Friday, September 28, 2012
Project 1 Reflection: Intensity
The mere mention of having a four page paper due to a college student is similar to death. Needless to say, i was not thrilled. However, once i found out that it was on a fairly simple subject, and that the class would be taking it one step at a time, the project seemed a little less daunting. I really appreciated the fact that we had a certain amount of time to do each task. One week, the notes were due, another, a first draft was. The smaller pieces make the bigger one seem more attainable. I enjoyed the fact that we were able to do peer review with multiple other people. They gave me multiple ideas and branches that I would never have even though of it weren't for them, because they encouraged me to keep asking 'so what?' I appreciated it a lot because I got my paper looked at from multiple angles which is something I haven't had too often. As far as my own personal strengths and weaknesses, I feel I had more weaknesses. My notes lacked anything to do with a lens, which in turn made incorporating a lens the hardest part of the entire paper. I think my biggest strength wasn't even something I wrote. It was the place I chose. The Memorial Union building luckily has enough activity for a four page paper. Not only could I write about the people in groups, but also the individual. Along the same lines, i could not only talk about the entertainment value I got from sitting and observing, but also I now know to find a deeper meaning in the basic aspects of human behavior. For future papers, I now know how important it is to pick a topic that not only interests me, but one that I have too much to say about. For me, it is easier to edit the unimportant, frivolous things out than to struggle to find more important ones. I also need to plan better. As I mentioned, my notes were inadequate and greatly affected my writing process. I am honestly not sure if i analyzed with enough depth. I feel as if I found some aspects of the MU patio that some people may not pick up on, and I tried to focus in more on those parts. Overall, I think this project could have been much worse. It was nice having guided points along the way. I think I am much better prepared now than I was when I began this project. I felt pretty much blind going into it and can now come away from it with more knowledge on how to dig below the surface and of course to always ask the so what question.
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I agree with you one hundred percent when you first thought that the project was daunting. Considering this was my first writing project in a year it was rough. The breaking down of the project really helped me too because it allowed me not to procrastinate. I think we had the same location if you chose the Memorial Union Patio? I do not know if you found it easy but there was so much to observe there that it made easy to take copious notes about. However, for me when it came to writing the paper I found it really difficult incorporate the lenses, which I though would have been easier. I am not to sure if you went to the workshops but going to those and working with Professor L helped out a lot and he guided me through ways to incorporate the lens of Vanclay and Austin. So I would recommend, if you did not, to go to the workshops because it helped me so much when it came to the drafting both rough and final. Overall I thought the project turned out okay and I hope that you saw it the same way
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you! I was kind of frightened when I found out we had a four to five page paper due within the first couple of weeks of school. Also, I picked a place that was very limiting in what I could say about it, and I found it very difficult to find something to discuss other than what was going on in the place or the look of the place. I think that maybe with better notes the writing of the paper would be a little bit, if not a lot easier. I too had inadequate notes and I think this really affected my writing and my ability to write a good paper with good observations. I am so thankful that we had the peer and teacher reviews to help in the writing process. Hopefully, next time we can go to the workshops, as Jackson recommended. I feel like this may be useful to us, at least for me I wish I would have went to get feedback on my paper and to learn more about lens and even observing. Anyways, I’m sure your essay turned out good still and don’t worry, you weren’t the only one who found it a bit intense.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Emily, about how this paper was intimidating. I also agree that it was helpful having the paper broken up for us as far as having a deadline for the rough draft. I am a freshman, and for me, this essay was a great starting point for the rest of my education here at ASU. I know that later on, I will be given instructions to write long papers, and a due date, with little to not help on the way. I too found the pure review sessions to be helpful. I read my paper so many times that I did not pick up on a lot of mistakes that I made. Particularly, I repeated certain words to often, and needed another set of eyes to point it out for me.
ReplyDeleteI think you brought up a good point about choosing a subject that you have a lot to say about. If you are repeating information, and dragging out your sentences because you have nothing to say, the audience will pick up on it. For me, when choosing a subject for any paper, it is important that I feel passionate about one the topic. In my case I chose the basement in the Memorial Union, and had a very strong opinion about it. If you chose an argument that you don’t really believe in, or care about, your paper will not be as strong.
I agree that this project was rather simple and we had a good amount of time to complete each task. I also agree that it is nice to have different feedback from different writers in the class. I didn’t find it as hard to write through a specific lens for example I used Frank Vaclay’s lens, which was pretty straightforward. I myself also had difficulty when it came to picking a place to write this paper on. Picking Memorial Union was a smart choice due to all of the activity that goes on in there, which is what I told my roommate when he asked me where he should write his paper on. I also wrote about a specific patio in my paper and it was hard to go in depth for readers to understand what I was feeling at that moment. As for there being a four to five page paper due in the first month of school I was also slightly flustered. When we were told to write about a random place on campus and describe it with ASU I was lost because I had only been here for all of two weeks. If it is easier for you to “edit the unimportant, frivolous things out than to struggle to find more important ones” then in the future you should try to let your senses capture everything that is going on at once. For example on the patio you hear people walking, skateboards, bikes ticking past, but it is also completely different from what you are smelling all around you.
ReplyDeleteThis was a highly influential blog post. You brought up a lot of topics that made me reflect on the journey in the past couple of weeks. Project 1 was a deceptively challenging task, yet I think we all walked away with a better understanding of our own writing process, and how to follow through with an assignment. I liked that you mentioned finding a lens to be the hardest part of the assignment. Even though the answers seemed to be staring us in the face at workshop, incorporating a lens into the paper was something only achieved in the final product. It took the struggle of trial and failure to understand how a lens and analyzing could fit cohesively. You said that you felt like you could accomplish a task by choosing a place that was larger in stature, and heavily populated. Then, it would be easy to write because you could always edit out the parts that didn't fit. I would like to challenge you to pick a smaller and less exciting place in the future to analyze. It will help your analyzing skills and give you more practice to work with a lens.
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ReplyDeleteI completely understand where you are coming from and I felt the same way when we were first assigned this project. I also agree with you that it was easier to write because we took on this paper as a class one step at a time. For me, the peer reviews were also helpful but I think that having us meet our peer revision groups in person would have been more helpful. I think that taking good notes was essential to this project and I can understand why that became a challenge for you. Taking good notes is very important because it serves as the meat of your essay and without descriptive and detailed notes, it can become difficult. I also find it admirable that you are brutally honest about what you perceive as your weaknesses. I do not know for sure if you did or did not attend the workshops set up for our class, but like people said before, try to attend those if you are struggling with any type of assignment and if you want do not be afraid to ask one of your fellow classmates to look over your paper. I also suggest that you visit the writing center for help if you need it. Great blog post and I am sure your paper turned out great.
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