Jack Mckechnie
English 110C
Elisha Emerson
May/2/2018
Four Part Framing Letter
Learning Outcome 1:
I used several strategies to edit and revise my significant writing project. The first thing that I used to revise this essay was self revision. I have read every draft I made for this many times. In reading through my own work, I used the technique of reading aloud to myself to listen to how my writing sounds. Reading my own work also allows me to check for local errors in my writing by myself. Sometimes small errors can slip past someone who has only read their paper the one time. Someone who has a few ideas on revision strategies is Nancy Sommers. In Sommers writing, she talks about how writers check in with their work as they go using their revision as a testing process. In her own words, “The experienced writers seek to discover meaning in the engagement with their writing, in revision..” I think what she is saying is that when writing a paper, email, or a four part framing letter you need to make sure that your writing is at its fullest potential. Using the recursive writing process as a way to find your final work inside of your rough draft.
Learning Outcome 2:
In my significant writing project I used examples from other writers we read in class as evidence to back up my own work. One example of this would be I also used a project that my peer did earlier on in the semester. I think that using my peers work was a better use of evidence than the writing passages that we had already gone over. I had a very good understanding of his work because he had presented it to the class. His project fit well with my paper, so all that was left to do was cite him at the end of my essay. Citing his was interesting for me. That was the first time I have ever cited someone who I actually have met. Here is the part of my work where I use my peer to work with my assigned prompt. “There are so many different formats of Art that sometimes non traditional forms show up with a purpose that is absolutely genius. In our last project for my english class titled “Let’s Talk About Art” Max Russell found a creative way to show a new form of art that helps deaf people to hear music. In his presentation to my class he showed us a YouTube video of a form of a music video. At first I had no idea what to expect because he had said that he had done research on a specific song and he was now connecting that to deaf people. It all made sense as soon as he played the video. Different color patterns went across the screen along with the music. It was a strange experience to watch the colors line up perfectly with each note in the song. How well they resembled the feel of the music through shape and color was startling. It was like hearing with my eyes. I think that that is yet another form of beauty the way that someone was able to take an issue of being deaf and create a way for them to experience something that usually requires ears. “
Learning Outcome 4:
Peer reviews are a very quick and easy way to get more eyes looking at your paper for local and global revisions. When I would look at my peers paper and read it through. The first time I would check for small fixes, or local revisions. Maybe they had left an I uncapitalised. Or forgot to put a title at the top of the page. I would click on the page right after where the change would need to be made and would leave a short comment on the side of the page. My short comments were usually concise for small local errors. They really just serve as a red flag for with author. It is often hard to spot your own mistakes in writing. Here is an example of one of my comments I left on my peers rough draft. In this part of his essay he was being drawn away from his main argument and specifying what he was saying..“I think that this is a problem for both sexes not just women, the same thing happens with guys and those magazines on how to work out better.” With this short comment then my peer will notice this and adjust his writing to accommodate. So you can see that the quick notes on the side that are very informative. This is also a great way to get ideas about global revisions. Here is an example of one of my comments about global revisions. “These are all very broad ideas, an example here would help to bring everything together.” These comments are usually longer than my local revisions. I think that is because global revisions involve bigger ideas with the recursive writing process. Such as the way that the entire paper works to build on itself.
Learning Outcomes 5-6:
My ability to cite sources using MLA format has increased dramatically since I have started to use “The Little Seagull” handbook. This tool helped me to cite any source that I may have used from a online blog to a sculpture. The handbook is helpful because it covers all the different citations you could possibly have in MLA. It also shows you an example of each individual citation along with instructions. And a guide to make your own with your source.
