In this class, we have covered several writing and thinking skills. These skills range from writing effective sentences and paragraphs to the writing process stages to analysis to locating and using research. The goal of completing these tasks was to better prepare you to write effective academic and professional documents.
With that in mind, please take a few moments to think back on the class work, readings, and assignments we have completed in this class. Then, answer the following questions:
- What two writing or thinking skills do you feel you have improved in this class? Provide specific examples of how these skills have been improved.
- What two writing or thinking skills would you still like to improve? Explain these skills clearly in terms of why you think they still need improving.
- What two assignments, activities, etc. did you find most beneficial? Why
- What two assignments, readings, etc. did you find most challenging? Why?
I have found that inside-out drafting and my thesis writing skills have improved alot in this class. In the past I have always been a top down drafter. I was able to come up with an easier thesis for my research paper by writing the body of the paper first then writing my intro and conclusion paragraphs around the body.
ReplyDeleteI still think my revision skills need improvement. I think they need improving because I still miss the simpliest of typing and grammar errors. When I have peers look over my papers they tend to find more grammar errors then they do structure or clarity errors. Therefore my second area of improvement would be the grammar mustakes that I make in the first place that I miss in my revision.
I found the in class research paper very benefiticial. After class I would do the same steps with my own paper and it kept me on track with my paper and helped me by having the information fresh in mind. Also I found the post draft online on my research paper very helpfull. By doing that assignment it showed me where my paper was lacking and helped me correct it.
I found the Short Story paper the hardest. Being away from writing papers for over a decade, I hate to date myself, it made for more of a challenge. The Research paper was my most challenging assignment. I have a very strong stand on Social Security and trying to put those thoughts assign was difficult. I know now that learning to think objectively about a topic will help me greatly as I continue on for my Masters Degree.
Over the course of this semester, I believe that I've mainly improved on my drafting skills. Inside-out drafting is such a helpful tool and eliminates writers block almost every time. I've also improved on my revision skills. This class has taught me how to avoid being so wordy with sentences, which has been a big problem of mine in the past.
ReplyDeleteI would still like to improve on developing my ideas. I always find good points, but often leave out details that would emphasize my opinions even more.
The in class papers that we did were really helpful to me in the sense that they really gave me a sound idea of what I should be doing and how far I needed to elaborate on things.
I find the current paper that we're working on to be the hardest. I haven't gotten that deep into it yet, but the whole idea of writing a semi-creative writing paper is just discouraging. I'm definitely not a fan of creative writing.
This class was definitely a good one and I'm very glad that I took it!
I feel that I am able to plan my writing a lot better. Before I just wrote a paper without prewriting, and my final copies would comeback pretty well. Now with prewritng techniques, at this level, my papers came back a lot better than expected.
ReplyDeleteI would like to improve on flowing my writing a little better, and perhaps doing better in the revision process. Sometime my work doesn't totally flow with my thesis, so I would like to improve on that. When it comes to revision, I would like to take more time in doing that myself.
I think the two papers we have written so far were most beneficial because they were done pretty much step by step, and it allowed us to learn easier. The same two papers were probably the most challenging too. Even though there are ways that make writing papers easier, it is never truly an easy task.
I have improved on my drafting skills by making sure that it is a quick process and i dont try to make it perfect the first time around. I have also improved my paragraph development by inside out drafting.
ReplyDeleteI would still like to improve on my research skills by finding ways to get better information faster(annotation). And i also think i need some work with Analysis, i find these types of papers difficult and i would like to find some techneiques to make this process easier for me.
I found both of the papers most benificial because we went over detail by detail in class on how to do these kinds of essays successfuly.
I also found those same essays most challenging because when i knew exactily how to do every step. And i was very critical of myself to follow the correct steps to make a strong paper.
I think that two of the writing thinking skills I feel have helped me improve is topic outline sentences. This helped me out because I was able to figure out what my topic sentence was and to make sure my paragraph was relevant to the essay. Another would be analyzing the four bases of revision. I could look through and check on the key points and make sure I completed them. I think that I could still improve on my revision skills because after I turn in my essay and get it back I notice that things are out of order. Another would be working on my work cited pages. I get most of this correct, but not everything. One activity I thought was beneficial was the quizzes for two reasons, for the fact that you needed to do the reading to get a good grade. And if u did the reading you knew what we were doing in class. Also I thought that the peer reviews were help full because we had other peoples input. I .found that when reading Edgar Allen Poes A tell tale heart I was confused because of the wording. Another would be finding an essay question that could best fit my essay and keep me on topic.
