Final Reflection

            Seeing as this is my first college lever English course, I wasn't sure of what to expect.  The questions rung through my head; “Am I a good enough writer? How many papers will be assigned? Does the professor grade harshly? Will I be able to pass the class?” Luckily, the answers to all of the above questions were exactly what I wanted them to be.

            I have very distinctive thoughts on writing in general.  I have always hated it, and I probably always will. Throughout this class though, I enjoyed writing each assignment we were given, and received good grades on all of them.  Even though this was the case, I didn't necessarily realize any specific thing about myself as a writer.  I did realize that if the topics or assignments given peak my interest, or give me more free range, I hate writing a little less.  I think that my writing skills are basically the same going out of this class, as they were going in.

            All because I don’t enjoy writing doesn't mean that I think it is valueless.  Writing is a key component to letting someone’s voice and opinions be heard.  Writing, in my opinion, allows one to argue with a point but stay away from violent affairs.  For example, if you were to go to a pro-choice rally, march right up to the podium, and state your pro-life views, you might have just put yourself in a bit of a predicament.  If, however, you write your views on pro-life in the form of a letter to the pro-choice committee, you can still get your point across without endangering yourself.  

  I did pick up on several terms and ideas through this class.  I am now more confident with discussing the topic of rhetoric.  Before entering this class, I honestly had no idea what rhetoric was, or what its components consisted of.  Now I can confidently answer any question thrown at me about it!  I also became more aware of how to find scholarly articles through the Atkins library page on our school’s website.  This technique has already assisted me in several other classes I’m taking.  Also through this class, I have read some appealing pieces of writing.  My favorite was a piece that turned normal American views and activities, and made them seem foreign and disturbing.  It opened my eyes to see how much the vocabulary you choose for your writings can affect how the readers view it.  

Regarding my research paper, I would probably change the site that I observed to be something different.  While, in the long-run, my paper turned out fine, I wish I would have been able to dive into a deeper thesis statement.  In order to have done this, I should have observed my original site earlier instead of last minute.  If I would have done this, I could have decided that I didn't find enough appeal and chose another subculture.

The conversations we engaged in during class were always interesting and entertaining, and I felt like I could voice my opinion without being judged.  I enjoyed the discussions we had, such as the one when we passed around the brick and gave it different descriptors, and felt like the lesson plans were appropriate.  I did find that on occasion, the class would get out of hand and jeer off subject, but that is expected in almost any classroom.  Overall, I was pleased with my experience in this class.  

           

            

Completed Work

Click HERE to view my completed Ethnography.

The reason I chose to share my ethnography is because of the amount of effort I included in it.  The process in a whole took over a month to complete, but I think that it turned out even better than I imagined.

Process Piece: Ethnography

Upon beginning my ethnography for this class, I looked at the requirements involved and almost passed out.  There are many steps included in the final draft alone, not to mention the steps I take as an individual writer.  Before beginning, I automatically knew that this paper would be extremely time consuming. Below I will explain the steps I took to writing a successful ethnography.
Note: For each of the below steps, I also followed certain self-editing steps which I will include at the end.

Step 1: The Observation   

Before diving into the paper aspect of an ethnography, one must indulge in a conquest to observe a subculture or site that they have not particularly paid close attention to before.  For me, I chose the local Starbucks coffee house.  I thoroughly enjoyed this step of the process.  It truly got my brain thinking about certain aspects that people don't ordinarily look at upon visiting the coffee shop. While having my observation reviewed by my peers, they all seemed to enjoy it.  I only had a few critiques from them and they were all format related.  Thinking I was in the clear for my final draft, I turned it in with confidence.  I received an A on it, but got a few critiques from my professor that my peers failed to pick up on.  He told me to consider putting more emphasis on my opinion, rather than what was put in front of me at the coffee shop.  This insight came in handy when preparing my final ethnography.  To view my final observation, click HERE.

Step 2: The Annotated Bibliography 

In my writing career, I had never heard of an annotated bibliography.  I had done simple bibliographies yes, but the format of an annotated bibliography threw me for a loop.  For those of you who do not know, a bibliography is list of books or scholarly works based from a topic chosen to study.  An annotated bibliography is the same thing, but you add a summary of each of the works read.  The meaning behind having one of these was to gather information from our observation, form a thesis, and perform research on it.  The thesis that I chose for my paper was "The effects of caffeine abuse can be detrimental compared to those who drink it in moderate proportion.  When writing my rough draft of this section of my ethnography, I was clueless as to how to format it.  When my peer review group got together, we had realized that none of us had performed this task correctly.  Luckily, our professor cleared up our confusion and we all successfully finished our final drafts.  To view my final annotated bibliography, click HERE. 

