Reflection On Critiquing My Writing

Writing Memoir—Creative Lying is a Source of Pride! An Interview with Lawana L. Perry, M.Ed. Southern memoir writer and educator Lawana L. Perry, M.Ed. offers tremendous insight into the writer’s mind. I asked eight questions about her experience as a writer and found her answers surprisingly open and honest.

Thou shalt not start a paper with a question, and thou shalt not speak directly to the reader. The terror in my eyes was evident across the room. Everybody knew that I was absolutely screwed and they felt bad for me. When I got my rough draft back from Mrs. Graff, it looked as if it was delivered from a war zone, soaked in red, and marked up unrecognizably. On the top of my paper next to my name was the grade I would have gotten if this was my final paper.

This paper was probably one of the hardest paper I had to write just because I felt like I was on my own. I was scared at first but i felt like this helped me learn how to properly look and analyze a speech or a writing in general. One way this helped was I highlighted what I thought was a rhetorical device and I had to properly analyze it and see what he/ she is trying to accomplish through his or her writing.

Writing a paper is a long and sometimes strenuous process. In Garrison Keillor’s “How to Write a Letter”, Richard Lederer’s “The Case for the Strength and Grace of Short Words”, and David Shipley and Will Schwalbe’s “How to Write (the Perfect) Email” authors are taught how to craft a compelling piece of literature. To write an effective work, the author must go through the arduous task of planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Each one of these procedure takes time, effort, and patience. If the author seeks to create a noteworthy paper, then it is vital that they follow every step with the rigor and determination mentioned in the professional authors’ writings.

In the current decade, students are often encouraged to comment and criticize one’s work. This process is looked as a way to make students think and apply what they had learnt in classrooms. I agree that it indeed provokes students’ thought process and is effective for them to gain better understanding on a certain topic. However, the expectations of criticizing someone’s work had just been raised to a whole new level as they’re actually encouraged to tear apart someone’s work and always having something to disagree with rather than criticizing constructively. During discussions, teachers are often interested to hear students arguing about their own standpoints rather than the actual takeaways from the paper.

This semester I completed Composition 2. During the course I wrote three essays. Like Composition 1, I had the option to rewrite my papers after seeing the grade. Having the chance to rewrite my papers was very beneficial because I could improve my grade, and more importantly, learn what I was doing wrong. Amongst my writings, three major flaws stood out.

I was prompted to reevaluate the phrasing and depth of the topics I addressed in my analysis by the comments on the first draft by my Professor. I found that I am a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to critiquing my writing for I will be a ruthless critic to myself and anyone who asks me to review or edit their writing, but when others do the same, I tend to become very attached to what I have already

She also claims that grading college papers is a waste of time for teachers as well since not many students utilize the suggestions and constructive criticism offered by the teachers “if your average college-goer does manage to read through her professor’s comments, she will likely view them as a grievous insult to her entire person, abject proof of how this cruel, unfeeling

At its core, “Responding--Really Responding-- to Other Students’ Writing” is about correcting the common misconceptions and fantasies that many students seem to possess about peer reviewing. Richard Straub, a former professor at Florida State University, starts off portraying the mindset of a student going about peer reviewing in all of the wrong ways (Bishop 162). Some of the mistakes are things like “Make your comments brief.” or “Don’t praise anything really... no need to get harsh or cut throat either.”

He feels struggled. He had to work harder and received a failing grade on the first paper. However, he said “I was both devastated and determined, my not belonging was verified but I was not ready to be shut down.” He decided to search the school’s library to look up the publishing’s of his Professor. He would write his paper, research the Professors writing style, and then revise his own writing.

The statement that I do not agree with is according to Murray to teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness, (1972). I find this misleading as an educator and feel that completion and closure are important aspects of the writing process. I. The statement that I found particularly interesting this week was made by Murray, “he doesn’t test his words by a rule book, but by life.” (1972).

It is the part of the essay that makes the reader feel either a positive or negative emotion towards what has been written. In this essay, it has a lot to do with what Natalie Munroe wrote about her students online. For example, she said “although academically okay your child has no other redeeming qualities” (Brown 580). This evokes a negative response. No one wants to hear of a teacher being unprofessional in that way.

English 102 Reflection During the course of English 102, I took this year of the spring semester. I have accomplished a variety of goals I once thought were impossible. I have not only grown as a writer and a student but as an individual as well. I feel that through my experience of this English course, I have achieved knowledge and self-confidence to step out into the real world.

Throughout the term there has been many writing assignments —big or small— that helped reflect my writing process or the process itself. In the beginning of the course I felt like I was an “ok” writer, but lacked some skills such as: organization, sentence variety, and vocabulary. Also, I did not like to write and had a feeling of dislike when forced to write. I felt like I improved on everything I wanted and was seen throughout the semester. I know how to organize my ideas, the worksheets given in class to work on sentence variety really helped, and vocabulary was built on some level.

ENG-122 Reflective Essay My writing process has changed tremendously over the course of this class. I feel more accomplished, confident and I feel sometimes that my ideas and thoughts just come in to my mind out of nowhere and I start writing about anything now. I pay attention to my punctuation and grammar more as I have polished them more now, not only when I write but then others write as well. I am constantly looking for errors and I highly think this is helping me a lot in my career.