate less. After the first few deadlines in which I did the majority of the blog posts and assignments in the last two days prior to the de date I realized that I caused to much stress and anxiety to do it that way. From then on I really tried to space out the assignments evenly in each deadline in order to ensure that I wouldn't get overwhelmed. 

I also labeled myself as a heavy reviser which I think still mostly holds true. Although this is still true I think I have improved upon this method to make it effective to my writing abilities rather than just being a result of procrastination, as in the past. That being said, I realized that I would create my own first draft all on my own and then following peer feedback as well as much meeting time with the professor I would work to improve upon what I had crafted in my first draft. 

As of now, I think my time management skills have improved. I really tired to look at each deadline before the week of it in order to determine how to allot enough time in my schedule to each item on the deadline list. That being said, I think there' always room for improvement with time management and writing processes but I think I that I am starting to get onto the right track with how to deal with the full workload. 

Hopefully, based on this course, I will be able to continue to procrastinate less and less with the assignments. I hope to continue to capitalize on both my own thoughts as well as those thoughts of the editor's of my work in order to produce the best work I can both in terms of school work and beyond.