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.

From UMassWiki

Dear Mariya,

The first piece of writing I have done in college was challenging. Due to the increase in quality demanded from the students at college there were many challenges I ran into. While my main problem with grammar and punctuation was still present, I ran into many other issues including the context of my writing and the actual structure.

My main issue was very vivid in my writing was the lack of organization and clarity. Although this is an aspect of the writing that is important, it is not as crucial in high school level writing. My paper needed more organized structure; there is a need for chronological organization. In much of my paper I do not specify my age and therefore the timing of the story is quite hard to follow. Due to the lack of these tools my writing is not connecting the ideas stated properly. Therefore the second draft will be organized more clearly and will contain a clear structure. The ideas and the main points of my paper will be much easier to follow and the confusion of time will be gone.

The second main issue in my writing is the lack of actual analysis and the conclusion from this analysis. Since the paper is about identity there is a particular story told that leads me to an analysis of that situation and then a conclusion is drawn to that situation that ties the piece all together. My paper is missing the small ideas that make the big idea/conclusion much more powerful and educational in a particular way. An example of that is the title of the paper that is supposed to be connected to the piece in which my piece it is quite hard to draw out the title from the actual story. I need to be clearer and relate my stories with that idea and in the end clarify the connection between the title and the conclusion.

An avoidable mistake that could be fixed in my paper that I have done with all my writing is repetition. This is when peer editing is crucial because not always is someone able to see the repetition in their writing. Since I did not have any peer editors, I was unable to spot that aspect of my writing. This is another problem I must work on and really read my writing carefully and make sure to spot such things as repetition. Nest time around while self editing I will look for this mistake and make sure that I do not repeat it.

The most frustrating aspect of writing for me is the limit in my vocabulary. This is a big problem in writing since that is where much of the repetition comes in place. I need to develop a much bigger vocabulary that will ensure much more freedom while writing. Even though the process of widening of vocabulary is a strenuous process, it is one worth the work.

The second draft of my Identity paper will be much more structured and most of all clear. There will be no questions left to answer after reading this essay, everything will be spelled out and the analysis is clear and somewhat concise. I will make sure to look up synonyms of words that are overused and get repetitive. I will make sure that I do this, now that I am at college level of writing and there is a much higher expectation from the students.