Exploratory Text 5: Midterm Reflection

Well, I definitely can’t say that I have accomplished all of our objective goals for this course. I can say though that I have at least accomplished a couple of them and have only started to grasp the other objectives. My main goals for the second half of my English course is to pass the class first and, of course, learn all of the course objective while in the process. I personally would also like to learn how to speak more formally when dealing with presentations.

Our third objective was to consider the rhetorical situation for any given piece of writing, including audience, purpose, and context. I feel like I have accomplished this goal because when I am completing my Exploratory Texts on Blackboard, I have to consider the audience for which I am speaking to. I do not want to be too formal because it is a reflection blog, but at the same time, I do not want to be too “casual” when speaking with/to a teacher about the assignment.

Our fourth goal was to conduct research by finding and evaluation print and electronic sources, generating information and ideas from research, and synthesizing them with respect to the topic and reasoning, and using standard text conventions for academic writing. As soon as I finished reading this I automatically thought about the I-Search Paper assignment. Even though I have not completed this assignment yet I know that the I-Search Paper will fulfill these requirements. I already know that the essay will require a lot of researching which goes along with the rest of the objective goals within this goal. I have already started researching my discourse community which I have switched to Nursing instead of the US Army National Guard.

Now, as for the sixth goal, it says to use a flexible writing process that includes generating ideas, writing, revising, providing/responding to a feedback in multiple drafts, and editing text and tone for multiple audiences. To start with, I never actually had a solid writing process. I did not really understand how to write an “effective paper”. So when our first assignment rolled around, in my mind, I said “Oh Boy!!” I had to think how I was going to write about a discourse community that I was involved in. To begin with I didn’t even know what this meant. But I wasn’t in this alone. I had the teachers’ help. There were worksheets to correspondingly help me. Furthermore, the peer review dates helps me to see what I can improve on in my writing without going directly to the teacher. I have even gone to the writing center to get extra reviews.

-What strategies can we use to effectively collaborate on aspects of the writing process, like prewriting, drafting, and revision, including and beyond peer response and editing? Like I mentioned earlier I really didn’t have a sturdy writing foundation. All I kind of knew was that an essay or paper is supposed to have an introduction paragraph, your body paragraphs, and your conclusion paragraphs. Oh and let’s not forget about our attention getter and thesis statements. Before starting this course I had little review and proofreading skills. But with each peer review class I have gotten better. I have even gone to the writing center a couple of times to get extra review. I would like to see a few classes after class to help with things like prewriting, drafting, and revisions. Well I already know that prewriting is sort of like brainstorming and gathering ideas. As far as drafting and revising, I like the idea of having continuous drafts so that we can constantly continue to revise and edit every day as we go.

Now finally back to the goals. As far as I am concerned I am accomplishing my goals that I have set in the beginning of class. I simply wanted to learn how to become a better writer. I know that this takes time but slowly but surely, I have and will become an even better writer.