This assignment was a little challenging because we had to make a game board out of one of the papers we wrote. I have never done anything like this which is the main reason why it was challenging. It was also challenging because I cannot draw but I am creative and 75% of the project/multimodal assignment had to be ours. The fact that we created a game board out of one of our papers was the unique thing about the assignment. Making the game pieces, instructions, and game cards came easy but drawing the game board was the hardest thing I had to do because no matter how hard I try drawing is my biggest struggle. I have done a multimodal assignment before. These two were similar because I had to take a paper I already wrote and change it up a bit. I think I did really well because I was creative despite the drawing of my game board which wasn’t so great. I did make time and made a commitment on this assignment because I knew I would struggle with drawing my game board. When we got to write out our ideas and everything in class is what helped me with this assignment because I got help from the professor and that also gave me more ideas or something I needed to change. I learned about this assignment that you can take a paper and change it in a creative way and make something good and different out of it.
Archives: research
Researched Argument Unit Reflection
This assignment was a little challenging because I have never done a paper with 7 sources. I really put time and effort into the paper. I didn’t get the grade I wanted, so I will revise it because I really tried. The next time I just have to try harder, but I know what needs to be fixed. I struggled with finding sources for the paper because I didn’t want one that was irrelevant to the paper. The thesis was also something I struggled with as well because I didn’t know how to sum everything up that the whole paper was about and put everything together. The things that came naturally were the claims/what that paragraph was going to be about that supports the thesis. The part of class that helped me with this paper but not really in class was the peer review on Blackboard even though only one person gave me feedback on my paper. I discovered about myself as a writer while working on this assignment is that I have to make sure everything flows together and that I should work on thesis statements. I really focused on making sure I meet each requirement and that I try my best and put time and effort into it. I now know what I have to keep working on to keep improving as a writer. The assignment was a little challenging and I didn’t expect the outcome but that just means that I have to try harder to improve and make myself a better writer.
04/18/17
I feel a little confident about the research paper. I put time and effort into it and I really think that I would have a good grade. I do need to finish making minor changes with my paper. I took what was said from peer review and making changes there because I feel like the feedback I got back was really good and that I will end with a final strong research paper.
03/28/17
- How can I get the most helpful resources while looking for research?
- What to search to get the most helpful sources?
Journey to Becoming a Better Writer and Student
I have became a better writer over the year. I have struggled with many things over the semester and some things came naturally or was easy. I know how to improve my writing skills and become a better writer. I think not having confidence in my writing also makes me not try as hard as I can also because writing isn’t really my best subject so this course and the assignments helped me gain my confidence. All the assignments helped me become a better writer because they all were different and each of them showed a weakness and something that need to be worked on. Some assignments showed some things that came naturally. This course and all the assignments has made me a better writer than I was and a better student, and I also know what to work on as a writer and student.
One thing that I struggled with was commitment. Throughout the semester and for every assignment, I made no commitment at all for the assignments. My grades sometimes reflected that because I wasn’t making the commitment that should have and the commitment needed for the assignments. I learned to make commitments on anything I have and not to just wait until the last minute. This will not only make me a better writer, but also a better student.
Another thing I struggled with a lot was digging deeper. I found myself repeating statements and things that was already stated earlier in the essay. I also couldn’t expand my thoughts about certain topics or for a certain assignment which made everything harder and not knowing what to write about. Everything ties together because not making a commitment or doing the assignments at the last minute doesn’t give me enough time to dig deeper. Digging deeper would help a lot because not only did I repeat some things, but also I didn’t even meet some length requirements. I have to make a commitment first so I could dig deeper.
One of the modes of writing we did that I struggled the worst one was the analysis assignment. I struggled with the analysis essay because I was repeating things and summarizing things when the assignment was for you to analyze. Even though I struggled with this assignment, this was my favorite assignment to do. I think it was my favorite assignment because I had to use a video and some writing techniques like pathos, logos, kairos, and ethos to complete the assignment. The analysis assignment was very fun to do. It was about an 11-year old girl that gets hit by a stray bullet. This was the hardest assignment out of all the assignment to me because I kept summarizing and when I was told I was summarizing, I tried not to and that caused repetition. I discovered writing this analysis paper that if I make a commitment and try harder everything would have been easier and the assignment would have been easier and more. If I make a commitment and dig deeper, I would be a better writer than I am.
