On the second week of February, my peers and I were required
to read and write a feedback on the ‘Reader Response’ assignment we have done
prior to then.
Given
only a few weeks of practice, I find it a little difficult to force myself to
be a ‘grammar nerd’ and pinpoint mistakes made by my peers. Nevertheless,
together with the pair I worked with, we tried to scrutinize the post and
highlight language or organizational issues that were obvious to us.
This
experience of providing feedback would only be effective if the author has the
mentality of accepting his or her flaws in writing, which in our class, was not
an issue. Brad has emphasized countless times on the importance of this module one
that bears no module credit, making it really a great time and opportunity for
us to make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes.
However,
I must say I did struggle with that initially. I was surprised when I first
read the comments that were posted on my blog, as I never knew those mistakes pointed
out were incorrect in the first place. It was then when I learnt the importance
of rereading my own paper before actually submitting it for an audit, be it
officially by the school or your friends.
After
series of writing and reviewing, I felt more natural in both giving and
receiving feedback. My willingness of hearing what others have to say had positively
affected both my learning in writing as well as in my writings itself. I found
myself to be more conscious in my language used during my writing and rereading
of paragraphs as I write became a habit.
It
is still important to note that everyone has a different writing style and not
all feedback may suit the style of your writing. Be it a comment by a
professional or a friend, we still have to filter out those that may not be as
relevant and use the others to enhance your writing. In this way, you will keep the originality and
unique style of writing, just that it will be presented in a much comprehensible
and correct manner.
(361 words)
Thank you, Jovyn, for this well focused reflection. You discuss the place of peer feedback in ES1102 from the point of view of you as the reader of other students’ essays and from the position of you as the writer whose work is under scrutiny. When commenting on the value of feedback in general, you state that "It is still important to note that everyone has a different writing style and not all feedback may suit the style of your writing....we still have to filter out those that may not be as relevant and use the others to enhance your writing." This is a good insight, and it is exactly that challenge that each of us has to meet as we open ourselves to feedback.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I am curious about how any of this might impact your future writing process. Do you think you will even remember concepts we have discussed such as parallelism and the need to keep first person pronouns out of academic writing one semester from now?
In any case, thank you very much for the great effort you made this term. All the best in your future endeavors!
With regards to how it'll affect my future writing process, I will have to admit that I have not fully internalise all the concepts taught. For example, I still do get confused with APA referencing at times. However, there are a bunch of stuff that I will now take note of, such as the use of "might/may" instead of "will/would", use of reporting verbs, be more careful in using either present or past tense throughout the essay etc.
ReplyDeleteTo sum it up, I am pleased with the improvements I've made over the past semester. Even though I might not remember everything, I'll always remember the useful links you've given us and use them as a reference should i forget any concepts.
It's been a great pleasure to have you as our tutor, Brad!
All the best to you as well!
Regards,
Jovyn