Getting Feedback From Our Peers

Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

Research types of writings at college helped me strengthen my writing skills because as I started to research on a topic, not only I learned more in depth, but also learned how to draw further connections outside of the course(class). I want to improve my writings in making correct connections and organizing ideas. Sometimes, I misunderstand the readings and end up making the wrong connections. In fact, my ideas are all over the place whenever I try to make connections, which does not clearly show that I have understood the assignment. These mistakes often led to downside of my grades. The most useful advice I received that helped me improve my writing is that “the word ‘writing’ actually means to put things together, so don’t be afraid of express your opinions in your writing your opinion.” This encourage me not to be afraid of writing and expressing my opinions.

While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.

To many people, writing is either considered a task, or an activity. There are also different types of writing for people to enjoy. In Josh Keller’s “Studies Explore Wether the Internet Makes Students Better Writer”, Keller describes how the internet has made students far better writers. He also describes how many students have described their dislike for academic writing but prefer their own personal blogging and/or journaling. This essay describes why struggling students often fail to write effectively because they find academic writing hard because they are not able to put their own thoughts and experiences into their essay. The idea of this essay was to describe the problems with students writing and the possible solutions for the problem. Keller mentions that the solution, that is not being pursued, is to combine academic writing with personal writing. He describes how many students write far better in their own personal writing and that these student’s personal writing

When I stop to think about the memory’s that I have made during my first semester of college; there are both good and bad pieces or times that present themselves. Often with many things there are gray areas, and writing would fall in there for me. I fortunately understand now that I have times where I can over look many of my writing flaws. Such as sentence structure! This by far was my biggest problem in this class, and I fully understand why. Personally I have times that will type up a paragraph and never notice the mistake. That is until someone points it out to me. It’s almost like my brain knows that something is wrong with it, but for some unknown reason it won’t register when I’m revising my paper. So as a writer I have realized that I need to take advantage of people around me and get their feedback on my essay’s; because

In my future writing, I can improve by focusing on the areas that have been brought to my attention, such as fragmented sentence structures, capitalization, punctuation, and MLA formatting mistakes. I hope to enhance my writing skills through better planning, drafting, proofreading, and revising. I can become a better writer by building upon my current writing abilities and paying more attention to my

As a student, it’s been an experiences. Over the course; I have grown and learned more on different skills of writing. I been a student at Colorado Christian University for about a year. One specific experiences that I’d recall, was when I had to write a letter to a co-worker. I thought I communicated well, however the feedback that I received told me the opposite. The co-worker told me that I had broken English in my writing. He told me that he was confused on what I was trying to explain. Even though what he said was true, I was upset. I didn 't realize then, that it was important for his feedback. I had taken many English courses, and it taught me that in order to become a writer, was to write. One way that helped me improve and overcome my weakness of writing was feedback from my professors and other students. The next step was to find ways to keep organized when I began to write. In spite of all my mistakes and weakness as a writer, communication was important through writing, because we have to use strong academic language to write. To point out that these are just a few I listed as a reflection on my writing skills.

Peer review is a composition tool that has been used at many different levels of schooling for a very long time. Some people find it to be unnecessary and many students just see it as a way to pick out spelling and grammatical errors. However, the goal of peer review is to get more out of it than just basic editing. In Peer Editing In the 21st Century College Classroom: Do Beginning Composition Students Truly Reap The Benefits?, the author, Lindsey Jesnek, makes the argument that lower level writing students do not get what they should out of their time spent peer reviewing. However, the authors, Kalish, Heinert, and Pilmaier, of “Reinventing Peer Review Using Writing Center Techniques: Teaching Students to Use Peer- Tutorial Methodology” are trying to help any and all students benefit more from peer review by offering a new way to approach the process of peer editing. Looking at and comparing the strongest appeals of each paper writers can see that they can effectively use peer review methods to create a well written paper.

The progress I have made in my ability to provide effective peer feedback is that I try as hard as possible to correctly see all the errors on the essay and make sure that the author knows about it and fix it for their original essay. This method really help out the author so that they know what they need to work on and to fix in their essay before they turn it in to the professor. I assist my fellow peers by improving their essay and therefore, it will make their essay stronger and better. The type of support I provide for my fellow peers are that I try to support them with good grammar mistakes and how to format their essay in MLA format before turning it in. I was able to collaborate with my peers by grouping up with them and talking and

I believe it is important for any student who wants to do their best in a class to take a moment to evaluate their own work to determine the rate their writing is progressing and how they can continue to advance their writing. When I looked through my own work I asked myself “what have I learned this semester?” and “what do I still need to learn in order to improve my writing?”. Answering both these questions will help me with my last step of my self-evaluation, developing a plan to learn new skills.

Most recently, I have read several powerful essays in Exploring Language, by Gary Goshgarian, which give straightforward advice about becoming a better writer. One such essay is ?Writing for an Audience,? by Linda Flower. She believes that a good piece of writing closes the gap between the reader and the writer. Another essay that I will be looking at is ??Getting Started,? by Anne Lamott. She believes that good writing is about telling the truth. Patricia T. O?Conner wrote an interesting essay titled ?Saying is Believing.? In it, she tells us that a good writer is one that you can read without breaking a sweat. Which leads me to the final essay that has helped influence my writing style, ?How to Write with Style,? by Kurt

This essay will demonstrate my awareness and understanding of the importance of feedback and peer assessment as part of effective assessment and how these assessments, together with observation, supports children’s learning. Firstly, I will reflect upon the benefits of peer assessment. Secondly, I will describe how I intend to use my tutor’s feedback to enhance the quality of my assignments. Thirdly, I will describe, analyse and comment upon an observation I have made in school. Lastly, I will reflect upon my own understanding and learning regarding assessment and observation practices in primary schools. I confirm that, in accordance with ethical guidelines (BERA, 2011, cited in Section 5.3 Assessment Guide), permission from parents,

Since beginning to write papers in English class, I have had countless successes and failures. While many of my English classes have taught me how to improve my writing, I have not learned very much in others. My most recent English class was last year, my sophomore year. My class was particularly undersized; therefore, it gave each student the opportunity to have additional individual attention. Throughout the class I experienced high points, weaknesses, and even difficulties that I never overcame. Overall, my writing skills improved, but only marginally.