Learning Outcome 1
When it comes to my own revision process in writing, it has been quite a learning curve for me. I have had practice in the past with going back through my work and seeing what needs to be changed, but when we began discussing the idea in this course it wasn’t the same. In this class it was explained as an idea in which my writing was fluid, meaning that nothing was concrete and that my ideas could flow to different place in my paper if it fit better. There wasn’t a set mold for my writing. In the past when it came to editing my work, I was always told to look at it as something that was supposed to fit a certain mold and that I should spend my time on the more local edits. So when coming to this process, I had to change how I looked at my work entirely. Supporting what Sommers’ writes, I needed “strategies that help[ed] [me] identify the ‘something larger’”. It took me a little bit to get used to the process, but as I continued to look over my work for the first paper, the idea really helped me as a writer. I was beginning to look at my work more as an artistic process instead of writing something to fit the mold that had been made before. Focusing more on making sure my ideas and claims and support were all clear in my work, since that is what matters in the long run when it comes to papers. I began to see what I wanted to change because I could read my paper and see that certain parts did not fit as well in paragraphs as it would in others, or maybe it just didn’t fit well in the paper at all.
Learning Outcome 2
At the beginning of the year when it came to writing papers and using evidence I would often use less support and would instead summarize the material that was given to me in regards to a paper. Throughout the class I did get better with using the evidence instead of simply summarizing it, and that can be seen throughout my papers in this class. The first paper I wrote for the course had a lot of summary, to the point where it became an issue. The first paper had more summary of the outside materials and less of my own thoughts and claims. I have not had too much trouble with integrating quotes since that was a skill that I was taught a lot in the past. The work that I would tie into my papers would be roped in by having the sentence flow into the quote from the material. The following quote is from my second paper for this course, “Although this could be seen as a positive alteration in terms of how efficiently we function, “Such facility in rapid information processing requires profound alterations in our brain. And such alterations come at a cost – a devaluation of the depth and quality of our relationships” (Restak, 378).” , showing how I wanted to put the quote into my sentences so that it would all flow together. Being able to work quotes into my work is a very useful thing to do and learning to not use summary so much in my work is very, very important as my academic and professional careers continue to grow and expand.
Learning Object 5 and 6:
Ever since I began writing bigger academic papers for school and such I have always had trouble citing my sources properly. Remembering proper MLA format is still something I struggle with, and it was much worse when I entered this class at the beginning of the semester. During the writing of my works it was very helpful to have my time with my peers where they would edit my work and check to see if my formatting was in order. In my work I did have some trouble still getting this right but over time it got better. It was not something that was easy for me to grasp but I am remembering more and more. When it comes to making local edits in my work that is one of the last things I do since it is very easy for me to weed them out and fix them. My biggest issues lie in the global edits, so when it comes to local ones, they are not too hard to fix. One thing I struggle the most with is run-on sentences, I write a lot of run-ons. As a reader they can be very difficult to read and it can become easy to lose track of the idea being discusses when the sentences dwindle on for too long.
Learning Outcome 4:
As a student it was very helpful to have other peers edit my paper and it was also useful to have to edit others. The whole process made me more aware of how other people think and approach the same prompt I was given, and it exposes me to more minds. Yet it also helps me realize through others work what I may have to work more on in my own writing. When it came to editing others papers I would start off looking more at their ideas and claims. Seeing how well all of their ideas flowed together and were supported by the texts that were given or that they found. What mattered the most was making sure the paper carried the intended meaning to the reader or audience. If the breakdown of my comments on my peers paper is looked at, it is clear that most of my edits on the paper are evidence or idea based because when it came to the piece I was reading, those are the two categories that seemed to matter the most. The local edits usually change as the global ones since the author is reading through the paper so many times and hopefully with fresh eyes that the smaller issues are resolved. In terms of local edits, there are always things that can be improved yet I feel that as long as there is a balance of both it will resolve itself in the paper. Having peers edit your work is a very useful way to check for these local edits since a new pair of eyes can see things in your work that you may miss.
