At the beginning of the semester I was a terrible writer. I did not know how to integrate quotes, peer edit, use MLA citations, etc. So, for spring semester of English 123 I had a lot of expectations compared to English 122. I expected to learn how to become a better writer, not a master writer. I wanted to learn how to correctly integrate quotes, use MLA citations, and how to learn from peer editing.
Doing the prewriting for the essay actually helped me develop ideas and fully understand the information I was to talk about in my first draft. When I wrote my first draft I was just knew some things had to be changed, I was just unaware what. When I shared my draft with my classmates they all brought some good points to my attention, which helped me develop my next draft. I also commented on my peer’s drafts and tried to comment more constructively than just surface errors, global errors. Doing the peer evaluations made me realize that I could change some of the things I was commenting about in my own writing. During all of this time writing and revising I actually started to see why my first draft wasn’t as good as I thought it was. It had a lot of room to work with it and all of the comments and feedback helped me transform my narrative. It helped transform it by consistently helping me edit it and reading over the paragraphs and noticing that my sentence structure was off, I had dropped quotes, and wrong MLA citation. The essay that I am most proud of the revisions in is essay number 2. https://docs.google.com/a/une.edu/document/d/1UeCGxvcJ3x2-MSjSgmQULgk1RLYeJ2x_YQsBSN49aig/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/a/une.edu/document/d/1ugvDO2CMgqqar_9a13TFTuANhF3-UdRs7tmTpyiXMu8/edit?usp=sharing
Writing as a recursive process
Essay two is by far my proudest example of my achievements as a fist year academic writer for I improved upon most of my problem areas in writing. In my first draft i lacked quotations, global and local edits, and common paragraph structures. However, through much revision and change I was able to rearrange my paragraphs so that they would flow in a smooth and orderly fashion, which would make sense to both me and the reader. this example of global edits comes to show my improvement upon the big picture. Big picture referring to the essay as a whole and not just a particular sentence or structure. This big picture thinking comes to show how I am able to look outside the box in a more abstract way, to detach myself from the trivial spelling and grammar and focus auon the philosophy that they essay is trying to convey. Despite this abstract thinking unlike most academic writers I can also focus aupn the small things as well. After reading my rough draft aloud to my self in my dark and seculuded dorm room like an institutionalized patient I was really able to focus on the issues that could only be seen with magnifying glass persuasion. In the darkness of my room with only the shining light of my computer I was able to do the nessasary local revisions needed to put the finishing touches aupon the paper. Finishing touches such as spelling grammar and sentence rearangement.
Integrating ideas
In my first draft I mainly focused upon my ideas about narrative medicine and not at all focusing upon the text and resource provided. My first draft was basically idea centered babble, babble that droned about how narrative medicine was good in getting patients to talk about their medial problems. Without paying much regard to the text at hand. However in my final draft I incorporated text and quotes to support my opinions. The argument that the paper did not just stand alone but with support and back up from an accredited source, an example of this can be seen in,” Charon writes, “The effective practice of medicine requires narrative competence, that is, the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others” (1897) . The use of these quotes come to show my ability for self improvement and change. In the past I would drone, but now I am able to incorporate and support texts with my own to make a totally new and original point of view.
Active and critical reading
In the beginning of the semester my active reading was slim and minimal. I would read get the idea of the work at hand but not feel the need to mark up the paper with questions and comments. But, through much practice and realization I have come to the conclusion that active and critical reading is a necessary part of the writing process. It is the annotations that lead us to form our thought sand opinions about the text. It is our markings that motivate us to write the essays that not only shape us but our readers as well.
Critiquing your work and others
Unlike most people I am not afraid to tell someone like it is, and when this comes to critiqueing other peoples work I am more than obliged to color their pages red in order to get my point across on where they need to improve. On the other hand when one comes to critiquing their own work it is more difficult because we as humans think all that we make is perfect and without flaw. But the reality of it is that our work is very flawed and with much room for improvement. I as a self critique am able to remove my self from the fact that I am reviewing my own work and can think of my paper as someone else and I am then able to then turn the pages red with edits and corrections to make the essay a grade A paper.
MLA Citation
In previous essays I would not add a work cited page. Why i couldn’t tell you. It must have just slipped my mind, or it must have not made its way into my paper. However in my most recent papers I have added a work cited page and was able to do them in proper MLA citation as well. in the past when I would add in a work cited page most of the time I entered them incorrectly without following the MLA protocol. ontop of a work cited page I have improved upon in text citations. As I worked upon improving on adding in quotes I simultaneously worked upon the MLA format of an intent citation.
Error pattern
One of my largest error patterns that progressed through the semester was fragment sentences. As much local revisions as o thought I did there were always some type of sentence fragment. These sentence fragment were my mortal enemy because sometimes I would start a thought and only to finish it in not a complete way. But in the end I figured everything out and was able to overcome my sentence fragments and have since then been able to write a complete and fully formulated essay.
*************************Sorry Amy, It is 5 o’clock somewhere! :)******************
