Looking Back Looking Ahead Paper Draft 3

8/8/2019 Looking Back Looking Ahead Paper Draft 3

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Sarah Obeid

Professor Rieman

ENGL 1103

October 25th, 2010

Self Assessment: This paper is much better than the last two. This paper needed organization

work, which I fixed. I put certain paragraphs in better order so that my ideas will make sense and

sound logical. I elaborated more on the Classroom Culture Document, which is something I

definitely needed to do. I spent a lot of time revising this draft in particular. I thought it would

not take too long, but it did. It also felt like the longer I revised, the more I ended up adding to it.

Im hoping for a good grade on this paper. I know it is not perfect and I realize it could still

probably use more work, but I definitely put a lot of effort into revising it. The first paragraph Ibelieve is my worst paragraph. For some reason, I had no idea how to open up this paper;

however I tried my best to come up with a semi-good opening.

All My Reading and Writing- Past and Future

Throughout this semester in College English, our class has worked with many different

reading and writing practices. Honestly, this is the most writing I have ever done for a class. In

high school, I did write many papers, but I never wrote many different pieces in a variety of

ways and styles. I had many easy and difficult assignments so far this semester in College

English 1103. Besides this, our class is also focusing on the Classroom Culture Document and

Course Description and how they relate to our reading and writing strategies and the research

process for our Inquiry Research Paper.

Every morning in English class, I have completed Writing into the Day entries in my

daybook that answer a simple prompt about the reading and writing I have done. I have

completed several forum posts from the start of the semester, including a letter of introduction, a

literacy access and understanding response, and an intertextuality response via Moodle. Also,

for the literacy paper our class already completed, I received peer workshop responses from the


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members in my group. All of these particular writings were easy for me. I have had no trouble

answering the forum posts or writing my daily entries. They seem more informal to me and I feel

like I do not have to write in a certain way, therefore, I can write in a way that makes me feel

comfortable. These types of writings are based more on my opinion and how I feel about the

topic I am writing about. I feel like a forum post and a daybook entry should be a quick response

that just answers the question in a paragraph or two. These types of writing practices, to me, are

nothing too difficult or thought provoking, but heading on that track to help me write a later

piece. In terms of reading, I have finished reading the book, The Blue Sweater. It was much

easier and more fun to read. I certainly enjoyed reading that book because I could relate to it. A

lot of my life is spent traveling, similar to the life of Jacqueline Novogratz. I have been to Africa

twice and picked up on a lot of the cultural aspects that Novogratz mentioned in her novel. The

only thing I did not like was that I had other work to do and sometimes I had to rush my reading

of TBS, and therefore could not always get the best understanding out of it.

On the other hand, I have read four different essays that touch on literacy, intertextuality,

error, and research. I have also written five writing to explore pieces and one formal paper

concerning my own literacy history. All of these reading and writing practices are time

consuming and lots of work. I found a lot of the essays to be difficult. The only one that seemed

fairly easy that I was able to fly through was the Intertextuality article. I really enjoyed reading

that. Never before had I read any intricate essay such as the ones our class reads. The Sponsors

of Literacy and The Phenomenology of Error essays were close to impossible for me to read. I

tried to break up the essays so that that they wouldnt seem like a lot to read in one sitting. I felt

like a lot of those essays could have been shrunk down some. The main points were clobbered by


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too much extra information and details, in my opinion, but I still felt like I learned a lot from

them, especially after the class discussions.

The literacy paper and the writing to explore pieces that I have done so far stressed me

out a little bit. I kept re-reading them after I had them written. I wanted to make sure I answered

the prompts clearly and thoughtfully because I knew those were major grades. I wrote them

based on the fact that I am currently trying to receive a B plus or higher in this College Writing

Course, so what and how I wrote them was a big deal. I did not have too much trouble writing

the literacy paper, but it was still difficult at times. Plus, I could not always remember some of

my own literacy experiences as a child. The writing to explore pieces I usually like to take a lot

of time on because I know my professor will be reading them and than giving me a score. Since

these kinds of papers are more formal and challenging, I feel like I need to spend more time on

them and really explain everything in the best way possible. Certainly, writing these kinds of

papers are more challenging and tough for me than submitting a response on the forum or writing

in my day book because they are graded more intensely and require more research and

information. Even if sometimes I get stuck while writing them, I still realize that I am learning

and I will get help whether it is from my peer workshop classmates or my professor.

Combined, all my reading and writing tasks have personally benefited me as a reader and

writer. Many of day book entries, my literacy essay, and the writing to explore pieces allowed

me to see where I am as a writer and what I feel most comfortable writing. The day book entries

helped me plan out my essay writing, see what I need help with from the peer workshop, and

comment on classroom culture groups, and how I read the sponsors of literacy essay. A lot of the


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writing to explore pieces help me better understand language in terms of discourse communities

(my home, classroom, my friends, Palestinian relatives, etc), and where and what I like or do not

like to write or read. The literacy essay broke down my life from the age of three to now,

showing my beginning steps to reading and writing to where I am today, writing complex essays

and reading complex books and articles.

