Learning Outcome 1:
While constructing my first draft of my favorite meal essay I didn’t seen to know where to begin, I simply put all of my thoughts out on a page. This made my revision process difficult. When revising I had to focus largely on structure and the flow of the piece. The narrative was difficult for me to create because we were talking about a tradition that still happens but using examples that happened in the past, knowing the different tenses throughout this essay was challenging. My philosophy of revision as Sommers puts it is to put everything I am thinking out onto the page in the first draft and then adjust it until it fits correctly. While editing this favorite meal essay I also had an especially had time with sentence flow, this was due to my first draft being so unorganized. As Sommers refers to looking at the paper with a “different set of eye” is what helps me the most when revising. I often have to break apart the essay, read it outloud, or take a break from it to be able to clearly get my best organizational structure out of the mess I made while writing the first draft.
Learning Outcome 2:
The final draft of my favorite meal essay included quotes from my parents reflecting on their experiences making the meal with me and what the tradition meant to them. One direct quote from the writing piece was, “When I asked my mother why making this meal with me was special to her she said, ‘I have been making this meal for as long as I can remember. Chicken parm was a common meal in my house when I was a child. It is a simple yet delicious set of ingredients making a filling meal for the whole family. This is also one of my favorite meals, I really enjoy making it once a month with Breana. I started this tradition with my girls as a way to bond with them, but also to teach them how to make meals so that when they go off on their own they know how to make at least a couple meals.’” This quote gives support to my claim that this tradition with my parents of making a meal with them has a significant value to my mother. I integrated this quotation into the essay by having a clear transition statement before using the quote.
Learning Outcome 5/6:
My significant writing projects shows that I have the ability to use the correct MLA guidelines when writing papers. I have had a lot of practice with MLA formating in previous classes to help with this. Before turning in any paper I check to see if the font is 12 font, times new roman, double spaced, header with last name and page number. At the top of the right hand side I have my name, professor name, class, and date. For MLA citations I often have to check an online source to make sure I have it correctly, including insight citations and literature cited page.
Learning Outcome 4:
The peer paper I edit was Madelyn Hayes third essay this semester on the topic of considering the lobster based off of the David Foster Wallace writing piece. While editing Madelyn’s piece I made seventeen comments along the way. The most frequently used comments were local comments, which included comments such as word choice, MLA format, sentence structure, numbers 1-4,8,9 and 14 were all local comments. I also made a decent amount of remarks on the evidence section of the essay, numbers 10-12 and 15 had to do with quotes/examples, and explanations. Madelyn had a lot of good claims which I labeled numbers 13 and 17 in the idea comments, number 5 also fits in this section because it has to do with the thesis. For the organizational piece numbers 6,7, and 16 all have to do with this. In my concluding statement to Madelyn I also mentioned an organizational componitate by making the paragraphs more even in length. The main organizational advice I had was to add or remove something. By doing peer reviews it would make me look at my essays again with a fresh pair of eyes and be able to improve my own paper.