ReplyDeleteThe category method of prewriting has helped my writing ability more than I thought. The other skills were pretty helpful, but the Category method has helped my writing the most. The other thing that seemed to improve to me is me being able to stay on topic. I used to go all over the place in writing. I still have problems with details, transition, and being more clear with my thoughts. I hope to improve myself so that these aren’t as big of a problem as they are now.
ReplyDeleteThe short story assignment was pretty fun. It was nice to read something and try to find the symbolism in it. I usually don’t do that. Now I try to on the third reading of any story.
The hardest assignment to me was the research paper. Looking around for things to use on a paper and was a bit difficult, due to most of the various resources were positive and very few were negative on the issue. I did learn about various events surrounding iPods and Videos being used for learning. That was pretty good, in my opinion.
The first writing skill that I think that I improved on the most would have to sentence structure because after being in the regents support class in high school I wasnt sure if I could handle or keep up but I learned to develop my sentences greatly.
ReplyDeleteThe next skill would be the prewriting when I was in highschool it was all about the outline and not at all about web. When I found out that I could prewrite the same way that I did when I was in fifth grade I was excited and felt that I personally have done so much more at the prewriting.
I think that i could still use improvement on developing good paragraphs and doing more of the reading that is required outside of class.
The two activities that I found most beneficial were the slasher film activity that showed me how to write a good persuasive research paper. The other activity that those classes that we spent on the sentence and paragraph structure because sentence structure is what i think I improved the most on.
What two assignments, readings, etc. did you find most challenging? Why?
I think the classifacation paper was the hardest paper I have ever written because i didnt really understand what it was. the second would have to be remembering to do all of these assignments on the internet
The only skill I really think I improved on when it comes to writing is the fact that I don't wait around until Sunday night at nine to start a paper due on Monday morning. Starting a paper early seemed so tedious before this class. Mainly because the entire process took like a month to narrow down, and narrow down again, and then expand, and then expand again. Monotonous explains it well.
ReplyDeleteI think I still need to work on my drafting though. I've figured out my own way to draft, but it's not as useful as inside-out... it's more like an inside-out-top-down. I guess I took both methods and modified them to my own, but even in doing that, drafting is still my own worst enemy.
The most beneficial assignment was the persuasive research paper. By having a month to do it and going through basically the whole sequnce of things in class and doing whatever we did in class as soon as I got home helped me stay on task.
However, at the same time, the same paper was the most challenging. This paper actually required you to spend the time on it and go through everything meticulously.
To be honest, when i came into this class i had a great understanding of format writing. To me its like math. I always have gotten great grades without brainstorming or drafting. However, now that I actually inside-out drafted and tried the brainstorming techniques i will never go back to the way I used to write. The issue was with the ability to get an A without much effort. I came to realize though, it was taking me longer to get that A than to write a better paper. Dont get me wrong, I like the papers I wrote in the past. The papers i wrote in this class however, were much better and easier. With brainstorming all my ideas are there i just have to put the paper together. In the past i had always had to come up with them as i wrote. The inside-out drafting took the guess work out of it. I could just write paragraphs and not worry where to put them. Also, i'm not sure if i was taught this by you or not, but i love coming up with my thesis and topic sentences before I start writing. What I got from this class will stick with me through all my writings to come. I can now write a paper better than i could before, which i was happy with until i realized how easy it could be. I would still like to improve my puncuation. I have a strong knowledge of puncuation however, i would love to have the ability to write it like i think it. Sometimes a comma and a couple words can really make your paper stand out even to yourself. I would also like to have a better understanding of citing sources. Sometimes I have difficulty deciding if i have to cite something or not. Sometimes i take their idea and put into my words and it makes it difficult for me to decide whether to cite or not. I found the pursuasive research paper and the brainstorming activities helped me the most. The resaerch paper helped me so much because i picked a topic i knew so much about. It showed me how much brianstorming helps me even if i know the topic stone cold. It allowed me to write one of my favorite topics better than i have ever written it before. That goes hand in hand with brainstorming. I always knew how to but i never thought it was neccesary for me. Now i realize how much better and easier writing can be. I actually enjoyed writing the papers, (when they were done. lol) because i like the outcome of the paper. When i would read them i was astonished at how much better brainstorming made my paper. I would have to say the most challenging assignment for me was the illustration/classification paper. It was difficult only because i was not in class and did not really know what it was. Overall, writing a paper is like math. If you know the formula plug in the substitutions and solve. The second hardest would probably be the short story paper. It was slightly difficult because there is technically no wrong answer to me. It was hard to come up with an idea and use the information to support what i think the author thought. I like to have clear cut answers to everything.
ReplyDelete