Sunday, April 13, 2008
Writing, interpreting and revising ...
To begin class today (4/14), I’d like you to reflect on last Wednesday’s writing workshop and the feedback you received on the first draft of our current assignment. What did you gain as a writer from this experience? What have you learned about doing interpretive or text-based research so far? How are you planning to revise your essay in the next week?
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Wednesday’s writing workshop was the first successful writing workshop I have ever participated in. I was nervous when I read that we were going to be doing a workshop with our peers to edit our papers. I have had a number of classes that have tried to use this technique and generally it has been a waste of time. In my previous experiences I have not received helpful feedback, they were generally completely unproductive and I would come away thinking about the wasted time. Wednesday was a new experience for me.
I though that the feedback I received was extremely helpful. My classmates listened attentively and shared very valuable suggestions. Our group would discuss each paper after we heard it and not only did it lead to good suggestions for each individual paper, but to good discussions about things that we could all look to work on and improve in our papers. I thought that the experience was really valuable.
So far I have learned a lot about the need for interpretation in these papers. Through reading the various papers that my group members had, I was really able to see more clearly what these papers should be like. Some members had too much source summary while others did not have enough. I think that through this assignment I am really learning what it means to interpret a text and support a certain interpretation through solid evidence from the text.
Over the course of the next week, I plan to finish my essay because my draft was only half done. After finishing a complete draft I plan to rework it to make sure that everything flows and try to incorporate the suggestions that I received from my classmates and professor Bateman.
I really enjoyed the writing workshop on Wednesday. It was very productive, and the two I worked with were very insightful and gave a lot of good comments that helped me as I revised my draft. It was also helpful to have to read my paper out loud, because I noticed a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes I may not have noticed without doing that. Also, by giving the others feedback on their writing, I was able to bring up subjects and topics that I could reflect on in my own writing. For example, I gave one of the group members criticism on their repetitiveness, and in turn was able to find a lot of repetition in my own writing.
Thus far, I have learned that text-based research is much harder than any research I have done before. It is actually very challenging to find credible sources instead of non-credible sources that one could find on google. However, I learned that the hard work payed off, and really helped me formulate sound ideas that were backed up by credible sources.
In the next week, I plan on making my arguments more clear, and also taking out some of the quotations and trying to incorporate more of my own ideas into the paper. Also, I plan on making my transitions from paragraph to paragraph more clear and develop my ideas more strongly in those transitions. By doing this, I think that it will help me develop a better thesis as well.
I always enjoy exercises like the writing workshop because it helps me gain confidence in writing that I am not always sure about. Sometimes I am not always confident that my ideas are valid, or that they are even coming across at all. I often find that when I get peer feedback, it tends to be positive with just a couple of kinks to work out. I think this is an important part of my writing process because I am often blind to the stupid mistakes or little flaws of my papers. I found it especially helpful to read my paper out loud to my peers. That way, I can actually hear if some of my wording is awkward, and I have a better chance of seeing silly grammar mistakes. Not to mention, I always have a ton of typos, so reading out loud helps me catch those too.
During this class specifically, I think that I have better learned how to incorporate other analyses of narratives into my own work. In high school when I would write essays like this, outside sources were not required so I relied solely on the narrative itself. It is slightly more difficult for me to incorporate other people's opinions into my work, but I am learning, and doing my best to have these othe opinions flow into mine.
Over the next week, I plan on first of all, finishing my rough draft. After getting a complete rough copy, I will try to look at it from an outsider's eye and try to iron out the kinks, and possible grammar and wording issues. I think I am on the right track and have potential to write a really great paper. During the next week, I also plan on doing some more peer editing, because I think that the input of my peers is valuable, and incorporating their ideas always takes the level of my paper up a few notches.
Writing workshops—for me—have always been an effective way of editing my papers and receiving feedback before the professor. I know that oftentimes I procrastinate on my papers and end up turning in my first draft, with minor revisions. Last quarter my writing professor had our class do writing workshops, reading off other people’s papers and talking about them in discussion, going back and doing a re-write of the paper. I think the reason these re-writes are so advanced from the original draft is the multiple points of view on the paper provided by peers through the writing workshops.
One thing we did not do in our writing workshops last quarter was reading our papers out loud. I oftentimes hear from professors that this is the best method of starting revision because it is oftentimes very hard to hear mistakes solely through reading over the paper in your head. Something about reading out loud detaches a person from her writing, enabling her to hear more flow or grammatical errors. Although I felt this was a great way of looking over my paper, I know that sometimes I just like people to read and tell me places where sentences sound awkward. I also know as an editor it is more natural for me to read and write comments on the paper on my own, then give oral feedback to the writer.
