Commenting on a Classmate's Work

I won't mention any names, but the portfolio essays that I reviewed and wrote a letter about helped me to learn a lot about what I can improve in my own writing. Her essays were in a narrative-style rather than a formal essay-like one, which made them much more interesting and engaging. That is something I must consider for my own writing in the future; I often make my writing to formal and it ends up sounding dry. I shouldn't be afraid to add a little personal touch to what I write, because it will only make my peices more appealing to the audience. Sacrificing formality for interest will probably be a good exchange nine times out of ten.

Halfway Through my Reflection Essay...

I honestly think the reflection essay in our portfolio is more difficult than any major assignment we've done this semester. It's very difficult for me to remember exactly what I have changed in assignments that I haven't seen for months, and even still writing multiple pages on how I have altered a peice of writing is proving to be quite a challenge. Then there's the section about how I "understand them as peices of writing", which I'm not even entirely sure what it even means. I hope this turns out ok...I'll probably have to re-do it because I really don't even know what I'm doing...

On the plus side, I do like the fact that we can go back through our blog and cite entries for the essay. I definatly understood my writing better back then than I do now!

Revising the Initiating Action Project

For the draft of my flyers for the Initiating Action Project, I used Microsoft Word to create them. At that stage, it was most important to me to just get a design/idea of what I was going to write down on paper, and not worry so much about the aesthetics. Then, when I got feedback from Professor Scott, it was suggested that I used Publisher rather than Word to create them. This turned out to be a fantastic idea, since in Publisher I could add color and interest without using pictures, but simply by the placement and designs of my text. I really think they turned out well the second time around, and after minor adjustments to my E-mail and article feel confident about my project as a whole.

My Reaction to Professor Scott's Comments on my Essay

First off, it was a huge releif to me that she saw no problem with my lack of citations. Apparently, an essay written based solely on my personal experiences is already convincing and credible enough, which I was very glad to hear.

One thing she said that I think would be very helpful to use in altering my essay was that I don't use a consistent tone. At times it seems as if I am merely wondering about the possibilities of a new sort of education, while at others it comes off as an attack on formal schooling. She recommends, and I agree, that the wondering tone is more appropriate for my purposes. I'm not really trying to convince anyone of anything, just present a new idea that may not have been considered, so I will go back and try to remove some of the "teeth" from my writing.

Another thing she said is that I ought not to let the comparison between SEEDS and school dominate my essay and overpower my description and elaboration of the type of learning SEEDS offers and the possibilities for it. Ironically, this was my original purpose in writing, but in actually writing the essay it seems I became distracting by contrasting the two. So, I'll probably just add a paragraph or two at the end that can serve as, after I finish my comparison, a time when informal learning can take the spotlight.

Thanks again for a lot of great feedback, Professor Scott!

My Idea for Initiating Action

So, when I sat down to think about how I would do this initiating action project, the dilemma I faced was that SEEDS doesn't have any really pressing issues to tackle, at least not to my knowledge. I did remember, however, that Robert Jacks, the president of SEEDS's VT Chapter, said that Virginia Tech was not among the most ecologically friendly of campuses and that his organization was trying to change that. So, I went to their website, and found out some of the things they were trying to promote here. One thing that I think has the potential to go far but as of yet has not done so is the recycling of ink cartrages. I'll be the first to admit, I don't do it, and I don't really know of anyone who does.

So, with this in mind, my project is going to be a campaign to educate the student body here at VT about recycling ink cartriges (why its good, how its done, how/where one can recycle, etc.). I want to do this by employing three forms of "getting the word out". The first is posters, which could be placed in academic buildings, residence halls, etc. I'm thinking each poster should have a fact/statistic about recycling ink cartriges, a location students can go to recycle them, and a web address to an article that can be used to get more information about recycling cartriges.

The aformentioned article is Phase 2 of the plan. This would require the most extensive research, as I would need to know alot about recycling ink cartirges before I wrote it. I would want to discuss the benefits and the process in depth, so that readers would feel like they truly understood what's at stake when you choose whether or not to recycle a cartrige. I beleive that knowing more about the recycling process would make people more motivated to get involved in it than just hearing its something they ought to do.

The final part of my plan would be to write a short E-mail that could be sent to all the students. The E-mail would encourage people to recycle their cartriges and to read the article I wrote about why its important. I wouldn't try to summarize my article, since a link to it would be included in the body already. Rather, I just want something very short and easy to skim since a long E-mail from an unknown source I feel is much more likely to be deleted without being read. Hopefully, some of the people who glance at what the E-mail says on their way to the "Delete" button will think, "Hey, this could be interesting," and want to read the article to learn more.

Response to Suggestions for my Essay

When a classmate read through my essay and wrote a letter about his opinions of it, he pointed out a major issue that I had never noticed before. My essay contrasts the learning that goes on through SEEDS with the learning that occurs in a school classroom. However, in doing this, I come off as biased against school learning, because I mainly focus on the advantages SEEDS has as a way of promoting the organization. It is suggested that I could remove some of the bias by including citations from sources, but most of the information I used is derived not from books but from my own thoughts and personal experiences, both being a student and working with younger students/children. Thus, while I'd certainly like to remove any element of bias from my essay, I am not entirely sure that I can do this through citation. I'll have to come up with something...

Rough Criteria for the Exploratory Essay

When a few people in our class found that their essays didn't fit into one of the 3 catagories (Personal, Persuasive, or Informative), we, being the innovative geniuses that we are, came up with our own essay type: the Exploratory Essay. But this raises the question...

What makes a Good Exploratory Essay?
- define what you are "exploring"
- uses personal experiences/background knowledge
- goes farther than simple description
- exposes authors views/personality
- level of formality appropriate for topic
- some sort of conclusion/closure needed at the end