Reflection on Open Letter Draft

I will reflect on peer reviews of my draft of Project 4. I peer reviewed Ayra and Brandon's rough drafts.

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This draft was brutal. After reading all the comments, I started a new Word document because I needed to change it so much. They both said the same things about my level of formality, clarity, and purpose. I had to take focus off of my high school experience in English and focus more on my experience in this class more. I didn't even realize I had so much about high school in my rough draft, so it's good that they caught that. That feedback was critical to my final draft.

1. Did you demonstrate an ability to think about your writing and yourself as a writer?

Yes, I gave honest feedback on how this course has affected me as a writer.

2. Did you provide analysis of your experiences, assignments, or concepts you have learned?

I gave several examples of how I applied my knowledge throughout the semester.

3. Did you provide concrete examples from your own writing?

Yes, I put hyperlinks in the letter that links to my writing.

4. Did you explain why you made certain choices and whether those choices were effective?

Yes, I gave reason why I made the choices I did and determined whether they were effective or not.

5. Did you use specific terms and concepts related to writing and the writing process?

Yes, I have terms like "procrastinate", "genre", "revision", etc.

Draft of Open Letter

Here is the rough draft of my open letter.

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I think I tried to tie in too many aspects of the semester into each paragraph and I didn't even try to split them up yet but let me know how you think I should split it up. Also let me know if I'm missing conventions of the genre. I looked at the conventions only briefly so I may have missed something.

I peer reviewed Ayra and Brandon's rough drafts.

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

I will reflect some more on my writing experience.

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1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?

My biggest challenge was finding the patience to do all the weekly work. There was usually an exhausting amount of work every week that took more patience than most classes to get done.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time managment, writing and editorial skills?

My time management skills are okay but they could be better. I spent a lot of time on Saturday getting a lot of work done so maybe I should have made time to do work during the week. My writing skills are weak on rough drafts. I got my main idea across and my evidence written down on rough drafts but I depended heavily on peer review to make my final draft good. On project 2, I had to do the most editing. That rough draft was especially bad, not even peer review could save it. It ended up being my most successful project, so I guess my editorial skills are good.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.

Genre analysis was a huge part of this class. Understanding the conventions of the genre allows the writer to mimic it the best they can and therefore make the piece as effective as possible.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?

There are plenty of helpful skills from this course that I will use and build upon in the future including genre analysis, rhetorical situation analysis, time management, and editing skills.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H? 

My most effective moment was editing project 2 from the piece of garbage it was to the rhetorical analysis it should have been the whole time.

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

My least effective moment was drafting project 2 because I didn't read the prompt carefully enough, so its purpose was totally off.

Revisiting My Writing Process

I will reflect on how my writing process and time management changed throughout the semester in this post.

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I will start by reflecting on my writing process. Before this class, I was a procrastinator and I was really good at it. To an extent, my time management skills are still in the procrastinator category but not my writing process. This class required a lot of pre-planning to our projects that I wouldn't normally do if left to my own devices. The required work was a mix of heavy planner, heavy reviser, and sequential composer. I am none of those things but there are some aspects that I will take moving forward.

I can say I'm going to make Coggles and outlines from now on, but I'd be lying. Honestly, the most important part of the planning phase for me is the annotated bibliography. My college is engineering, which will usually require evidence in writing, making the annotated bibliography the most important. I might make a quick outline if the piece I need to write is substantial just to organize evidence before writing. Revising was another huge part that worked out for me. We had peer reviews in high school but most students would go for the bare minimum, which didn't result in helpful peer reviews. This class had a much more thorough peer review process and it certainly helped make the final draft as best as it could be.

My time management skills improved from this class. My writing process and time management were one in the same before the class, meaning I had to fit schoolwork into my schedule the day before it was due rather than do what I can when I can. At the beginning of the semester, I was good at getting work done when I could but that phased out quickly. I ended up doing most if not all the weekly work on Saturday. So how did my time management skills improve? Saturday used to be a day I enjoyed, so all the fun things of the week piled up on that day. I learned that Saturday is a day to do work, so I dispensed my free time throughout the week. Homework in other classes never ended up on Saturday but took up the time during the week I had planned for English, making Saturday the perfect day for English. I prefer having free time throughout the week so I will keep this time management strategy moving forward.