Learning Objective #1:

When I write a draft for the first time I write the whole thing without re-reading anything first and then at the very end I read through each paragraph to see if I need to add or take anything out. Also I make sure that everything in each paragraph goes with my topic sentence and makes sense to what I’m writing about. Something new that I tried for this essay that I’ve never done was to put my thoughts into a brainstorming idea form, I put all my thoughts on a paper and pick through to see which ones I want in my paper. With my first essay I had wrote out the whole essay and re-read everything very carefully, and after I read through the whole thing I deleted everything that I had and started my essay completely over. The only reason I did that was because my thoughts were completely jumbled together and did not make sense to what I was trying to write about. When I started writing my second essay I tried to think of what I did wrong in the first essay so that when I was writing this one, I wasn’t making the same mistakes. So that would help me with trying to put together a well put essay and to try to put together something that actually made sense.

Learning Objective #2:

When I’m trying to put things into my essay I think that taking quotes, sentences, or evidence out of someone else’s essay or paper would help me try to write about more and be able to add more to my paragraphs. Sometimes I struggle with adding evidence and making something long enough to talk about. So like in this last essay I took as many as I could out of Henig’s and King’s essay’s so that I could have more to talk about. It made it a lot easier to find something to talk about and refer to. Also in some of our homework that we have had, and needed to find proof out of the text, I was able to write a lot more about the author’s thoughts and how I felt about it. I could write a lot more about my opinions and how the author also felt.

Learning Objective #3:

As I read the essay or any essay I make notes throughout it because it helps me think back to what I was trying to either say or put in. I pretty much use active reading when I’m reading someone else’s essay because I don’t know what it says throughout the whole thing, but it helps me remember when I go back through the essay again to see why I marked that spot. As I read my essay I think about what I was trying to say and see if there is anything that I could add or even try to think about what else would not only make my essay better but sound better. I defiantly want to know how to be able to do this better because sometimes when I put my thoughts into it I just think that a sentence is bad and want to automatically change it, but sometimes it isn’t that bad

Learning Objective #4:

Doing peer reviews I think really help me personally, I can see what others have to say about my thoughts and could potentially help me add things into it. Also I think that they would be able to help me with any questions that I have and could add things or help me add things to make it a better essay. When I’m reading someone else’s essay I think that when I’m reading through it and peer reviewing it helps me to be able to talk to them, but also I like to read it before so I can add my own thoughts. Discussing the thoughts that I have and talking to the person that I am trying yo peer review for helps me because if they did something similar to what I may have done in my essay they could help me. When I read the first drafts I look for the thesis, just because I want to know what the essay will be kind of about. Then I look for errors first, then I look for sentence structure. This is important to me because sometimes the essay won’;t make sense if somethings were not the way that they need to be and someone else reading the essay may not be able to comprehend what the person is saying.

Learning Objective #5:

I feel that when I’m citing a source I refer back to the Little Seagull textbook because it really helps me know what I’m putting in. I also look back at my other classes notes that I have had to do before. When I’m trying to cite my book or an essay I look online as well as the book to see if there is more than one author and try to see if there is a place to help me cite it. Some spots that I lack confidence is when I’m trying to do a work cited, I can do in text citations, but work cited pages sometimes get me because I’m not sure if I am doing them correctly.

Learning Objective #6:

While reading someone else’s essay I feel that I notice spelling grammar and punctuation more then I would in my own paper. This is because I’m more into someone else’s paper then my own just because I feel that I need pay more attention to it. Although I try hard in my own papers to see if I make any mistakes but, I feel that when writing your own paper it makes it harder to see if you made a mistake, other people can catch that stuff easily.