unit 1 reflection by: Liz

Elizabeth White
English 102
Instructor: Richard Samuelson
13 February 2011

Unit 1 Final Project
When first entering this class I had a pretty firm grasp of what it takes to write a decent paper. Since high school I have been able to use MLA format and citations, use beneficial vocabulary, write grammatically correct, and enjoy my time while doing so. Throughout my English 102 course I have come across some tribulations that have challenged me in a good way. By writing my first ever extended bibliography, to reading about writing analytically these are all new things to me! I think it’s safe to say that I have grown in my reading comprehension and writing effectively in the short time I have been here in Mr. Samuelson’s course. On another note, after spending some time in my English 102 course there are some valuable techniques I have learned that I think are worth mentioning.
During lecture my classmates and I, along with my teacher, had many discussions pertaining to the quality of the written word and what it means to be a good writer. The most valuable aspect of reading and writing successfully was learning how to better comprehend what I am writing about. Comprehension is particularly important when researching. When doing anything research based it is crucial to be able to take the information you have been given and understand its premise. Just like anything in life, fully understanding something can be challenging. I became aware of my faults in trying to fully comprehend research during the course of this class. I realized that I often skim information instead of taking a deeper look at the big picture, I was cheating myself. I now pay more attention to my reading habits in general and I keep myself in check by taking a quick break every few paragraphs to make sure I’m staying focused. All of these techniques I learned from my class discussions and our readings about academic writing have allowed me to grow in all reading and writing I do now. I really liked the idea from David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen from “Writing Analytically” of making sure you can take what you have read and be “conversant” with the information. Before now I had never thought of research like that. In the past it was very easy to first skim over the basic ideas then write a mediocre response explaining what I had learned. But, the reason my papers had always been just alright, is because I myself didn’t have much to say on my subject because I still didn’t know much about it. I’m happy to say that this lesson has not only helped me immensely so far with this class, but all of my classes.
Since I have paid more attention to my reading and writing I have been able to really benefit from some of the research I have done in my English 102 class. By researching topics closely related to my service learning project, Baby Steps, I realized that I was more passionate than I thought, about the organization in general. Certain facts throughout the article really captured my attention because I had been concentrating on being conversant with the argument given. It was very rewarding to find out how strongly I agreed or disagreed with the articles because it got an emotion out of me. If I hadn’t been paying attention, like so many times in the past, to my research I never would’ve learned how I felt about the subject or been able to form intelligent observations by putting my opinions into words for my peers to read; by keeping myself in check while researching and then coming to a full understanding of my research so I could tell my classmates or instructor all about the topic without showing any injustice to the piece. I have a feeling this will continue to help me in the future whenever I’m in a situation to try and understand the “big picture”.
Throughout the semester my classmates and I were in a position to choose a service learning organization that would best fit our qualities and passions and then continue to write either about the organization or find sources within that same spectrum of the organization to analyze and reflect on. I learned, while writing my extended bibliographies, how to analyze a source by supplying an “ongoing analysis”. By keeping that analysis momentum according to Rosenwasser and Stephen’s, “ you are much more likely to explain how the information in the sources fits into your unfolding presentation, and your readers are more likely to follow you train of thought and grasp the logic of your organization.” (pg. 221) So, for me, it was very helpful to think about the continuation of my analysis as opposed to writing bits and pieces and running out of things to say. This technique also reminded me of the “so what?” factor I learned in English 101. If I find that halfway through my analysis that I just can’t find the words to explain my source, then maybe I need a different source. When writing it’s a good idea to always make sure that what you’re sharing with your audience is first necessary and something that the readers will be interested in knowing.
In addition to Rossenwasser’s and Stephen’s idea to being conversant with your research I was specifically drawn to the tip to understand that “words matter”. I had never taken into consideration that what I intended for the reader to understand from my writing and what the reader actually took away from it, can sometimes be two completely different things. As a writer, and a reader, I need to be aware of the writing intention. A word can have a million meanings because words are all about perception and the person. For example, I was in a situation where I may not have gotten my point across in my bibliography as successfully as I would have liked because one of my peers had taken my writing in whole other direction than I had intended. At first, it can be almost irritating to see that a reader has made their own assumptions and inferences about your writing, but it happens. This is something, for the most part, that is just uncontrollable. I can do my best as a writer to make sure that I give the facts and my ideas in the best presentable way, but then it’s up to the reader to decide what to make of it. So, like I had stated previously when a classmate had thought I was arguing something different than I had intended in one of my extended bibliographies, all I could do was take that constructive peer review and improve my bibliography. In turn, I revised my writing in the hopes that it is now better to understand and overall better writing.
Lastly, I learned that it is not a weakness to still have questions after analyzing a source, in fact, it’s a good thing. Rasenwasser and Stephen’s mention, “You need to do something with the reading, even with those source that seem to have said what you want to say…As long as you consider only the source in isolation, you may not discover much to say about it.” (pg’s. 221, 222) By raising questions and concerns I can write a better analysis because I’m look at all ends of the spectrum and discovering answers that I wouldn’t have known existed prior to challenging myself. It’s okay to complicate things, turn your sources inside out and look within the context to find many more meanings and questions in itself.
So, by taking all of these techniques into consideration, I practiced using all of these tools. Not only was I in a situation where I had to go back and fix my bibliography so my readers could better understand my argument, but I also had to fix things like my MLA citations and even some grammatical errors. I was amazed to see how many errors were made when I went back and read my work. I believe my errors tied in with how my writing process went about for my bibliographies. Usually I am a huge fan of writing my ideas down before I start. Whether it be some kind of web, list, or brainstorm. But lately I have become accustomed to, unfortunately, doing things kind of last minute with my other work load and my work then results in some errors along the way. After reading my bibliographies I went back and fixed all of the typos and even some sentences that just didn’t make sense. I think from now on I’m going to take into account how important it is to take my time when writing. All in all, I think it has been a very successful first month in my English 102 course and I look forward to seeing what else I learn along the way!