Week 3 – What have we done so far that has been helpful to your writing process? How might you apply this helpful information/tool? What has been confusing or what would you like to spend more time on? If the clarification/additional focus does not occur during class time, how will you acquire the knowledge?
I would say the peer review session we did in our 3rd class was probably the most beneficial thing for my own and the whole class’s writing. However, the most clarification I obtained for my writing skills was the feedback for my learning analysis outline. The feedback was very direct and I was able to improve my rough draft prior to the peer review. I don’t believe there’s anything (yet) I’d like to spend more time on – the 3 hour classes are very sufficient. Our class group-chat that was created has been very helpful for clarification on assignments and what needs to be done. It’s nice having peers that can help you at pretty much any time.
Week 5 – Analyze the rhetorical situation of your Learning Analysis. Introduce your essay’s genre, purpose, audience, and context, and reflect on the extent to which you achieved the learning goals of the assignment as well as any goals you set for yourself.
The rhetorical situation of my Learning Analysis was centered around building off of mistakes in the context of a written essay. The essay was directed at anyone who was willing to read it and was meant to analyze how I learned lessons in specific contexts based on my recent life. Another purpose of the essay was to reflect on how I wrote about my lessons and how I was able to understand it from a different point of view. Reading how I wrote about my lessons allowed me to gain a deeper understanding on the ways I learn through the difficulties of writing a cohesive essay.
Week 6 – Annotate one article you plan to use in your research. Share what kind of information you wrote in your research. Did annotating help you? If yes, how? If no, why not? What else do you need to do to process this article?
When reading the article I tried to look for specific, professional remarks and comments on the physical architecture of the Oculus station to inspire my own research. Further, I looked further for inspirations and descriptions for the works from the artists themselves. Annotating definitely helped me; often, articles are very heavily worded and the information useful to the reader can get lost in the mix with all of the other information. Also, paraphrasing and putting some of the information into my own words has helped me process the information better and will be something I continue to do with the next articles I use for my research.
Week 7 – Select one learning objective or one component of a learning objective. How have you learned it? How have you developed in this area so far this semester?
One learning objective I have decided to highlight is the annotated bibliographies. I’ve decided to place an emphasis on this objective because I plan to pursue research for my career. Whether I will be doing the same format of bibliographies or not, I believe it’s important to know how to correctly cite, reference, and paraphrase other works for your own.
I’ve learned it through examples and reflecting on other’s work to improve my own. Through viewing examples I was able to decipher the different elements of an annotated bibliography. Primarily: the citation and the reference consisting of a summary, how it relates to your work, and how you’ll use it in your research. I’ve developed fairly quickly in this area. At first I struggled with citations, but using my resources I have been able to effectively improve them.
Week 8 -What have we done so far that has been helpful to your writing process? How might you apply this helpful information or tool? What has been confusing or what would you like to spend more time on? If the clarification/additional focus does not occur during class time, how will you acquire the knowledge?
The peer review process has led to the most obvious improvement of my writing. Through that process I have received very direct and accurate criticism of my rough drafts. Because it is direct and clear, I’m able to use the comments to improve my work in an efficient manner. It’s also comforting to see that the suggestions are fairly limited which means I have a strong foundation in my work. I will admit, sometimes I view the professor’s comments as a little harsh at first but then I remind myself it is simply constructive criticism. Unfortunately, a shortcoming of the process is I can really only take what is given to me in class. If I don’t get clarification on something I’m confused on, my options are fairly limited on how to acquire the knowledge.
Week 10 – Discuss your research sources. What media are you using? How do these different types of media support your topic/ideas? your writing work?
I currently have 6 sources in my annotated bibliography. Those 6 consist of research papers, official reports, and online articles. Through these 3 mediums I am able to expand on my research in multiple facets.
Collectively, the online articles I have found are less focused on the technicalities of my site but more focused on the creative and lighter aspects such as the meaning of the architecture and design. I can use these to expand on the technicalities in a creative way. The official reports and research papers explore my topic in a more technical and concrete manner. They focus on functionalities and specific contexts. I can use these mediums to describe the more creative aspects in real-world contexts as well as envision the future of my site
Week 11 – What’s the intended rhetorical situation of your research essay? What do you need to do to make this situation a reality?
The rhetorical situation of my research essay is to inform my audience on the history of my site, the Oculus Transportation Hub, through my selected lense of creative functionality. The idea of my audience was developed through my writing: at first I didn’t have a solid idea, but eventually the audience was ultimately my professor or whoever else would read it.
My process to make this situation a reality also evolved through my writing. I had to continue to force my writing to fit a specific context.
Week 12 – As you have continued your research work, how has your argument evolved?
The portions of my research and writing ideas that have been the most volatile have been my ideas for my time periods, ideas for the future, and my lense. At first, my argument was very simple. My argument that I was following was the bare minimum, only accounting for the history of the site. As I researched different sources, the idea of using a “creative functionality” lense became apparent. One source in particular, a research paper for an Italian university studying the works of the architect of my site, influenced me to go down the functionality route. More specifically, the diagrams made the functionality aspect of my site very clear. As I researched more sources discussing the architecture, I figured I had to include a creative layer to account for the beautiful architecture of my site.
Week 13 – What is the relationship between your research essay and your MMT? Compare the rhetorical situation of each.
At their cores, my research essay and MMT contain the same information. The only difference is the ways they each convey that information. Building off of that, the rhetorical situations are similar except for the audience, genre, and exigency. The audience and exigency for the essay were primarily academic, but for the MMT the audience and exigency were more public and everyday. The goal of the MMT is to convey the information in a condensed and appealing way that a separate audience are more likely to view and understand. Further, the genre of the essay was historiography, and the genre of the MMT is an infographic.
Week 15 – What have you learned that has proved most useful to your composition process?
Throughout the duration of this course, the activity that has stood out the most to being beneficial to my writing process has been the peer review. Apart from being constructive and direct criticism, it has made all of our writing stronger. A common critique that I would receive is elaborating on certain pieces of evidence. Seeing this is as a flaw in my original drafts multiple times has made it more and more apparent that it’s something I need to fix. With that, peer review has been the most beneficial to my composition process.
