Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

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Ma Deuxieme Réflexion Lettre

Dear Anna,

In the span of two papers, in my opinion, you actually improved a great deal. In fact, you improved a whole letter grade!

For the “Interacting with Text” paper, you had to integrate your own idea with that of the author’s text, in this case, was Geeta Kothari’s “If You Are What You Eat, then What Am I?” I know this was a difficult assignment for you because this particular assignment had asked you to make a specific claim.

What is a claim? Well, first off, a claim is not a summary. A claim is “very specific, not broad or general” and is an arguable idea that “digs deeper” than that of a general summary. A claim is neither a “skimming” statement, which does not address why the author uses the idea.

When you wrote your first draft of this paper, I had noticed that the whole essay bordered around (and did not dig deeper into) your intended claim of “what it meant to assimilate and grow up in America.” Steph commented, “Your claim should answer this question of “what it means.” You had basically written a whole summary of Kothari’s essay, which was not the purpose of this assignment. Towards the very last paragraph of your essay though, you finally came across your real claim, which was “to assimilate and grow up in America is to be constantly facing the clashes of different cultures and deciding how to define oneself as a person.”

So perhaps when had realized this, (or rather, when Steph blatantly pointed it out in your draft), you re-wrote your whole paper according to that claim.

Another issue that you had in your first draft was that you injected numerous quotes attempting to support your claim. My peer editor, Stephanie E., had suggested that instead of just putting the quotes out there maybe I should have included an explanation with each quote so that the reader would not get lost trying to make the connections. I found that very helpful so I had put her suggestion into consideration and removed many unnecessary quotes from my first draft and elaborated on the remaining citations in my final draft.

On the first letter that I had written to you about your identity narrative, I had mentioned that you had a problem with making “concise connections” with your main thesis. This time around, for your second unit paper, I think you improved quite a bit in staying focused on your claim and not straying off elsewhere. I had also noticed that your structure and transition for this second unit was also a great advancement compared to your first unit.

Though you did grow a little bit as a writer in the span of these two papers so far, one thing that I think you still need to work on is your grammar and mechanics. This is still a problem. The redundancy, diction, tense, and sentences ending in prepositions (just to name a few) serves as a distraction to your paper. If you could work on that a bit more, that could greatly help your next paper in the long-run.

One last thing I wanted to comment on was the conclusion of your second unit paper. Steph had asked if you could somehow re-work your closing statement in some form other than re-phrasing your opening statement to the paper. I wonder if that could be possible as well.

That’s all of I have to say for now. Bon chance on your last paper!

Best regards,
From your counterpart:
Annerrs 12:58, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

My Second Reflection Letter

Dear Dave, I think that this Unit was the most fun for me to write. I learned a lot not only about my writing, but myself. Reading Anzaldua’s piece for the first time, it immediately clicked into my head on how to interact with her writing and adding in my own spin on the conversation. This is one paper I have written (or am still writing!) that I am truly proud of. Am also proud that it is on the wiki so others can read it. The main thing that I learned about my writing was that I wasn’t truly connecting all the dots. I learned how to become focused on what I was writing about (what goals I was trying to achieve) and minimize the other distractions and “filler” in my paper. It was also apparent that my writing needs to follow a more logical path. I have the tendency to jump around with my thoughts and not correlate my ideas into a pattern that is easy for the reader to follow. This essay for Unit 2 also went deep into my personal life, which is a topic that I usual stray away from. It was great to really open up and ell my audience who I really was. I actually wrote the paper in a Portuguese version and sent it to an Aunt. I also sent her a summary of the Anzaldua article translated into Portuguese (she doesn’t speak much English). She told me it was beautiful and truly made her proud of her heritage. This gave me quite a boost of confidence to keep re-writing this paper. I want to perfect it and make it something that I can look back on and be proud of. Sincerely, Dave 13:05, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

my second reflection letter

Dear Kelley, This second paper you wrote was satisfactory. It could have been better or potentially worse. I thought you did a great job identifying different themes through out the story that you manipulated into your thesis. I also thought your selling and grammar was much better on this last paper. Now, you chose to rewrite it for understandable reasons. I think your third paper has the potential to be great and I think it is good that you are focusing your time and energy on redoing that. I want to compliment you again in how your grammar has improved. On this second paper I noticed how you have trouble incorporating both facts and your own opinions in your papers. You are passionate and opinionated on a lot, however it is imperative to incorporate facts as well so you whole paper just isn’t your opinion on a particular subject. In order to achieve this you could try using more quotes or toning down how much you say of what you think. I also think you need to anticipate what the reader is going to think. Steph has gone over this in class where you need to anticipate which way the reader is going to go with your writing. I think your on the right page however because you identified that you need to work on this. One last thing that needs to be worked on still is showing the readers versus is telling them. I think if you get this concept down, your writing will improve tremendously. I think you are going to do well on your third and fourth paper! I understand why you chose not to rewrite the second paper again, however, I am expecting a lot out of your third paper! Good work! Ksweets 13:59, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

