I found this
project to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Brainstorming ideas was
probably one of my biggest struggles, as well as really understanding the
concept of the assignment and really knowing what I had to do. At first, I
found myself completely clueless on what I was doing and my first draft was
completely wrong. My first draft only described the physical features of the
Devils Diner, however I soon learned that my paper was supposed to describe the
Devils Diner using the lens. Once I figures out the whole “Lens” concept, I
continued to struggle in my thought process and in how to put my ideas onto
paper into one big essay that made sense. I constructed several outlines to
gather my thoughts but I constantly found myself not knowing what information
to put into which paragraph. Structuring my paper was definitely the most
difficult paper and so was coming up with the right amount of words because at
some point I felt I had said everything I had to say and I was at a loss of
words. I had to figure out a way to add more sentences to it and that was
pretty difficult too.
I think I did a good job on trying to figure out what the concept was when I really did not know. I did attend the workshop on the Thursday before the paper was due and discussed my questions about the paper with Professor L. and that was extremely helpful. I felt more confident in what I was writing and I had more ideas gathered together for my paper, as well as a better understanding of what was expected from my paper.
I will admit I did learn a lot from this writing experience. I learned a lot about the way people perceive things and that things are not always “Black and white”. I had never taken the time to look at a place so deeply and that really changed my outlook on the way I now see places. Although I still have a lot more to learn, I did improve the way I organize my thoughts onto paper.
I am still not certain if I did reach the deep analysis that was expected of me to conclude with, however I did try my best to do so. I reread my paper several times in order to come to a conclusion and I felt as if it was quite evident what my conclusion should be, however it could have been something deeper than my conclusion so I cannot really say if I did reach the conclusion I needed to reach. I do not know many ways I could improve my writing or conclusions for the next time, however I do feel that if I had attended more workshops and have discussed the project more with Professor L., then maybe I could have had an even better understanding of it all and a better conclusion.
I am not sure how I can apply any of this work outside of Arizona State University however there are several things I can take from this writing assignment to help me within ASU. It has definitely helped me become a better writer, analyze places more and become a deeper thinker. Most importantly, it has helped me ask questions and not be so embarrassed to admit that I do not understand an assignment.
I think I did a good job on trying to figure out what the concept was when I really did not know. I did attend the workshop on the Thursday before the paper was due and discussed my questions about the paper with Professor L. and that was extremely helpful. I felt more confident in what I was writing and I had more ideas gathered together for my paper, as well as a better understanding of what was expected from my paper.
I will admit I did learn a lot from this writing experience. I learned a lot about the way people perceive things and that things are not always “Black and white”. I had never taken the time to look at a place so deeply and that really changed my outlook on the way I now see places. Although I still have a lot more to learn, I did improve the way I organize my thoughts onto paper.
I am still not certain if I did reach the deep analysis that was expected of me to conclude with, however I did try my best to do so. I reread my paper several times in order to come to a conclusion and I felt as if it was quite evident what my conclusion should be, however it could have been something deeper than my conclusion so I cannot really say if I did reach the conclusion I needed to reach. I do not know many ways I could improve my writing or conclusions for the next time, however I do feel that if I had attended more workshops and have discussed the project more with Professor L., then maybe I could have had an even better understanding of it all and a better conclusion.
I am not sure how I can apply any of this work outside of Arizona State University however there are several things I can take from this writing assignment to help me within ASU. It has definitely helped me become a better writer, analyze places more and become a deeper thinker. Most importantly, it has helped me ask questions and not be so embarrassed to admit that I do not understand an assignment.
Jullisa, I think we had a lot of the same troubles when writing our papers. It took me a while to understand the concept of lens, but when I finally got it I think I was able to write my paper correctly. It takes me so long to get started on papers, which I believe is similar to you. Once I am able to brainstorm what is going to be in my paper it makes it a lot easier to write. I often get writers block, which can be terrible when you really want to get something done. I think the thing that will help us the most is not procrastinating. If we have a good amount of time to write out paper and brainstorm, it will most likely be better. Something that helped me a lot too was really re-reading my paper and revising it as much as possible. I was able to add more in-depth analysis of my location instead of just description. Doing this also helped me a lot with my word count. I was able to get to over five pages by revising my paper and adding a little something else each time. I hope this helps with your future writing and I hope that your final draft came out as planned!
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ReplyDeleteI thought Julisa was very honest about her work. I thought she did a good job of explaining what she did not understand and how she solved those issues. Julisa, like me, went to the writing workshops. I thought (as she did) that they were very helpful and learned a lot from them. Julisa was honest about how she learned from professor L and that she struggled with the concept of the essay. I thought it was interesting because we both changed our essay after the rough draft. Although we both changed our essays, we changed them for different reasons. I changed mine because I was not confident about the topic and not interested in what I was writing about. Julissa changed her essay because she wrote about the physical observations. I thought she was confident in questioning whether she analyzed enough and I think that takes a lot of courage to say “I’m not sure if I did enough”. I liked how she noted how hard she tried and you can tell in this reaction that she really did. There seemed to be a lot of honesty in this essay and I think Julissa was adamant about going to the workshops to improve. I think Julissa did a fine job with her reaction and think she did a fine job writing her paper
I also found this project extremely challenging. I think that a large part of the class had common issues with writing it as well. Both of our first drafts were about physical features. Mine had no source of a lens and was barely two pages long, so clearly I was clueless. It's really good you attended the workshop, because from everyone else's posts, it seemed to have helped a lot. I did not go to it and i completely regret it because I think I could have improved so many things in my paper. Again, I struggled with another part that you did which was the conclusion. Considering I struggled with incorporating the lens, I could not bring myself to find that stand-out concluding point. I can only hope I reached a deep enough analysis at this point. I found it interesting that you didn't mention anything about the peer review, considering the fact that it helped me and many other students from what I've read out so much. I feel like the comments I got on my work were the things I needed most to get me to keep asking "so what?" and to utilize my lens where it was appropriate. I think this project has made all of us better at digging deeper. Yet again, I really like the fact that you were honest about not understanding an assignment because i felt the exact same way. It can be really important to be able to admit that so you can try to work on it for next time.
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