After reading my essay feedback from Professor Scott, I felt terrible! I could not believe I missed the entire point of the essay! I don't know WHAT I was thinking, or why I let this happen! Rob and I wrote short stories instead of essays (fiction instead of nonfiction) and in Ms. Scott's letter she expressed her confusion and offered two options to work with this misunderstanding:
1. Write a 2 page add-on to the short story and explain it in nonfiction terms (similar to commenting on a piece of literature)
2. Using my short story for assignment 3 and writing an actual essay for assignment 2 (basically flip flopping the two assignments around)
I have no idea how this didn't come up in our group in any way (the fact that Rob and I were writing stories instead of essays) but I'm so glad that Ms. Scott was so understanding and said that my story was still good, shouldn't be thrown out, and that I obviously worked hard on it (which I did!). Rob and I are going to meet with her on Monday to discuss the options and tell her what our plans are. I'm thinking I'm just going to use my story as assignment 3, but also attach a creative flyer or brochure to my story raising the issue that if international students feel culture shocked or helpless while facing such a difficult transition, they cam come to the Cranwell Center (so, like an informational brochure or flyer about the Cranwell Center, advirtising it's services). Then I was going to write an actual nonfiction essay for assignment 2 about my experiences volunteering with the Cranwell Center as an English Conversation Group facilitator (which are all based on true events that actually happened to me! haha) I could describe a typical class, write about all the people I meet, situations that arise, learning about the people who attend the group's cultures, sharing with them our American cultures, etc.
I'm still a little embarassed that this happened, but I'm glad Ms. Scott offered solutions to this problem and my short story can still be used for something!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Classmate Feedback
For our assignment over the weekend, we have to take one of our classmate's essays about their community and give them feedback. We had to explain to them, through a letter, all of the things that worked in their essay and would they could have improved on their essay.
I think that sharing our comments with the authors of our respective essays in letter form is a very effective method of expressing our ideas. After reading the Revision Workshop chapter in our course packet, there were reasons why writing letters is so much more effective with which I couldn't agree more.
Being a big letter-writer myself, I completely agree with the reading's claims that writing a paper for let's say, a history class is so much more brain-wracking than writing a letter to a friend. This is because you know who you friend is. What they like, what they know, what they dislike, what they don't know. With a paper there is so much more uncertainty. Who will be reading your paper? Will they know about your topic as much as you do? Less? More? These are all things that go through my head and many other people's heads as they write and paper.
Writing a letter to our classmates accomplishes its intention. It provides effective feedback in a not so intimidating way. By writing a letter to someone, it's providing comments and suggestions to the essay in a more personal and informal level. I actually found that in doing this assignment, I did not have much trouble with it for just that reason. I did it as if I was writing to a friend more than grading someone's paper for formality.
I think that sharing our comments with the authors of our respective essays in letter form is a very effective method of expressing our ideas. After reading the Revision Workshop chapter in our course packet, there were reasons why writing letters is so much more effective with which I couldn't agree more.
Being a big letter-writer myself, I completely agree with the reading's claims that writing a paper for let's say, a history class is so much more brain-wracking than writing a letter to a friend. This is because you know who you friend is. What they like, what they know, what they dislike, what they don't know. With a paper there is so much more uncertainty. Who will be reading your paper? Will they know about your topic as much as you do? Less? More? These are all things that go through my head and many other people's heads as they write and paper.
Writing a letter to our classmates accomplishes its intention. It provides effective feedback in a not so intimidating way. By writing a letter to someone, it's providing comments and suggestions to the essay in a more personal and informal level. I actually found that in doing this assignment, I did not have much trouble with it for just that reason. I did it as if I was writing to a friend more than grading someone's paper for formality.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
What a Good Essay Is
After going over the two reading about what makes an essay, it mentioned some things I felt like I knew before, but it also mentioned them in a new way that I haven't thought about before. When I was reading the beginning of "Encountering the Essay," I knew where they were coming from when they said that there is not one true definition for an essay. Other works of writing have a set style and format, but essays have that unique quality in that it can be whatever you want it to be.
I have to say, that is kind of what I like about essays. They are what you make them to be. I also liked in "Encountering the Essay" when they go into the history of the essay. In going through the history is gave me more of an understanding of what an essays purpose should be in writing them today, about whatever topic. Essays are like experiments, or trials. They are an author making an attempt to write about whatever they feel is important to them.
That brings me to the second reading, "Essayists on the Essay." They go a little bit into what topics should be written about when writing an essay. I definitely agree that a good place to start is writing about something you know. Writing about a subject matter that at least touches on something you're very passionate about will show through in your writing.
They also talk about the author reader relationship. When an author writes his or her essay, their main goal should be to appeal to the reader, to take them on a journey. I couldn't agree with this concept more. I feel like a big part of the essays are how readers will respond to it. Taking the extra effort to take the readers along with you step by step, for example by using good descriptions, can go a long way.
