1. My goals were small at first. In the beginning, my goal was to write out in my own words on a word doc. exactly what I was supposed to do so that when I was starting to type my paper, I could refer back to those points. After this step, things got easier. My goals for myself in writing this paper were to do exactly what the instructions said. I forced myself to write about the authors opinion instead of my own. I wanted to reach 3 pages without having to ramble, which I reached. Another goal was to try and make my draft as 'perfect' as possible so that my peers wouldn't have much to correct. This was inevitable because my peers gave me additional suggestions and ways to enhance my paper even though I revised it myself many times.
2. The in class activities we did when we wrote all day and talked to partners help me find out what I wanted my essay to be about. Through thinking and asking question, I came across my topic of group interaction. About a week before the paper was due I started my introduction. To me, the introduction is the most difficult part because it sets the feel for the entire paper. After the introduction was done, I started on each paragraph spending one day on each. The time management I planned out for this paper helped me write because I wasn't writing so much in one day where I got flustered but I was writing often enough to keep the paper flowing. I got done with my paper with enough time to reread and revise it multiple times before sending it to Megan before we had to bring it in on Monday.
3. I could tell my writing was changing when I had to force myself to integrate questions into my essay. This was unusual to me because I never usually ask questions in an essay. When first trying to incorporate questions, I felt like they were out of place and made the writing choppy but it became natural to think of questions in my head and integrate them into my paper as I continued writing and experimenting. I worked with my peers on this paper in the activity where we wrote about different topics and then collaborate with my group. I was given suggestions on how to go about planning my essay and ideas on what topics to focus on.
4. I think Megan contributed to my paper's success because I took her class last semester where we had to integrate questions into one of our papers. I was fairly familiar with the idea of questions in a paper but in no way comfortable it. The exposure I was given with this type of writing came from Megan so that's why I believe she helped make my paper successful.
5. I have learned that I need time to plan. I'm not one of those writers that jump right into a paper and start typing. As much as I wish I didn't need to do this, I have to give myself time to understand the concept, convert it into my own words, think about a topic, plan the essay, and then finally begin my paper. I learned from other students that their ideas help just as much, if not more, than the ideas that I have. I got so many ideas for my paper and strategies on how to go about writing this paper from them.
6. I believe the hardest part of writing this essay was understanding what the essay was about. The topic of trying to argue the authors point of the three pieces and connecting them all was a hard concept to understand and write about because there were so many components. The easiest part, after finding I wanted to focus on peer interaction, was connecting all of the readings together by showing how the author argued their point. It was difficult to find a topic I wanted to focus on but after I did, it was easy to elaborate on my topic.
7. I'm pretty proud of my intro because I feel like it's simple and to the point, yet it gives a lot of necessary information and states my point of the essay well. I'm also confident that my examples support the authors arguments well.
8. I feel like I can still improve on explaining how my examples prove the authors point. It's easy to find examples that prove that peer interaction is helpful; the hard part is arguing that this is what the authors are arguing. I tried to make these sections clear by over emphasizing the using words like "the author argues" or "suggests" to let my readers know that this is the authors argument, not mine.
9. From the moment I was first given the assignment, I was thinking each day in class what topic I should focus on. Finally, a topic came to me and I expanded on that topic through many of the readings we had been given. I wrote out the purpose of the essay many times before I finally understood what we were supposed to do. I planned out my essay way before I started actually writing. When I began to write, I had enough strategy and outlines that my paper writing went smoothly. After the first draft, I reread it multiple times, trying to keep in mind the main point and making sure that's what I was following. I sent my paper to Megan and she emailed me back with things I could fix. I took my paper into my peers and they helped me with my problem areas (the questions portion and the Liberal Education paragraph). After that, I revised my paper by taking the advice my peers have given me while also making some minor changes of my own that I thought were necessary. I will reread and revise my paper one last time before I submit it before monday with confidence that it is a successful paper.
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