Blog 4: Reflection

1) What have you learned about writing academic texts so far? Anything from ideas of audience to invention techniques to thesis and topic sentences can be discussed here. Do not simply repeat whatever notes you took in class--the point is for your thoughts on what we did in class: Did these concepts connect with things you already knew and how did you make these connections? If something was unfamiliar, how did you approach it? What is still puzzling to you about these writing concepts? What are you not sure of regarding them?

What I’ve learned from writing academic texts were different ways to brainstorm ideas. I learned to free write. I’m familiar with this technique but I’ve never done it for class. I do it on my own if I have something to get off of my chest. Free writing for an essay, in my opinion, is fun. It gets my ideas out in such a raw way. It can capture emotion that I probably wouldn’t get if I was over thinking it. I plan on using this technique for every single essay I do from now on. Well not class essay because there’s no time but when I do them at home I will be use free writing as a first draft. We also learned to think of a main idea and then branch out to different topics within that main idea. This is a technique I learned back in middle school. I used this technique a lot when I was younger. It makes the writing process a whole lot easier and faster.
I thought I knew what a thesis was but learning about it showed me that I really didn’t know. I thought it was just the main idea of a specific topic. I guess in a way it kind of is, but it’s really just my position on a topic. Everything I learned in class was clear to me so now I don’t have any problems with it. (At least I think I don’t.)



2)What did you think of the interaction with ENA 099? Does such interaction make blogging more meaningful for you or not? How was writing to someone not in class different from making comments on classmates' blogs? Did trying to critique someone else's summary make you more confident that you know the criteria for a good summary?

Interacting with ENA 099 was a cool experience. I like the fact that I got feedback from someone other than my professor. Even getting feedback from my own classmates was nice. Every time I write something, I don’t think it’s good enough. Having someone else give their opinion on what I write helps me grow. Interaction definitely makes blogging more meaningful because blogs are for the whole world to see, so knowing that it isn’t just for the professor actually makes me a little more relaxed to get my thoughts out.
Writing to someone who isn’t from my class was different from writing to my classmates because I couldn’t put a face to who I was speaking to. It’s a little weird writing to someone who I’ve never seen, let alone met. Either way, I like reading other people’s post and giving feedback. I feel like my advice is usually helpful. Critiquing another summary helped me learn what should or shouldn’t be included. Next time I have to write a summary, I’ll know exactly what to include.



3)Area of reflection of your choice: What else would you like to share with all of us?

I hope that we continue to interact with other classes. I would like to see the growth of the other students as the semester continues. Even commenting on my own classmates blogs is good because we are given the same exact assignment. Seeing how they approached their assignment as opposed to how I did it may give me some ideas for another assignment. It’s really cool seeing a bunch of different variations of the same assignment.