(Retroactive reflection 10.9.19) After being completely entranced by the first major essay I wrote for this course, on Amy Bender's An Invisible Sign of My Own, I found myself less excited to delve into this second essay. While I found many of our class discussions on Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine compelling, it didn't strike a nerve and inspire me in quite the same way. That being said, I fortunately still had my fundamentals to fall back on; I hadn't spend years learning and refining the art of academic writing for nothing. Below is the progression of my essay, from an initial draft, to a second version written based on peer feedback and a conference with my professor (fairly significant changes here; an exercise in both 'making it work' and 'killing your darlings' - this seems to be the eternal struggle of my academic writing career!), to the final version with my professor's comments. I was satisfied with the final product of this essay - but equally pleased with its completion because it was my final assignment of freshman year!!
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On May 16th, I signed up to spend a class period helping to facilitate our class discussion alongside a group. We decided to divide the class into smaller groups. Each one would examine our current novel, Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine, through the lens of one of the theorists we had studied this quarter. Then, each group presented the information they'd gathered, and as a class we elaborated on their initial ideas. As someone who is very comfortable leading discussions, I took the lead within my group to facilitate this conversation. I also took detailed notes on the whiteboard, for the convenience of my class and my own later reference (shown above). This was a very gratifying experience: watching the conversation unfold, experiencing surprise and delight at the insights of my classmates. I was proud of the dialogue and knowledge we constructed as a whole.
This essay was a long time in the making. I started drafting this essay for our second 'scaffolding essay' assignment: a short essay of around three pages designed mostly for skill-building leading up to our larger assignments (first file below). I was so enthusiastic about the topic I chose that I had no trouble expanding my ideas to span eight pages for the first draft of my midterm essay (second file below). I received excellent feedback on this draft from my professor, which was of course thrilling, but I was not satisfied. Not having received all that much help from my peers during in-class peer review, I went to my professor's office hours to receive more detailed feedback on areas I could improve. I then put these ideas into practice for my final draft (third file below). I was even more ecstatic at my 100% on this version, as well as my professor's kind words. I was equally thrilled when my professor asked to use my essay for an example for other students in class. This assignment was very gratifying for me, especially as an English major. I worked extremely hard on this paper, and it paid off. It made me feel as though I had the skills to be successful moving forward in my chosen course of study.
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