Learning Outcome 1:
I would say that it is very important to me to receive outside input on my essays before it is ready to be turned in. There were countless times that peer review editing helped me determine the changes that needed to be made. Therefore, I would say that my “philosophy” of revision would be to seek help from others because it is very easy to not recognize your own mistakes. In my case, it was that I would always get off track from my thesis statement. However thanks to the many peer reviews that our class conducted I was able to identify this issue and address it, and by the third essay I was aware enough of it to be able to avoid it altogether. I could feel my writing improving throughout the year and I would attribute peer reviews as the cause of this. The reason peer review was so efficient for me was because it helped me understand how other people read and write essays. So I knew how to improve my own essay by either taking after the parts of theirs that I was impressed by, or help improve upon the parts that need to be.
Learning Outcome 2:
My first essay focused on Rhys Southan and his integration with the people of the EA movement, as well as Titus Kaphar’s beliefs on the purpose of art. I used evidence from both Rhys Southan’s essay Is Art a Waste of Time? and Kaphar’s TED Talk, in order to convey their opinions on the overall goal of art. Southan felt that only art that is made with the intention of making change is worthwhile. I showed this in the essay when I used the quote “if the movie in question is clearly frivolous, this seems impossible to justify ethically. If, on the other hand, you’re making the best movie of all time… well, it could almost start to be worthwhile”. Titus believes that art could be used as a tool to right all of the wrongs that have been done in the past. This is evident in the quote “We can’t pretend like not talking about it is going to work. We tried that. We have to create a space for conversation. Something has to be done”. I feel as though throughout the semester I could feel myself improving in respect to quote integration. In my opinion, a large part of this improvement is as a result of using the Little Seagulls Handbook to help learn ways to integrate quotes into paragraphs in order to support my argument.
Learning Outcome 5-6:
The point of a work cited page is to give all of your sources credit for their work. Unfortunately I did not complete a work cited for the first essay and suffered the consequences grade-wise, which was fair. I took this as a learning experience and made sure to never lose credit for a work cited again in that class. By the last essay I had fully grasped how to create a fully functional work cited page, and was challenged by the task of citing images and videos in an MLA format. And when I made a mistake, I made local revisions to fix them.
Learning Outcome 4:
I really appreciated how peer reviews allowed you to seek help on your essays, as well as supporting your classmate through their process. I took this job very seriously and tried to help my classmates in every way I could. I would suggest minor local revisions like changing the wording on something, as well as helping them think through the essay to keep it organized and on task. If there is one thing that this process has taught me it is that an organized essay, is an essay with potential. I believe that I did the best job with peer review on a paper titled Arts Role in the Sciences. I was able to draw the attention of the author towards his organization because it needed to be slightly tweaked.