I think my essay could use a few changes after reflecting on this reading. I really want to try to write good, vivid descriptions in my essay so I can accomplish that goal of trying to get the reader to see what I see. Also making my essay attention grabbing instead of trying to fit it into a certain format is something I could work on. I want to focus more on the flow of the essay instead of trying to fit it in some sort of mold.
I have to say, that is kind of what I like about essays. They are what you make them to be. I also liked in "Encountering the Essay" when they go into the history of the essay. In going through the history is gave me more of an understanding of what an essays purpose should be in writing them today, about whatever topic. Essays are like experiments, or trials. They are an author making an attempt to write about whatever they feel is important to them.
That brings me to the second reading, "Essayists on the Essay." They go a little bit into what topics should be written about when writing an essay. I definitely agree that a good place to start is writing about something you know. Writing about a subject matter that at least touches on something you're very passionate about will show through in your writing.
They also talk about the author reader relationship. When an author writes his or her essay, their main goal should be to appeal to the reader, to take them on a journey. I couldn't agree with this concept more. I feel like a big part of the essays are how readers will respond to it. Taking the extra effort to take the readers along with you step by step, for example by using good descriptions, can go a long way.
I think my essay could use a few changes after reflecting on this reading. I really want to try to write good, vivid descriptions in my essay so I can accomplish that goal of trying to get the reader to see what I see. Also making my essay attention grabbing instead of trying to fit it into a certain format is something I could work on. I want to focus more on the flow of the essay instead of trying to fit it in some sort of mold.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Rewriting Chapter 5 Questions:
Here are my answers to the 4 questions in chapter 5 of the Rewriting text:
1. My project is to write a research proposal. I have to ask for financial assistance from the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). What I plan to accomplish through this proposal is getting a monetary donation from the CRDF, and informing those reading my research about the challenges international students and faculty face while working in the U.S.
2. I feel that I divide up my proposal well in my draft. All I have to work on from there is tweaking a little bit of the content in my sections and the placement of my sections. I have to be much more specific in my methods, change the name of the "limitations" section and fix some of the content in my background section.
3. I could acknowledge other views by putting in some input of the international students themselves in my research instead of just talking to volunteers that work in the CIC. Instead of talking to people who work with the international students, I could talk to the students themselves.
4. I hope through this proposal, I can enlighten my audience about the ways we acclimate international students to VT and how we can better improve on our methods. This way, we can make their transition to Tech as smooth as possible.
1. My project is to write a research proposal. I have to ask for financial assistance from the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). What I plan to accomplish through this proposal is getting a monetary donation from the CRDF, and informing those reading my research about the challenges international students and faculty face while working in the U.S.
2. I feel that I divide up my proposal well in my draft. All I have to work on from there is tweaking a little bit of the content in my sections and the placement of my sections. I have to be much more specific in my methods, change the name of the "limitations" section and fix some of the content in my background section.
3. I could acknowledge other views by putting in some input of the international students themselves in my research instead of just talking to volunteers that work in the CIC. Instead of talking to people who work with the international students, I could talk to the students themselves.
4. I hope through this proposal, I can enlighten my audience about the ways we acclimate international students to VT and how we can better improve on our methods. This way, we can make their transition to Tech as smooth as possible.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Proposal Feedback
I received my feedback from Mrs. Scott tonight about what things were good/what I need to change about my research proposal.
I agreed with much of what she said. There were some comments she made where I thought to myself, "how did I not see this myself before sending this in?!"
There were some minor errors, such as grammatical ones that can be an easy fix. There were others however, concerning content, what information is in which section and the placement of the sections themselves that I am definitely looking to change after reading over the comments Mrs. Scott wrote out for me.
I'm going to be a lot more specific in my methods section, for one thing. I did not go into very much detail about my "who, what, when, where, how," of each of my proposed methods of doing my research. In addition, I have to write my timetable as if it were in the time frame of 1-2 years and not just one semester.
I have other things I want to improve on in my research proposal and will let you all know how it is going as I'm working more on it!
I agreed with much of what she said. There were some comments she made where I thought to myself, "how did I not see this myself before sending this in?!"
There were some minor errors, such as grammatical ones that can be an easy fix. There were others however, concerning content, what information is in which section and the placement of the sections themselves that I am definitely looking to change after reading over the comments Mrs. Scott wrote out for me.
I'm going to be a lot more specific in my methods section, for one thing. I did not go into very much detail about my "who, what, when, where, how," of each of my proposed methods of doing my research. In addition, I have to write my timetable as if it were in the time frame of 1-2 years and not just one semester.
I have other things I want to improve on in my research proposal and will let you all know how it is going as I'm working more on it!
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