Lewis !

Noelle Lewis

Whitney Gilchrist

ENC 2135-08

1 May 2017

Growing as a writer, student, and peer editor is an important part of the semester and as a

college student. Throughout this semester, I learned how to improve my work and others work as

well. There are certain pieces that I chose to revise on more and others that I left more neutral.

Starting out with the literacy narrative, I just threw all my ideas out on the page. There

was not much of order in my thought process for it besides remembering all that I had grown up

reading and writing. Since this required no outside research, it was much easier to talk about

myself. However, conclusions are not my forte, so I actually did not really put much thought into

one. In the beginning, I thought I had included everything that was required, but after meeting

with Whitney, she opened my mind to some aspects I should add. I had only written one sentence

about my passion for psychology and she wanted me to expand on it. I would have never thought

about that, but it is a huge part of my life so that was a big revision to my final draft. Another

thing to notice from the second draft to the final draft is the use of more descriptive words and a

voice. Before the class, I definitely did not use a voice in any of my work. I was so used to just

stating facts and having to be neutral with topics. This voice throughout my paper is something

that I am proud of since I am not one for expressing my voice. Finally, I corrected the

grammatical errors and awkward phrasing as well as added a title that was noted on the as-is

paper.
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Going into the research paper, I misunderstood the word count, so I basically wrote down

the whole paper for the first draft besides the conclusion and a few other details. The thoughts

were not as well put together, but all the information was on the page. Attention should be drawn

to the first few sentences in the first paragraph. As said before, using a voice is not common for

me in a research paper, however, this was a way for me to include a voice and a visual

representation. This is something I was proud of doing and was hoping to in other parts of the

essay, but chose not do since it was factual based. Another thing to notice is the fact that there is

a personal account in my research essay. I wanted to add more pathos rather than being strictly

logos based. This was difficult for me to try to weave in the pathos without making it too

emotional. Finally, I improved how I present my sources. Rather than just putting the in-text

citation, I learned how to add the research information in the beginning of the paragraph so the

reader knows in the future. As in the literacy narrative, I corrected the grammar and awkward

sentences

Finally for the remediation not many drafts/revisions were required. My multiple choice

test only took one try as well as my pamphlet and twitter page. I took these slowly and paid

attention to detail to make sure all my facts were there. Since these just came from my original

essay, it was easy to put into words for this project. Although I did not revise it, I am proud of my

multiple choice test because I think it was a unique idea to get my point across about my subject.

My whole goal of the research essay was to educate and inform others so what better way to do

that then check knowledge with a test.

When it comes to peer editing, I learned a lot, too. The questions that Whitney provided

gave an excellent baseline for how to give helpful feedback. I learned what to look for in others
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essay, like a voice, which helped me add my own to my work. Seeing other students ideas helped

me figure out my own and strengthened my writing. This semester has helped me improve my

writing and peer editing greatly.