One of the most
important skills I acquired in the course was the process of revision. I have
to admit that prior to the class I would almost never bother to go back and
revise my writings. This process helped me obtain a good grade in the class and
will also help me improve my writing in the future. Revision helped me in
finding mistakes in my papers and also allowed me to evaluate their accuracy.
If in the near future I am faced with writing a big paper such as our final I will
be sure to revise it a proofread it before submitting a final draft.
I would have to say
that one of the most influential readings was to me the comparison between summary
and analysis. This showed me that at times it might be appropriate to
summarize, while in other cases the best choice may be to analyze the topic.
For example if I am writing an essay on the movie “The Hangover” the best
choice would be to write a brief paragraph (or summarize) about the movie so
that my reader understands the basic theme or meaning of it. Summarizing on the
other hand would be used if I wanted to be more specific about the movie and
talk about some of the deeper meanings within the context.
I met the class
expectations in the form of being respectful and making respectful comments on
other classmate’s blogs. Becoming familiar with the technology and keeping up with
the weekly assignments was also another way that I followed the expectations. Most
to all my work was submitted in a timely matter and was compatible with the software’s
used in the course. I also was open minded when it came to controversial
writings, and kept my questions and comments respectful and analytical.
My writing process was
mostly influenced by the revision process, and also by learning about
summarizing. Prior to the class I tended to submit all my work without revising
or proofreading it. One of the readings in the course made it clear to me that
revising is one of the most crucial steps in the writing process. It allows checking
for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. It also helps in identifying the
strength (or accuracy) of one’s topic. I feel that revising was one of the
reasons as to why I did well in this course.
Right away one of the
most challenging aspects of the course for me personally was the making of a
video via YouTube. Prior to the class I had never even attempted to make any
sort of visual presentation. I had to look up videos and ask a couple of
friends for help before I got the hang of it. I found that once you get to work
with the technology and interact with it, making such videos is actually
relatively simple.
