When we were first given the assignment that we would be writing a rhetorical analysis paper, I was at initaly very confused and had no idea how I would be able to go about writing it. But all the lessons and blog assignments that we did prior to writing our final paper really helped me. I learned that there is a big difference between just reviewing a text and actually going deep and critically thinking about what the author is trying to display. It was also helpful that I had a strong interest in the article that I based my rhetorical analysis paper off of.
Writing the rough draft first allowed me to get my initial thoughts down and provide a good “back bone” for my final draft. The one-on-one meetings to review my rough draft were also considerably helpful. Nick was able to help me see the many errors that I had made and guided me to better organize my ideas into a well-structured paper. I learned there is much room for improvement and realized how important rough draft papers are.
The thing I need to work on the most is better transitions. In my rough draft I didn’t put any transitions in. Though in my final draft I did include transitions, I know I can greatly improve those for my next papers to come. I also learned to not be so redundant in my writing, though there was a great improvement from my rough draft I have learned that it is important to clearly state what it is you want to say and once you have stated it there is no reason for you to mention it again.
For my next paper I will have someone else also read my paper for grammatical errors. I learned that no matter how many times you yourself read over your paper you will never be able to see all the errors made. Someone else may be able to see something that you had not noticed. Using better word choice is also an area I needed to improve. Instead of using words such as “provide” I learned your paper sounds much more sophisticated and flows better if you replace the repeated word “provide” with words such as “exhibit”.
I feel that it is important to make mistakes, because without making mistakes you are not able to realize your true potential. I found that I learned a lot from this single paper and I hope that I will be able to learn from my mistakes in this paper to better improve on the papers to come. In all I was pleased with my final grade and will work even harder on my synthesis paper so I can receive an even better grade. I want to receive an A in the class and in order to reach this goal I will push myself and will work very hard.
2 comments:
Allison, great reflection. Especially useful is your realization about word choice. We don't have to be walking dictionaries or thesauruses, but it is useful to have some common keywords for common modes of academic expression and to hone the skill of alternating these expressions to create variety for the reader.
Writing a rough draft always helps you try to get your ideas organized and is a way to try to better understand what you are witting. Nick was also a big help in reading those rough drafts and then explianing where we went wrong. Having someone else read your "final" draft before you turn it in is always the best idea cause like you mentioned as well no matter how many times you read it you will not always get all the errors.
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