WP4 Final

Dear Mr. Adams:
It’s been a crazy semester. You’ve gone from caveman to chemo patient. I’ve branched out into interesting new fields of study and decided to change my major. Then of course there’s this class. Some of it I couldn’t stand, as a lot of the information I’d heard before. Most of it, however, was a big learning experience. I’ve never put together a writing project so long and complex before, and I’m definitely better off for the experience. I’ve learned a lot, not just about my subject, but also about writing techniques and skills. I believe that over the course of the last few months I have accomplished all of the course competencies.
First, I learned about the rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, author, context, and topic). All of them I’d heard before but I hadn’t looked into them as an interactive system. I’ve learned that by making different combinations you can produce papers of many different subjects, purposes, and structures. I used the Rhetorical situation to construct my research question and thesis statement for WP3. “Based on the Current Situation in Iran; What Are Some of The Likely Outcomes, And How Will They Effect The American People?” This is the final version of the statement. It went through several changes as I toyed with different combinations within my Rhetorical situation to set myself up for a paper that could accomplish what I wanted. I want to specifically point out my analysis of the audience in D3HW5. http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com/2007/09/deadline-3hw-5audience-analysis.html This is where I realized that my paper applied to not just the American people but to the international community as a whole. I eventually decided to focus primarily on Americans however, as I wanted to narrow my subject as much as I reasonably could. One problem that I ran into was that when I realized that I couldn’t accomplish my purpose with a standard essay format I was slow to figure out how to change my rhetorical combination so I could find some equilibrium between what I wanted and a persuasive piece of work. My knowledge of the Rhetorical situation will be sure to come in handy in future papers, especially when it comes to finding my research question.
Second, I learned about sharing a central idea through unity, coherence, and logical development. The biggest thing I found here was the advantages to using outlines to get a blueprint for my writing. For example, I made two different outlines before writing this letter. I made a vague one based on the different course competencies and a more complex one using the requirements for each of the competencies that I have to write about. In D9HW5 I learned the value of clustering the research I’d gathered to help me think about how I could present it to achieve my purpose. http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com/2007/10/d9hw5-cluster.html One problem I ran into here is that I should have begun this much earlier in the writing process. As it was, I only started the week I had to write the draft WP3 and that caused a bit of a rush. This method, I think, will be useful in any writing project I undertake.
Third, I looked at conventions such as voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics. The big thing I realized here was that review, especially by peers, is a key step in catching a lot of errors in these fields. I used that practice, at your insistence of course, in all three WP’s and found that errors in these areas were one of the chief things I discovered. In D5HW3 I noted that self-review was very important because it makes you look at not just your mistakes, but also the comments of others and allows you to take all these factors into consideration and come up with an end result that accomplishes what you wanted it to. http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com/2007/09/d5hw3-peer-review-reflection.html I think one thing that I could work on here is using different combinations of these conventions to most effectively accomplish different combinations of Rhetorical situations. These lessons are important in any kind of writing project and I don’t think we’ll ever escape them.
Fourth, from this course, several books I’ve read recently, and a philosophy on life I’ve tried to use for a while, I’ve reinforced my belief in the importance of looking at all problems from multiple perspectives. If you limit yourself in your thinking you only end up weakening your position and living in ignorance. In WP2 you can see the wide variety of sources I used in my effort to look at my subject from all the relevant angles I could think of. For example, in D2 Annotated Bib I read an article featuring the interview of the head of the Iranian-American council. http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com/2007/09/hw-assignmentdeadline-2-annotated.html This interview featured viewpoints that I hadn’t really considered before and showed me a few new areas that I needed to look into for my research. This idea is hard for everyone, as it’s difficult to get used to the idea that other people’s opinions may be just as relevant and logical as our own and I think we always have room to grow in this area. That lesson is relevant to everyday life as it’s important to keep an open mind in all things.