Nick's Unit 2 Reflection Letter

My second college paper showed a lot more improvements than my first. I had a clear set of ideas about what I was going to write about and the organization throughout the paper was better. I still need to improve on developing a strong claim and sticking to it without trailing off to other topics. Also, revisions and more revisions are essential. In my paper I still had a lot of distractions caused by diction, grammar and repetitiveness of words that I could have caught during a revision process. I also learned that it is very important to have direct quotes from the author that one is writing about. Not only is it important to include the quotes, insert them into the proper place in the essay and citing it correctly, making sure there is enough detail and support to back up the quote. Also to make sure that the quote is direct to the point or issue in the claim that you are trying to address. I hope that my unit three paper shows that I improved on the issues I had in my unit two. I used many citations and references hopefully it was enough to improve on my prior mistakes. I feel that revisions was my problem and probably still is a problem for me because somehow I always have something to correct that can distract the reader and take points off in my essay. Esco 14:52, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

The Flying Scotsman's Reflection

After writing this paper I think I got a much better sense of what kind of writer I am. When I turned in the first paper I remember feel anxious as to what someone might say when they read it and wondered whether they would like it. This one, not so much. I've realized I am an angry and bitter writer, which I find funny because that's not really who I am. With this essay though I found it easy to tear up someone else's writing, and I feel that I was able to spend more time on it because I felt more connected to the piece than a lot of others. Like I said before the first paper didn't feel like me and so I didn't really learn much, the second essay on the other hand felt like me and I fell that I took in a lot more.

This paper showed me that I am really bad at taking material from other sources, quoting them, then using them to strengthen my argument. I have always been bad at this and I know that I will have to work on this a lot in order to come out on top of the third essay. My second paper could have been so much stronger had I used quotes and I do realize that now. Also I feel that my examples, although good, were not strong enough, or at least not detailed enough to make the point I was trying to make. I always seem to have the feeling that most people have had the same experiences that I have, but now I am coming to the realization that that might not be the case.

The parts of this essay that I did like and I hope I can keep moving into my new essay are the way it is read and the strength of the argument. I feel that my paper was an easy read, to me it did not feel like I was reading five pages and I know that some other people said the same thing. I would love to be able to make my third essay like this. Also I feel that my argument came off as bold and was acknowledged by everyone that read it. Whether I am right or wrong I would love people who read my work to at least acknowledge what I am trying to say. TheFlyingScotsman 15:05, 3 May 2007 (EDT)

Adam's Unit 2 Reflection Letter

After getting my penultimate draft of my unit two paper out and graded, I realized that a lot more things make sense to me in terms of both this class and about writing in general. The “final” final draft will have minor changes dealing with grammar and small details. The bulk of the actual writing and substance, though, is complete. I will probably submit it once more just to see if I can get the A on it.

The biggest thing that this essay taught me was that emotion and a personal standpoint/parallel to something is not necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary it is exactly what can make a paper fuller and more meaningful. In my identity essay I really didn’t know what to do because I had never done that kind of writing before. I suppose that was a good base for this essay, however, because now that I kind of knew what was expected, I could relate it to my own life. I guess the thing that most clarified this concept for me was my second meeting with Steph where we discussed where things could potentially go and what to do with them. I felt that it was both a much more productive paper and meeting than the last one had been by far.

In my unit one reflection letter I talked about how I didn’t know if I agreed with that style of writing in which I was supposed to personally connect to. I explained how I was used to simply analyzing texts and looking at them in a deeper context. If I did include a personal opinion in anything, it was wrong. That being said I know understand the concept that there are different styles of writing that I simply have to get used to and be accepting of. I managed a B+, so far, on this paper because I made this connection between fact and personal experience.

In terms of moving on with my writing and how it has progressed, I think that there is a lot that I have accomplished between unit one and the draft that I am currently on of my unit 2. I feel that I am not only growing as a writer but also as a person. I think I might be in a better place for figuring out “who I am” as opposed to where I was after the last paper. That is a very big deal because the topic of discussion, lately, has been about Steph has been trying to improve us as people as well as writers. I’m excited to see where things go with the unit four paper because it pertains directly to this.

Atshekleton 15:44, 3 May 2007 (EDT)

More Second Reflection Letters

On the first page please find these Second Reflection Letters:

1. Steph Ruminates and Roars
2. Andy's unit 2 reflection
3. Looking Back
4. What’s old and new?
5. Dan's Reflection
6. John?'s Reflection
7. Peter's Second Reflection : (