1.) My goals in writing this paper centered on my desire to adequately synthesize the information I gleaned from my secondary research sources and begin to see how these articles might connect and complement each other, the result of which is the Joining the Conversation steps. I also wanted to make sure I did a better job of adhering to the MLA citation guidelines that I so conspicuously flouted in my Exploratory Essay. As to the first goal, I believe I did a fairly decent job of summarizing and analyzing my sources. I am not convinced that I did such a great job explaining how I am to use them to further my inqury project question; I think my inquiry still requires some serious clarification before I can know if I can really use the sources in the project. I do think that I did a better job of accomplishing the goal of adherence to MLA guidelines. I consulted the Purdue OWL page and read up on the format so that I could use it properly in the Annotated Bibliography.
2.) I do not feel like I used my time very wisely in the development of this paper. I did a good bit of my research in two sittings and "marked up the text" of each with pens and highlighters, all ready to complete this assignment to the best of my ability. Then life happened and I effectively put school and this assignment on the back burner for almost a week, which did not help me to efficiently complete it at all. Even so, when I did sit down to draft the first three sources, I did so without the ability to compare my work to the Syllabus description, the result of which was that I drifted into the first person during the analysis sections and had to spend a good bit of time correcting this after my Mom pointed it out in our version of "workshopping". I missed the class in which we workshopped the AnnBib with our inquiry group, so I had to improvise something comparable to it using my available resources. I recruited my mom to comment on my first draft and then I used what time I had left before class to format it to MLA style and revise any other flaws I detected while re-reading it all.
3.) I noticed that between the first and second drafts, I began to get better at assessing the quality of the authors' arguments as I practiced with analysis. I also took advantage of the examples provided by Megan as well as what my inquiry group had posted, and I used these resources to improve my summaries of the resources I included in the Annotated Bibliography. Since I didn't get a chance to do any workshopping with my inquiry group, I didn't get to work with my peers, but I did put their discoveries and reflections (as posted on the blogs) to good use when revising my second draft.
4.) Functioning as a stand-in for the workshopping process, my mom contributed most to my paper's success. She commented on my paper and helped me see places where I lapsed into first person during the analysis sections on the first draft. She also gave me suggestions on how to amend my run-on sentences and help my paper flow better.
5.) As a writer, I have once again seen the value of workshopping and drafting as it relates to my writng process. Mostly I saw how important it was for me to participate in these processes and the extent to which not participating kept me from doing a good job on this assignment.
6.) The hardest part of writing this paper was not getting to workshop with my peers and get their opinions on how to revise it in order to fulfill the conditions of the assignment. I submitted a second draft that I hope will do so, but without the peer workshopping, I have limited my success to be contingent upon the workshopping skills of my mom and my own imperfect understanding of the assignment. The easiest part of writing this paper was formatting it to MLA style. I used the Cite feature in EBSCOhost to check my citations against, and it seems that I did a relatively decent job in citing my resources based on MLA guidelines. Let's hope that was a good idea--because of the risks involved with using a generator tool for citations, I may have inadvertently cited a source incorrectly. If so, I did not meet my second goal of correct citing the sources.
7.) I am most proud of the fact that I finished the paper at all, honestly. That I was able to attempt to fulfill the conditions of the assignment for all five sources I selected given the time crunch and my absence from workshopping. I do not know if I did a decent job at all, so I will have to rely on my judgment in this case, which is spotty in its acccuracy in the best of times.
8.) I still think I really need to work on connecting these articles to one another and how I intend to make those connections, ultimately including all that information in the third paragraph for each source. The only part that gives me doubt about doing this is that I thought I undertstood the next assingments (Joining the Conversation)to be primarily concerned with the comparison of these different sources. I didn't want to be redundant, but maybe this was one of the main points I really overlooked. Once again, I need to better understand the purpose behind each assignment and I will attempt to get a better understanding when I talk to Megan in conference.
9.) I began by searching the Library database for sources related to Common Core State Standards and focused on those that had bearing in regards to mathematics, middle grades, North Carolina, and implementation of the Common Core. I located several articles and "marked up" the text of each, highlighting quotes for further use and attempting to understand the argument the each author made, and how I might use the article in my inquiry. After a week of delays caused by drama in my personal life, I sat down with my most promising three sources and outlined the first draft of the assignment. I missed workshopping with my peers, so I asked my mom to workshop the first draft with me. I posted the first draft on which she commented on the blog. I then made changes to the first three sources based on my mom's comments and typed up the AnnBib for the last two sources with my mom's comments in mind. I then read over my second draft twice and attempted to revise it for any glaring errors or omissions. Finally, I submitted it online for Megan's comments.
I had many of the same problems with my time management. I waited until the last minute to write the actual paper after I had done all the research. I hope it still works out though. Workshopping I have found is very important also. It gives me a better understanding of the assignment and how to enhance my paper to college standards.
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