Fifth, we learned to integrate our sources to develop and support our own ideas. The big discovery I made here was that it is important, especially in a project as big as this, to review our research and refresh ourselves before making final conjectures for our research arguments. Before writing WP3 I went through my research database and made a condensed version to use when constructing my outlines. This not only allowed me to be more organized, but gave me a opportunity to review my research and start tying things together for my final paper. In D9HW4 I used this condensed version of my notes to construct my final outline that incorporated all my arguments and the cited sources, which I used to back them. http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com/2007/10/d9hw4-outline.html I think I did pretty well in this area and learned a lot. The only thing I can think of doing differently is creating a second research database where I put all of my thoughts and opinions and revise them as I do more and more research. This is another lesson I think can apply to everyday life as in any argument you need to learn to support yourself with facts.
Sixth, I have been able to refresh and increase my knowledge of correct citations and documentation. WP2 forced me to do a lot of work with and on my MLA citations, as I knew right off I was lacking in this area. I used this opportunity to look at several sources to help better the format and structure in my citations. In D6HW7 I took advantage of the grammar assignment to review the section on MLA at the OWL site. Here I brushed up on the order and structure of the citations and it was my primary learning tool in this area. http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com/2007/10/d6hw7-grammar-assignment.html I doubt I got them perfect in the end and I’ll need a lot of practice with them before I’m completely confident. This will be useful primarily when I need to do citations, specifically with MLA though some of the basics can apply to APA as well.
Finally, we focused on using peer review, instructor comments, and other sources to make final revisions to our projects. One thing I discovered here was that you shouldn’t limit yourself to just classmates. I found a knowledgeable friend outside of class that I knew was good at this sort of thing and had her review my WP3 before I made my final revisions. I noted in D12HW8 the value of this in that you can gain a lot of insight by having outside, knowledgeable sources review your work. http://teufelheunden.blogspot.com/2007/11/d12hw8-peer-review-reflection.html Something I think I could have done better here is taking problems or successes I saw in papers I reviewed and applying them to my own. The lessons learned here could be helpful in all walks of life as it puts us in an open-minded mentality and teaches us to consider other people’s opinions.
All in all I think that I’m a pretty strong writer with a decent eye for details. I think I’m good at putting thought into the research I find, coming up with logical conclusions, and presenting them in an order which makes my writing easy to follow. However, I also think that I can get a bit cocky in my writing. To counter this I plan to focus a lot on peer reviews in order to catch anything I might not think of. Also, as with about 99.9% of college students I’m a bit of a procrastinator, though not nearly as bad as some. I need to work on that.
I thought most of the technical sources you showed us this semester were very useful. Del.ic.ious was the first thing that really hit me. I realized the full extent of the usefulness of this site when I started collecting web URL’s for sources I wanted to research. Google Docs is also very useful. Primarily for the ease with which you can do peer review using this application. Citation machines, I think, are also a lifesaver. Though most of them aren’t completely correct, the right ones at least give you a good starting point when doing your MLA citations. This semester’s work has also increased my conviction that computers and spell/grammar check are great.
As you can see I’ve learned a lot this semester. I’ve made strides in all of the course competencies though some were in ways that I wouldn’t quite expect from just looking at them in the syllabus. I think my biggest strides this semester were in organization, structure, and research techniques. Right now though I’m just filled with an acute case of semester-itis. I’m looking forward to finishing this semester and getting some down time before I deploy.

Sincerely,
Alex Williams

P.S. For full WP4 including all WPs with thoughts for review see google docs.

D15HW2 Peer Review Reflection

So...close....to...the end! Nothing much new to report. Pretty much the same as the other peer reviews I've done for this class. A trend I noticed when reviewing other people's papers was a tendency to write WP4 more as a list than a letter. The peer reviews of my project basically consisted of mostly grammatical errors so I'll be using those and a last run through myself to hammer it out before submitting.

I reviewed

Paulette Estrada
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dg3c2vjz_13dvf9zw&hl=en#

Justin Winter
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dd7rj2d8_16f47d88&hl=en#