As far as this essay goes, I noticed in the peer editing that my greatest problem is avoiding overanalyzing the sociological standpoint in the essay and focusing most of my writing energy into analyzing the primary, literary text. I found myself straying off and writing about homelessness in general instead of focusing on the author’s opinion and interpretations of homelessness. I think I also realized this issue too late into writing my first draft, so I just continued on, knowing I would have to turn in an essay not completely fitting an interpretive format. My goal for this next draft will be to find another scholarly source that focuses partially on the novel I picked or the topic and re-center my essay around the text I chose.
From Wednesday’s writing workshop, I was able to gain a new perspective on my paper. It is always refreshing to get a different opinion and perspective on a piece of writing. From working with my peers, I was able to gain a new outlook on my paper and they were able to help me with the weaknesses in my paper and areas that I felt I needed help with. They were also able to provide suggestions for areas in my paper that I did not consider which was very helpful because I was able to form new ideas off their suggestions.
Thus far, I learned that text-based research is finding secondary sources can be very time consuming and it is difficult to find sources that cater to a specific topic. I also learned that it is important to stay within interpreting the text and to focus on using secondary sources as support. Even if people are doing the same text, it was be interpreted or analyzed in many different ways opening a new perspective on the same topic. For revising my essay this week, I plan on integrating two secondary sources and to develop a main thesis. After developing a main thesis, I plan on revising the body of the paper to include examples to support it and not go off on any tangents. I also plan and working on transitions between paragraphs and different ideas throughout the paper.
I received a lot of constructive feedback from my peers last week. It is always good to read your piece out loud, this serves a very valuable function, you catch yourself being redundant, vague etc. Many times I realize how something does or does not tie in to the thesis by reading these selections out load. My peers provided phenomenal feedback in regards to my essay, they also provided a number of great examples from the text that I intend on using for MY essay, but don’t tell them that. It is great to see how others framed their arguments and the different aspects of what they choose to focus on. I think I was able to provide good feedback based on others essays because I was able to take an outside perspective.
I think that I got a better understanding of the kinds of sources I could use and how they could be utilized in shaping and supporting an argument. I really think that by reading my essay out loud to others I got a better sense of how one would react/respond to my work.
Moving forward I think that I will completely rewrite my essay keeping only minor points of the general argument in. I would like to focus more on a particular aspect of the argument and cut down on the vagueness. I think I can focus on how this argument can be supported through other specific texts.
I thought the writing workshop was more or less a success. It was nice to read my paper out loud because it felt more distant; I was able to pick up on structural issues and improve the flow of my paper. I think the first session was probably a little more awkward than future ones will be, just because we don't know each other very well. I feel like the comments we gave in person were not necessarily as critical as those that appeared in the emails, probably because people were hesitant to seem...mean? I really liked being able to see the different topics people were writing about based off of one prompt.
I don’t feel like I have a very strong literature-based research paper background. In high school my longest papers were in history classes and they were based off of primary sources. My first year seminar was film-based, and my previous writing class revolved around nonfiction travel narratives. I’m finding this essay a little challenging then, but it is a good challenging. This week I am planning on expanding my paper and fixing its balance. I need to include more about the novel itself, and (based off of my peer revisions) a little less about economics. Once I feel like the substance is all there I will just revise, revise, revise. Because my topic is a little weird, I’ll probably have a couple of my friends reread it, just to make sure its message is clear and concise.
I really like how much time you give us between our first draft and final draft, by the way. I am trying to improve my time management, and you are making that very easy! So thank you!
I have always found writing workshops to be rather helpful when it comes to my writing because I am able to discuss specific parts of my writing with others. Writing workshops are a way for me to ask questions to people directly about my writing and for them to give me feedback verbally. I benefit greatly from writer’s workshops and I am able to take the things that people have said about my writing and apply them directly to the next draft of my paper. I have learned that text-based research is very time-consuming when it comes to finding sources that are viable to cite within a paper. That was probably the most difficult part of writing this paper. The interpretative part of the research, where I formulated a thesis based on my interpretation of either Ragged Dick or the Pursuit of Happyness was actually the easier part of the assignment. I have also learned that with text-based research it is better to be specific and give very specific examples from the text to support your argument. In addition, the use of outside sources only makes your argument stronger and more supported. I plan to do a number of things to revise my paper for next week. The first of which being that I plan to use more outside sources to support my paper and to give more evidence of my argument. Also, I plan to explain why I use particular quotes from the texts, to support my paper, so that it is clear to the reader. Finally, I plan to elaborate on some points I choose to make in my paper so that the argument I build around them is stronger. Overall, I hope these revisions will greatly improve my paper.
