required evaluative questions

Chia said today that we should/had to post our answers to the editing evaluation sheet that he gave in class. It's for, as he said, the people who were worried that they had no posts on their blogs, but now they can say, "woo, one post!"

Anyway:

• What are the major content/critical thinking/writing issues that you were confronted with on this draft?
o I was confronted with the issue of making my ideas more focused. When I wrote the first draft, it was more stream of consciousness, so to go back and refine it to make sure that my points are focused was a big part of the second draft.
o Also, I wanted to make sure that specific words that I used were clarified. Some of the things that I used to analyze my thoughts were vague, so I concentrated on making the terms more specific and clear.
o Finally, I concentrated on making sure that the essay tied in to The Sound and the Fury enough, making sure that it wasn’t just personal examples.

• How well do you understand the content/substance of what you are writing about?
o Pretty well, it is something that I have thought about before, and that has helped me to make sure that I know what I am doing. The one thing that I did find, however, was that parts of certain ideas led me down a whole new path which I did not have time or space to explore in my essay. Also, sometimes the ideas were off topic, and frankly would have just made my essay confusing, so I didn’t explore them. I’m hoping that to somebody who hasn’t thought of these ideas, these gaps in exploration aren’t noticeable.

• What was your plan or strategy that you used to address these issues for this draft? Was this plan similar to the plans you have used in the past? How did you go from blank page to finished copy? How, and why, did you know those steps would work?
o First, when I am going over a draft, I make edits on my own, before I even look at a teacher’s comments. I check to see what I think needs work, what I messed up grammar-wise, etc. It’s pretty standard.
o Next, I look at the teacher’s comments and go through to see if I agree with them or not. Even if I don’t necessarily agree that something is wrong, or that a term is used incorrectly, I will try to clarify, because my opinions may be skewed by me being the one who thought of them. I may leave out jumps in logic that I have made that a reader may not have made.
o The most daunting part of a draft for me is a blank page. One I have thought of a hook, I usually get into the ideas, and let them flow. In general, instead of planning out my thoughts beforehand, I just write, putting all of my ideas down. After I’m done, I go back to see what works and what doesn’t, what’s relevant and what isn’t.
o I know this works because it helps me put all of my good ideas down. When I go through a detailed analysis of an idea, then it leads to more ideas, but when I just note it, I don’t get to go in depth, so little nuances are lost.

• What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer and thinker? Are you a strong thinker but no so good at the follow-through? Are you best at the big picture or the details? Are you a last-minute writer or do you plan things out and stick to the plan? Do you start relatively early in the time frame given for completing a writing task, or relatively late? Do you go through several early drafts, or do you simply work on your text once and then turn it in?
o I think that I am a good thinker, but sometimes things get lost in the shuffle, because ideas come and go so fast that I can’t get them all down. I end up losing some of my better ideas because I am concerned about finishing up another one. Also, this leads to me unintentionally stopping an idea in the middle and picking up with another one, without even realizing it.
o I’m definitely better at the big picture. I tend to be able to make a statement about a theme or mood or some other piece of literary analysis, but it will be hard for me find specific evidence, quotes etc., because I worry more about the idea.
o I start relatively late, because oftentimes I wait, hoping that the mood to write will strike me. Sometimes it does, and I crack off papers and ideas in a few minutes, (this also tends to be when I write in my blog), but other times, I just have to force myself to do it, because the paper is due the next day.
o I usually only work on my text once, and it is usually all on the computer. My mom much prefers printing it out and seeing it in print, but I am so used to the computer, that it is easier for me to edit it on screen. Also, this helps me because the ideas are still fresh in my mind.

• How well do you understand the written and verbal comments that were provided to you? What do these comments tell you about yourself as a writer and thinker?
o I think that I understood them well, they tended to set off a light bulb, so that when I went through to edit, I would said, “Oh, yeah that makes sense.” It helped me a lot because not only did I realize where I had problems, I understood why.
o These comments only confirm my thoughts that I need to focus more on the specific, because I know that I do well with the big ideas, but finding quotes and specific evidence is daunting to me.
o One question I had was about the third comment. Chia said, “Hmmmm…you are getting really philosophical here.” I wasn’t sure if that meant that it was too philosophical and that I should change it, or if it was just a note of my philosophicality.

• What advice did you solicit for this draft? What was/were the source(s) of this advice? What advice were you given on this draft?
o I sometimes solicit my mom for advice before I write a paper. Usually I just talk to her about ideas, and oftentimes more because it is interesting to get into a discussion about a paper than just to get help.
o Either my mom or my sister are good sources, especially since my sister sometimes has some overlap in terms of authors that she is studying.
o Pretty much what I thought, that I needed to get specific examples, but that my general idea was good.

• What advice did you accept? Reject? Why?
o I accepted most of the advice that I received, because in some aspect or another, most of it can be accommodated into the paper. I rejected things that were about my ideas themselves, because, since this paper has no wrong answers, and I have my own opinions, that I should stay with my own ideas.

• Describe the major changes that you made on this draft. Provide a rationale for why you made these changes.
o One major change was removing an entire paragraph that I decided didn’t tie in and was also vague. I decided that it would be more practical to remove it than to completely remove it. Also, expanding on that idea would have made the essay convoluted.

• How has the revision process allowed you to see content, in general, in a more sophisticated way.
o Revising my work lets me look back on my work with a fresh eye, because I usually haven’t worked on it recently. What this allows me to do is to read my work more critically and more truthfully. This way, I am seeing my work in a more complete way.
o When I look at other work, sometimes I think about the editing process, whether they went back and forth on one word or another, whether they had a tangent to this point here…. Basically, it allows me to see each piece as a piece that a person wrote, instead of something that just sprung from the air.

• How has the writing and thinking that you have been asked to do in the past prepared you for the kinds of writing and thinking that you were asked to do for this assignment?
o The exploratory essay last year in English really helped me with this, because the thought process was similar. Also, my blog is basically a bunch of different essays a lot like this one, so that helped to prepare me for what I was supposed to do.

• What are your goals for your next piece? Where do those goals come from?
o My goals are always to make something that I am proud of. I don’t just want to write something that I turn in to get it out of the way, I want to write something that I want to post on my blog, or that I want to peer edit about. These goals come from a lot of self-pride, I want to write the best thing ever written every time I try because I am a bit selfish, and I want people to marvel at my work.

• What are your over-arching goals for yourself as a writer? Why are these your goals?
o I would love to write a book, especially the typical dream of writing “The Great American Novel.” I would love to know that there are teachers in English classes in America assigning my book to high school kids and having them analyze it. I would love to get emails and letters from people asking about themes, themes that I didn’t even know were there.

• What do you think your main goals should be as writer and thinker, given what you have experienced so far in AP English?
o I think that I need to work on specific details, as I mentioned earlier. Also, I need to work on being less dramatic, sometimes I write like a script to a documentary, and I need to work on that. I’m not saying that writing is bad, it’s pretty good, at least I think, but it’s just a bit over the top, because some times in writing all you need to say is, “He bought milk from the store.”

• What are your criteria for quality work?
o Work that I am proud of, because some times I am not proud of my work, just satisfied with it. Other times, however, I know that what I have written is really special. I strive for that every time that I write, and only when I have achieved that do I consider it quality work.

• What was the most important thing you learned while working on this piece?
o I learned a lot about my self as a writer. A lot of the things that I said from these questions I had kind of realized, but never actually said, “Wow, I need to do this differently.” It has really helped me be forthright an honest about my writing.