Step 3: The Ethnography 

The final product of the above to steps is what is called an "ethnography."  Obviously, you don't just staple your two papers together and voila! You have to collaborate the two and create a certain structure that appeals to your reader, as well as flows nicely.  Surprisingly this portion was the easiest out of both previous steps for me to complete.  Having the observation helped to identify how I came about my thesis statement, and having the annotated bibliography meant that I had to do no further research, and my sites were already cited.  Upon turning in my rough draft to my peer review group, I felt more than confident.  Unfortunately, there were many more flaws in my paper than I had hoped for.  Although it was said that my thesis was clear, I was advised to rearrange my paragraphs in order to have better flow.  Also, I was told to try and put more of my own opinion in, rather than strictly the researchers in which I included in my bibliography.  To view my ethnography rough draft click HERE.  

Self-Steps

For each step listed above, I took certain steps that applied to each of them.

Step 1 

Before each step, I followed the link on my professor's Moodle page to show me what requirements were needed to successfully write the paper at hand. 

Step 2

Writing my rough draft came second. 

Step 3

After writing my rough draft, I brought them to my peer review group, which consisted of four classmates.  This was my favorite step. 

Step 4

After receiving critiques from both my peers and my professor, I applied the changes I found necessary to my rough draft and also included more length to my paper. 

Step 5

This step would include me self revising my final draft, adding diverse vocabulary, checking for appropriate formatting, and making sure that my paper was appealing to the reader. 

Step 6

My final step would include turning my final product into Moodle, and praying that I received an A! 

Journal Entry #7

The following journal entry was written on December 3, 2012.
Prompt: Name one piece of writing you've done this semester that worked welll and why?

Response: I am proud of my second portfolio in my public health class.  It was composed of several prompts and I got an A on it! It took forever to complete, but I was proud of myself in the end.  The topics covered were; a song related to one disease that changed our world, immunication requirements, various selected materials, etc.

Prompt 2: One piece you're least proud of and why?

Response 2: I am least proud of my portfolio one in public health class because I did not complete it.  Given, I included the required prompts in the following portfolio, but I am ashamed for not even attempting it.

Prompt 3: If you were given more time on your ethnography, what one thing would you change about it and why?

Response: To enhance my ethnography, I would have just taken more time and improved my vocabulary.  I always love for my papers to sound eloquent, and with this time limit I felt as if I would have had more time I could have further thought out my word choices.

Journal Entry #6

The following journal entry was written on September 10, 2012.

Prompt: Do you like peer reviews? What do you like the most? The least?

Response: The thing that I like most about peer review is the chance to let others critique my paper.  This was I can edit accordinly before turning the final draft in.  The thing I dislike the most about peer review is reading too many papers.  In my high school English class, we would exchange with 4-5 people for review; it was exhausting and boring.  If the process is different in college, then perhaps I will have no negative thoughts against peer reviews.

Journal Entry #5

The following journal entry was written on September 5, 2012.

Before writing the prompt, our English class had taken an ordinary brick and passed it around the classroom about four times.  Each time a new person held the brick, they had to describe it with an adjective.  You can only imagine the amount of words we had written on the board at the end of this activity.

Prompt: Write you're own description about this brick without using any of the words listed on the board. (This was a challenge for everyone).

Response:
"Brickey" The Brick
This industrious brick has exhausted my brain.  How can such a simple structure cause so much spite?  Thanks to the uneducated Brickey the Brick, I will never look at his relatives the same again. 

Journal Entry #4

The following journal entry was written on October 22,2012.
Prompt: When doing research, how do you know which source is credible and relavent?

Response: Usually, credible sources for the internet end in ".org, .edu. or .gov," so that is my first step in researching the topic.  For books, I steer away from fiction and lean towards biographies and autobiographies; nonfiction.  Other than those listed above, I really have no idea.  I guess steer away from no online blogs, unless you're searching for opinions of others.  Otherwise, the blogs will probably be too biased for a research paper.  Newpapers and professional journals are always promising ideas.