The workshop we participated in on Wednesday was really interesting. I liked having a different style of peer editing. Usually, you just hand your paper to one of your peers and wait to get it back with a bunch of markings on them. The way we did it in class allowed me to connect with the people editing my paper, because we had to read our papers out loud and then have a verbal communication about our papers. I almost never read my papers aloud, so I was able to hear my own paper in a different way than how it sounds in my head. Reading out loud allows you to notice and catch things that you might have skipped over when just reading it. The feedback gave me ideas on how to expand my paper and how to analyze the text more thoroughly.
I learned that with text-based research, I realized that a lot of time is spent on trying to find the article or text, a lot more than what it might take to analyze the text. I find that interpreting the text can be difficult at times, but once I have a good start, it’s easy to keep writing. I’m planning on working on my paper a little at a time, because sometimes, I need to take a break away from it, or I just get too bogged down from writer’s block. That way, I’ll be able to look at the paper in a different way, and be able to get more editing from some friends.
Last Wednesday during the writing workshop, I thought it was very useful to have these peer reviews. Even though I didnt have a complete draft, it gave me a good idea of what to write and how to put together my paper as well as what I should consider when writing. It was fun reading over other people's writings by giving them critical feedback. As a writer, I gained a new experience in how to give constructive criticism and how to develop ideas when writing an essay. Also, I had the pleasure of reading other people's writing by giving feedback and being more aware of how to develop a new perspective.
When doing this type of research, I learned how to look for various sources and being able to access it. Also, I learned how to research such topics in a complex manner which was very challenging at first. It took me a lot of time to learn how to look for these scholarly sources which has helped me so far and hopefully will benefit in the end. I plan on revising my essay by picking various examples from the texts that I used.
Writing has always come naturally to me, revising my writing however, has not. In this regard, Wednesday’s writing workshop was very helpful. Starting the workshop by reading each piece aloud was useful to break the editing barrier and got me thinking about how my essay sounded, as well as how it read. Having others listen to my writing and then immediately give feedback was also helpful. By hearing what they thought my essay was about, I was able the pick out the points which needed further clarification. Also, by getting my group members’ suggestions about other ideas to explore in my essay, I have a new set of ideas to consider integrating into my paper.
In writing this essay, I have learned that interpretive research can be fun, because I am allowed to incorporate my own thoughts about a text into a claim that I support with my findings. In this way, I am in control of the direction of my paper and am able to fully expand my ideas because they are my ideas.
In the coming week I plan on concluding my essay and incorporating my secondary sources. I also will take the feedback I received from my group and Professor Bateman and act on their suggestions. I’ll also work on clarifying some of my arguments to make them more readable and better match my argument.
Last Wednesday’s writing workshop was very helpful for me. I gained insight into what others thought about my writing and how I could make improvements to the essay. Usually, workshops have been very ineffective for me, mostly because others have failed to do their part for their essay. Usually they are to busy working on their own papers to thoroughly read mine and they do not have enough in their paper for me to provide feedback. Everyone in my group was helpful and I felt that I aided them as well in their writing process. I learned how to better pick apart writing and to critique it in a way that the author can improve upon it. I have also learned about how text-based research is helpful in providing solid facts and ideas that I can use in my own work. In my essay, I am planning to use more text-based research and to narrow my thesis statement so that I can delve even further into my analysis. I want my ideas to be more specific and refined and I have a few sources that will help me clarify some of my ideas. Overall, the writing workshop was very beneficial and I believe I will be able to revise my essay well.
Here's Ryan's comment:
Last week was helpful in the way of receiving feedback from my peers rather than Professors. It was a good change in pace, hearing ideas from people my age rather than seasoned professionals. The one thing that i have learned regarding text-based research, is that I need to really break down my research and truly analyze it rather than just paraphrasing it and summarizing it. For next week i am going to take out the parts of my paper where i summarize too much and i am going to start analyzing it more efficiantly.
Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful reflection on this process. It seems like this session was productive, but please don't hesitate to email me individually if you have any concerns that you'd like me to know about. Thanks!
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