Learning Outcome 1:

For the significant writing project I chose the essay from prompt 3 because I felt that it best represented my approach to revision from learning outcome 1. Learning outcome 1 states that I should be able to demonstrate the ability to approach writing as a recursive process that requires substantial revision of drafts for content, organization, and clarity and well as local revision. Before taking English 110 I thought of the revision process as a process for going through the sentences and making sure they made sense and that I used the right words. This is similar to how Nancy Sommers describes how students go about the revision process, “by rewording their sentences to avoid the lexical repetition, the students solve the immediate problem…” For this essay from prompt three I made an outline of what I wanted to say and what evidence I wanted to use to support those claims. Then I had my peers review my first draft so I knew what I could work on regarding the organization, content, and clarity on my paper. After peer review I focused on the organization of my claims so I could decide what I wanted to change about my paper. Finally I revised that smaller more local errors within my paper. This course taught me how to see revision as a recursive process and how to figure out what “my essay as a whole needs for form, balance, rhythm, or communication”(Sommers). I was unable to think about the big picture when revising and this English 110  course gave me the tools I needed to figure out what to change and work on in my first draft of a paper.

Learning Outcome 2:

The final draft of the significant writing project that I chose is also from prompt 3 and demonstrates my ability to use sources as evidence from learning outcome 2. Learning outcome 2 states that I should be able to integrate my ideas with those of others using summary, paraphrase, quotation, analysis and synthesis of sources. Throughout this essay for the writing prompt 3 I was able to chose evidence that accurately supported my claims and then explain how that evidence related to the claims I was making. One way that I was able to do this was by making an outline of my paper before actually writing a first draft. I looked at the main points of the texts that I was using, came up with what I wanted to say about those texts relating to the prompt, and then went through the texts to find quotations that supported my claims. When writing my first draft I focused more on the integration of the quotations I wanted to use and then used analysis and synthesis to make my points clear. An example of how I analyzed evidence is from page three of my essay in the ending of the fourth paragraph when I explained the advantage of using the internet to communicate following a quote from Bill Wasik. “Students are able to use this to their advantage to learn more about an interesting topic or tell people about their own research or experiment.” (page 3). After having my paper peer reviewed I went back through my paper and tried to add more summary and paraphrase of the texts and authors before introducing them. This paper shows how I have learned how to use sources as evidence and that I am able to select, integrate, and explain quotations.

Learning Outcomes 5 and 6:

The significant writing project that I chose from writing prompt three also shows how I am able to cite sources using MLA format from the learning outcomes 5 and 6. Learning outcome 5 states that I should be able to document my work using appropriate MLA convention and learning outcome 6 says that I should be able to control sentence-level error. This English 110 course has taught me how to properly cite my sources using in-text citations and a works cited page. I included a works cited page to the end of my paper from writing prompt three and one example of how I used in-text citations is on page 2 of my paper. I included the page number of the quotation that I used, but not the last name of the author because I had already named which author I was quoting from in the preceding sentence. Overall, this course taught me the correct way to cite my sources and focus on local revision after making global revisions.

Learning Outcome 4:

Marked First Draft of a Peer’s Paper

Above is a link to the mark first draft of one of peer’s papers. This paper includes comments from myself and my instructor, Professor Emerson. The comments that I have made are highlighted in purple. This peer review example is one of three that we had to complete in English 110. I chose this paper for my four-part framing letter because I feel that it is the best representation of what I have learned from the learning outcome number 4. Learning outcome 4 states that I should be able to critique my own and other’s work by emphasizing global revision  early in the writing process and local revision later in the process. In this peer review I gave one of my classmates suggestions for how to revise the ideas, evidence, and organization of her paper. In the ninth comment I suggested that she should move a sentence to the beginning of the paragraph. “By moving this to the beginning, the information you already have in the beginning will become more like analysis for the quote,” (page 1). Another suggestion I made was in the thirteenth comment I made about evidence. This peer’s paper was lacking some quotes and I suggested that she could add a quote from one of the texts we used in class, “you could add a quote here from Anderson’s text about how focus and attention is a voluntary thing,” (page 2). Using a quote from this text would make her claim better supported and stronger overall. Practicing peer review made me more comfortable asking questions about my own work and helped me see some of the ways I could make my writing stronger by changing the organization, adding evidence, and having clear ideas and claims.