"Melding sources together to add layers of commentary strengthened the quality of the projects"
Reflection
12/11/2020
By Emma Delph
"Over this semester I successfully completed three major writing projects which integrated strategies learned in the class such as synthesizing, revising, reading with greater confidence, and writing with a target audience in mind"
"Taking inspiration from the various articles we studied helped shape my immersion piece"
Learning Skills
In W131, the first step I took to becoming a better writer was learning the art of synthesis. Far too many tabs would run on my low-quality laptop as I researched for hours. I learned how to take two sources and make them interact in a singular paragraph. Melding sources together to add layers of commentary strengthened the quality of the projects. The extra research I did when composing synthesis paragraphs also contributed to my projects. Learning how to synthesize sources was the key to grow my confidence in my writing. My writing felt legitimate after I was able to grasp this important skill.
Throughout school, I rarely approached writing in the traditional sense of making drafts and then going through stages of revisions. As I began to look at the class assignments, however, I realized I would have to change that approach. Swallowing my pride, I now can admit that writing drafts and revising them is a better strategy compared to trying to create a final project right off the bat. In an early draft of my immersion article I wrote, “Peering into the hive I saw bees scurrying around the hive to prepare for the upcoming winter.” The word ‘hive’ is used twice making the sentence seem redundant. If I had not gone through revisions, I would not have caught that error. The revised sentence now reads, “Peering into the hive I saw bees scurrying around the frames to prepare for the upcoming winter.” It may seem like an insignificant detail, but every small error cumulates. Revisions are important for a high quality product. Now that I have learned the importance of writing in stages, I can now finish projects efficiently. I wish I could go back in time and tell my freshman self that drafts are not a waste of time.
Besides writing, a large facet of the semester was reading. I was nervous to tackle the large scholarly articles and provide commentary that I did not feel qualified to give. Thankfully, as the semester went on my apprehensiveness diminished. The readings showed me what to look for, where to pay attention, and what I could skim over. While the scholarly articles are still not my favorite, I greatly enjoyed the narratives we explored. My favorite piece was Percy’s My Terrifying Night. Percy masterfully blended narrative and research which greatly inspired my style for the immersion experience. In Percy's feature article about her stay with a female warlord she writes, "Some Afghans believe cannibalistic females haunt the Hindu Kush. They are simian and boar-tusked and have long, floating hair" (Percy para. 8). She is able to seamlessly integrate research with detail and imagery. I adopted Percy's writing style for my narrative article. Learning how to blend research with a personal narrative was an important skill for the class. Taking inspiration from the various articles we studied helped shape my immersion piece. The reading strategies we learned this semester will be applicable throughout the rest of my college career.
Growing Confidence
As I continued to learn more strategies and techniques I felt more confident in my writing. When it came time to write the first main project, the film review, I was confused about choosing a target audience. I thought my audience was only composed of my peers and professor, but it became clear why it was beneficial to write for a specific audience. My topic about the decline of bees was niche and broad at the same time. There were many facets to the topic that I could write about, but only a small audience might be interested. Choosing an audience helped narrow the scope of my project. Narrowing the scope made it easier to write my film review and expand on a select few areas that my hypothetical audience would be interested in.
W131 has been a great class. I feel confident in my writing ability as I prepare to begin college next year, and now have several proven reading strategies to efficiently breeze though course material. I am thankful to have had a wonderful professor to thoroughly explain concepts and ideas we learned and carried through the semester. Through exploring new contact zones, I was able to complete course goals. I can now synthesize, revise, read with greater confidence, and write with a target audience in mind. These are skills that I will use for the rest of my life. I look forward to college and continuing to challenge myself to write at higher calibers.
Due to the covid semester, my workspace was the desk in my room.
Achieving Goals
As a senior in high school preparing for college, I felt worried that my caliber of work would not be able to meet the standards of my future courses. I am now confident that w131 provided a smooth transition from high school writing to college level writing. Mary Louise Pratt, author of Arts of the Contact Zone writes, "I use this term [contact zones] to refer to social spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other." On a much smaller scale I explored new contact zones this semester. Through taking this class, my immersion experience, and creating an ePortfolio, I ventured into new contact zones and completed course goals. Over this semester I successfully finished three major writing projects and formally revised my feature article and multi-model portfolio. Completing these projects helped me to integrate strategies and goals learned in class such as synthesizing, revising, reading with greater confidence, and writing with a target audience in mind.
Before the core projects began, I was instructed to watch the documentary Unbranded which featured several young men riding mustangs from the Mexican to the Canadian border. Several characters in the movie exhibited a ‘growth mindset.’ The growth mindset focuses on how one can grow cumulatively rather than view capability as a finite resource. The characters were a strong example of endurance. Through their trial and error, they successfully explored new contact zones and developed a growth mindset, "Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad Judgement. And sometimes that bad judgement can be pretty horrific" (Unbranded). Experience is one of the true ways someone can grow. I took this wisdom from Unbranded and applied it to how I approached this semester. Their bravery through new contact zones and usage of the growth mindset was how I resolved to handle the semester. This allowed me the confidence to complete assignments and meet course goals.
My binder stored physical copies of important documents.
Annotation of class readings.
Annotation of class readings.
Works Cited
Baribeau, Phillip, director. Unbranded. Produced by Dennis Aig and Cindy
Meehl, Gravitas Ventures, 2015.
Percy, Jennifer. "My Terrifying Night with Afghanistan's only Female Warlord ." The
New Republic, The New Republic, 13 Oct. 2014, newrepublic.com/article/119772/my-night-afghanistans-only-female-warlord-commander-pigeon.
Pratt, Mary Louise. Arts of the Contact Zone. Modern Language Association, 1991,
pp. 33-40.