Response to in Class Peer Review

1) What did I gain from the response I received from my reader?

2) What did I change as a result of the feedback I received? Explain. 

3) How did having someone else read my writing give me a different perspective on my writing?

4) What surprised me in having someone else read this essay? 

5) Add any thoughts you had during and after the peer response.

      I gained a better understanding of how my essay came across after our peer reflection session in class. I found little details that I forgot to put in because my belief and my story are so familiar to me. It was helpful to see what the reader wanted to learn more about and anywhere I confused her. I added in those missing details for Draft 2. I also changed around a few things to direct the story more where I wanted it to go. As I stated before, having someone else read my draft was helpful because it showed me what parts of the story she really picked up on and what she was confused about. The Velcro words and some of the questions surprised me because they were things that were so normal to me, but not the reader. It was interesting that I was paired with someone who I had been paired with for my Personal Memoir. I used a story in this essay that is under the same topic that I wrote my memoir about, so I felt like she already knew some of the information. Even though my reader was really helpful and thoughtful, it might have been better to either get paired up with someone who didn’t know my belief already or written about a different belief.

English Class Update

This is the first of many weekly blogs to come. I will be keeping you updated on my different classes here at UNCC. I will discuss English this week because it is my only class that has anything interesting going on. We are working on a couple of different projects right now. The first is a memoir. I am really happy with my memoir and am excited on getting feedback from the professor. The next assignment we are working on is our interview. I chose to interview my sister who was about 100 feet away from the bombings this past April during the Boston Marathon. It should be an interesting interview seeing as I have never discussed it with her. I am looking forward to the actual interview and whatever project we will do that goes along with it. The most recent assignment we are working on is our “This I believe” essays. I am worried I won’t be able to pick a topic that is specific enough, but I think some clustering and free writing will help me to decide on a topic. And simultaneously along all these assignments we are keeping up our blog and starting our ePortfolio. There is a lot to do in this class! I am looking forward to it all though.

My favorite thing about this class is how we are allowed to write about subjects we like especially our beliefs and ourselves. The last English class I took, I wrote research papers and papers about motifs in books. The thing I hated the most about it is that I had to write about what the teacher wanted. If I took a different viewpoint on her, even if there was sufficient evidence and solid writing, she would not like the paper. This happened to myself and many other students. But in this class we are writing about things that interest us. Our memoir? About a section of our own lives. Our interview? We get to choose the person and topic. Our personal essays? We get to write about something we believe in and why. I love this approach to an English class.

Response to Interview Articles

I picked up many important points from both the assigned readings. The information covered many topics from doing some pre-interview homework on the subjects to what to do in the actual interview. I learned that organization is a key to having a successful interview with anyone. Some things that stood out that I am going to use for my interview were to know not just about the person, but a little history about the specific subject you are talking about. Furthermore, that a writer should try and avoid agreeing to only discuss certain topics or use specific approved quotes. One thing I learned was something obvious that I hadn’t thought about- bringing something to record the interview. I forgot that I will need that information at a later time, so of course I need to write it down. Another helpful tip was to ask open-ended questions, this way you get more information. I took note that it is good to ask for stories in an interview because they are full of human experiences and testimonials to an event. This way, the interviewer will be able to see how something happened through the interviewee’s perspective.

One thing that really stood out to me while reading was age. The Interview Guide told an amazing example that the best age to interview differs on the subject. If you wanted to learn about the most popular childhood clapping game, a perfect subject would be a child in elementary school. In that same article, I loved the different examples of questions. They really helped with an understanding of what should be asked.

Because we have only talked about the interview assignment one day, I am not sure who I am going to interview or what I want to interview about. However, with the help of these two articles, I know more information about interviewing, and I have ideas swimming around in my head.