A thing that I was good at while doing the argument assignment was opposing viewpoints. I think I didn’t struggle with this because I only had to write about the opposite of what I was writing about. My argument was that hip hop doesn’t belong to any race, age, or gender. I didn’t have to dig deep about the opposing viewpoint which made it easier. Opposing a viewpoint on something you are arguing about is really easy anyway because it is just the opposite of your argument. When I did the argument assignment, I struggled with digging deeper and repetition because I didn’t make a commitment but when it came to opposing the viewpoint of my argument, it came easily. I think opposing a viewpoint for anything is the easiest thing to do because it is the opposite of the argument.
One thing that helped me with all the assignments was research. When I say research, I mean peer review or student-teacher conference. The peer review research helped me a lot because I was able to see an example of what we were suppose to do because most likely I was confused or I forgot, and the peer review research also helped me because I was able to get feedback from my classmates on what needed to be changed and fixed and their opinion on the whole paper itself. The student-teacher conference research helped me because I got feedback from my teacher and she’s the person that is grading the paper. The research itself helped a lot because I knew I didn’t try my best on the draft because I didn’t make an commitment doing the assignment, and I needed some helpful feedback from someone. The research helped me so much throughout the semester.
I have to work on making commitments for my assignments, so I can dig deeper in the essay. If I make a commitment and dig deeper, then there will be no repetition and I won’t struggle as bad as I did over the semester with the assignments. I do think that I improved as writer because I realized mistakes and learned from them. I gained some confidence in my writing over the semester because I came up with good topics or good points which made me try harder. This course has helped me a lot with my writing in many ways. On some assignments, I would think I would have gotten a bad grade but I actually got a good grade and that also made me gain confidence in my writing. I learned a lot over the semester and will bring it along with me as I continue my college career.
Multimodal Assignment Unit Reflection
I think I struggled with meeting the word length requirements because I didn’t want to go off topic and repeat myself over and over. I also think I struggled with keeping my thesis true because I kept making it contradicting when adding things that did’t make my thesis true and that didn’t support what I said. It kind of came easily but meeting the word requirement, trying to not go off topic, or keeping the whole article in order and about my thesis was hard. If I had more time, I honestly don’t think that would help because the assignment was already extended but that did help a lot. I have never did a project like this before, only essays when I was in high school.
I learned from this op-ed project to stay on topic and not to add anything that will make the thesis not true and will make the whole assignment wrong. The kind of commitment I made to this project was a little time but a lot of effort. Writing isn’t my best subject so I don’t really do well in it so since I know that I don’t make as much time as it needs. The part of class that helped me was the peer review and working on it in class. When we did the peer review, I got to see how my classmate did theirs and they left comments on what is wrong and needs to be fixed. The time in class helped me because I could ask questions if I needed help and it allowed me to get started on my final draft. The out of class experience that helped me was emailing the teacher when I had questions or was confused about the assignment. I would define the Multimodal Project as different and challenging because it is based off of the argument essay but it is different from it. I thought about the outcomes because I’m sure this has made me a better writer.
Argument Unit Reflection
I really struggled with this assignment because I really didn’t know how to use the features and make the paper good. I really struggled with citations, how to put them in the essay. What came easily was the other side’s argument from mine in the paper. I think that came easily because it had to be the opposite of my argument. If I had more time, I would maybe set another conference up to meet with my teacher. I don’t think I have did writing like this before which probably made it a lot harder than the previous papers we have done in class. I learned while doing this that an argumentative essay is not just persuading or trying to get your point across, you have to back it up with textual evidence and make sure you don’t get off topic, that your whole paper is focused on one point except the opposite side argument. I don’t think I did well on this assignment, it was very hard and I think if I had more time that I will feel better about this assignment. It was not different to see multiple sides of an issue because it’s just the opposite of what you think and what you think someone who thinks that side of the argument would say and how would they back it up with textual evidence. The student-teacher conference helped me with this paper because I actually got to hear what the teacher, the person who is grading my paper, what she thinks and what I need to change. I think that helped because she knows what she will be looking for when she grades the papers. I discovered about myself that I need to get better things to talk about or just know how to put all my thoughts and things in my essay better.