There is nothing like writing an essay, a paper or even a blog for English class. They always follow the same basic writing process for me, a lot of procrastination, and a little writing. This probably has a lot to do with the environment that I am writing in. Right now, for instance, I am at the desk in my dorm, with the door open to hear everything that’s happening down the hall. In a minute, my roommate will probably turn on Sportscenter, adding to the numerous distractions. And then of course, I am writing on my computer, which connects me to the time drainer we know as Facebook. Sure, I could probably find a nice, quiet study lounge and write my various papers and essays with no distractions, but then all my paper would be is me droning on and on about who knows what.
One of my strategies for writing is by getting ideas from these distractions. I guess I just need constant breaks to think about what I am writing. The ideas that I do come up with I write down on a piece of paper. I would not consider this to be an outline though. An outline implies order, which is the opposite of this jumble of ideas. For my draft, I try and write down these ideas in an order that makes sense and fits the purpose of the paper. Then there is the sometimes lengthy process of revision. I revise differently for long and short papers. For something like this blog, I will just read it over two or three times. Usually all the points are in the right place and I am just looking for typos, grammar and spelling mistakes. I am horrible when it comes to making and correcting these mistakes, so this part of writing can get annoying. For long papers, I read them over a bunch of times, same thing as small papers, looking closer at the main points this time. I then try to make one or two of my friends read it over. All my friends actually know how to spell and use grammar well, so this is a big plus. I have no problems with my writing circumstances, so the way I write now is ideal. As for workshopping, usually the people that look over my draft are pretty good. People usually realize that the more critical they are of your paper, the more it is going to benefit me, just as my corrections will benefit them.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Workshopping and my feedback on "Essay R"
Workshopping allows you to correct a paper within a group. As a genre, workshopping lets multiple people give you varied feedback on your work, and will probably lead to a better paper. A workshop draft will often look and sound very different from the final paper. A workshop draft is what a paper looks like after writing it for the first time looking over it a few times. The draft is basically just all your thoughts on paper, and in a fairly organized fashion. Its purpose is for whomever is reading it to give feedback to make these thoughts not only become more organized, but also make sure that it is logical, and fits the purpose of the paper. This makes the audience not whoever the final paper is suppose to be for, but the people in your workshop that will read the draft.
If “Essay R” was a workshop draft, the grade I would have given it in my last post would not be so harsh. However, I do have a lot of problems with the paper. As I said before, there were many grammatical and punctuation problems. The style needed to be more formal, and another source is needed to at least have sources to compare to each other. Another thing I would add is to make sure that the paper stays on topic. The writer didn’t really compare the 80s wrestling to present day. With these changes and a few more revisions, I feel this essay would improve greatly.
If “Essay R” was a workshop draft, the grade I would have given it in my last post would not be so harsh. However, I do have a lot of problems with the paper. As I said before, there were many grammatical and punctuation problems. The style needed to be more formal, and another source is needed to at least have sources to compare to each other. Another thing I would add is to make sure that the paper stays on topic. The writer didn’t really compare the 80s wrestling to present day. With these changes and a few more revisions, I feel this essay would improve greatly.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Grading of "Essay R"
“Essay R” is about how professional wrestling has changed over the years. However, this essay is also full of grammatical and punctuation errors. Usually I am pretty bad when it comes to these types of errors, but “Essay R” was unacceptable. I give it a C-. The punctuation errors start in the first two sentences, where the sentences should have question marks. Then in various parts of the paper there are grammatical errors, such as using “had,” instead of “has.” Some parts of the paper seem a little to informal, and conversational then actual essay writing. The content seemed alright, it would have been better to use two sources to compare with each other, but one source was good for such a short paper. All in all, this paper could have greatly improved if the writer had spent more time proofreading his or her work.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
C@VT exercise 2.h
I hope I'm putting this in the right spot...
1. The analysis written by Bryan West is in response to a political article written it the Collegiate Times. This article concerned the 2008 election, and how Hilary Clinton would not be a good choice for president. The analysis served to give a commentary about the contents of this news article as well as examine the author's use of different writing devices. The audience of this article is the undecided voters of the upcoming election, most likely college students. I know this because this essay is in a college textbook. On a more serious note, in West's introduction he mentions that in the upcoming election, many undecided voters will be swayed by articles, debates and many other factors. This essay is one of those devices.
2. The genre of this analysis is a commentary of the news article. I cannot say if i have ever written a commentary on something, but I would use it to talk about an event, or specific subject. I have read commentaries of books and events that happened in the news.
3. The author could have used a persuasive essay to get his point across that the news article is ineffective at persuading Clinton supporters. The advantage of this genre is he can build a better argument against the article. The disadvantage is that West cannot explain the writing devices the article uses as well in a persuasive essay as he can in an analysis.
4. Another genre he could have used is an editorial. This would make his analysis a response to the article instead of an commentary of the article. This would then make his audience be a larger audience of everyone that reads the newspaper. The persuasive appeals of the analysis would be altered. The analysis would no longer be its own essay, but be seen as a counterpoint, or in addition to the news article. He would need to shorten the article and stick to a few main points.
5. In the teaching profession, this style would be used to comment on a student's essay or project. A social worker uses this to argue about a person's ability to take care of his or her child. A scientist would use it to argue against a particular solution to a problem because it would fail.
1. The analysis written by Bryan West is in response to a political article written it the Collegiate Times. This article concerned the 2008 election, and how Hilary Clinton would not be a good choice for president. The analysis served to give a commentary about the contents of this news article as well as examine the author's use of different writing devices. The audience of this article is the undecided voters of the upcoming election, most likely college students. I know this because this essay is in a college textbook. On a more serious note, in West's introduction he mentions that in the upcoming election, many undecided voters will be swayed by articles, debates and many other factors. This essay is one of those devices.
2. The genre of this analysis is a commentary of the news article. I cannot say if i have ever written a commentary on something, but I would use it to talk about an event, or specific subject. I have read commentaries of books and events that happened in the news.
3. The author could have used a persuasive essay to get his point across that the news article is ineffective at persuading Clinton supporters. The advantage of this genre is he can build a better argument against the article. The disadvantage is that West cannot explain the writing devices the article uses as well in a persuasive essay as he can in an analysis.
4. Another genre he could have used is an editorial. This would make his analysis a response to the article instead of an commentary of the article. This would then make his audience be a larger audience of everyone that reads the newspaper. The persuasive appeals of the analysis would be altered. The analysis would no longer be its own essay, but be seen as a counterpoint, or in addition to the news article. He would need to shorten the article and stick to a few main points.
5. In the teaching profession, this style would be used to comment on a student's essay or project. A social worker uses this to argue about a person's ability to take care of his or her child. A scientist would use it to argue against a particular solution to a problem because it would fail.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)