Journal #6

In my essay, I spent the most time revising aspects of my essay concerning emotion. Talking about my emotions in a narrative is one of my weakest points with writing, and I needed to spend extra time making sure I described the way I felt vividly enough to connect back to my thesis in a meaningful way. The drafting process didn’t differ from my high school experience much in terms of the overall process, but the steps within the overall process were much more streamlined and useful. In high school, when doing peer reviews, it would often consist of people saying my essay was good, and pointing out a few grammatical errors within it. Personally, even if someone else’s essay was terrible, I would tell them it was good so I wouldn’t hurt their feelings, something that wasn’t useful for them at all. Here, the peer review was very helpful with allowing me to add my feelings at the right points within my essay. It also helped me to form a stronger thesis and conclusion, as well as organize the description of my grandparents better. The approach to this project matched most of my expectations for the class. I found that meeting with the teacher allowed me to fix the broader issues within my essay and narrow my focus better, and the peer review helped me to fix smaller, more specific problems. Overall, if I were to change anything, I would like to do the peer review in class, so I can talk to people about their essays right after I have read them, and give them the best feedback I can (as well as receive the best feedback I can). Aside from that, the process was very smooth and streamlined, and I found it to be beneficial to my learning.