Not only do we do individual assignments, but some of the activities we do in class

involves working in groups. We had to write a summative classroom culture document in groups

and we also had to do a peer workshop session. Many of the rules of the classroom culture

document state how we as classmates should help, communicate with, give constructive

criticism, be open, and listen to each other and participate as a team. By doing peer workshops, I

put these specific classroom culture ideas into play. I always try to give my group members the

best advice possible on how to fix their papers, without just giving them a simple its good, or

fix this sentence. Overall, I like my peer workshop group because they usually give me good

feedback but I also think that in order to get the best constructive criticism, we should change up

groups for each paper assignment. I think this would help the class as a whole and give each

student different perspectives or insights on how to fix their paper each time.

As previously mentioned, the classroom culture document comes into play with peer

workshops in English, but also in my other college classes in general and everyday life. In other

classes, I still utilize many of the classroom culture rules. A lot of other professors still have

some of the same expectations of me as does my English teacher. I still have to work effectively

within in groups and try to get to know others in the class. In Arabic class, for example, the


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students and I are still trying to grasp the language of Modern Standard Arabic. There are some

students in that class that are already fluent in Arabic but have trouble in grammar. These

students make use of the classroom culture document in a sense that they do not snicker at a

student who does not have much Arabic experience and says a word or phrase incorrectly.

Instead, we all, as well as the professor, help and give feedback to the student. In addition, I still

have to be accepting and open to other ideas from other students. The classroom culture applies

to how I am with my family and friends. I am open and honest with my friends and parents as

well as listen to what they have to say. Even if I disagree with a friend or my mother or father, I

still peacefully communicate with them to resolve the issue at hand. The classroom culture

document is something that our class uses in more than just our weekly English class.

A lot of this writing course focuses on how we as writers write, what we write, and how

we develop meaning from what we read and write. At the very beginning of this course, I felt

that the work involved would be extremely difficult. However, I felt that it would be

manageable, considering I took AP language my junior year, AP Literature my senior year, and

just have a general love for writing. Although I had my opinions at the start, now, I have come to

realize that the course was different than what I expected. We do so much writing in this course.

Instead of being graded on how to write an essay based on a particular method and having

quizzes to check to see if I read certain material, I am actually learning why I write and how I

write the way I do. I actually am becoming more aware of the type of writer that I am. I know I

am going to benefit a lot from this class. I hope to improve my writing skills, conduct research


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without merely summarizing texts, learn to read a text and create a new meaning from it, and

focus more on what makes me the writer that I am.

By learning what I should be learning in this class, I would definitely be picking up skills

I may need for my future. The course description states, To explore composing in various

modes, and To make thoughtful writing decisions. After reading these, both of them caught

my attention, because I looked at them in relation to my major. I want to work towards a major

in Communications and a minor in Journalism. One day I hope to work for Al Jazeera, the

Middle East news network or for CNN but work for the Mideast Bureau. If I am able to write in

different ways appropriately and effectively, than this will definitely help me out in my career. I

cannot just simply be able to write, I have to be able to handle writing in various ways. I have to

get my point across and writing in one way may not always help that.

On a more current note, as far as my inquiry paper goes, I have just now figured out what

exactly I want to do. I have already researched a little bit, but I still need to do more now that I

finally realize what I want to learn more about. Originally, my plan was to explore the challenges

faced by Arab countries in general that cause them to lack universal, strong literacy skills.

However, Arab countries alone are too broad. I thought I would zoom in on a specific country

and focus on its peoples literacy skills. The country I chose to learn more about in terms of

reading and writing is Morocco. Since Morocco is located in Africa and has a dialect extremely

different from any other Arabic country, I figured it would make sense to research why this

country lacks solid reading and writing skills in Modern Standard Arabic. Ever since I visited

Morocco, I have always wondered what the literacy rates of that country are like. I also want to


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only focus on dialect and outside influences that help hinder the development of reading and

writing skills and contribute to high illiteracy rates. I chose to leave out the concept of poverty

for now. However, if I feel like it fits in somewhere and works well within my paper, I will

consider researching and writing about it. The research process for this paper is going okay so

far. I found multiple articles about my topic. I want to learn more on how to properly and

accurately cite my sources.

I have done all types of reading and writing in this class, some of which are harder to

work with than others. Some require more effort and time than others. A lot of the work I have

completed has helped me realize where I am with my writing and how I can improve upon it.

Now that I am more familiar with my inquiry paper topic, I feel confident to start writing it. I just

need to do a little more research.

Documents

Looking Back Looking Ahead Paper Draft 3