Framing Statement

Framing statement 1-

My revising and editing process has changed a lot over the past semester with the way I approach my revisions and the techniques I use. At the beginning of the semester I would have just focused on my spelling and grammar errors in my writing project, usually doing this the night or day before it was due. However, this would not improve my paper at all, and I was able to get by with this in high school, but not in college. After this semester I have started using more advanced revising moves and techniques. In my “significant (showcase)” paper I was missing a large portion of the prompt, bringing the paper’s discussion back to David Foster Wallace. Instead of just adding more text to the end of the paper, like I normally would have done in high school, I went back into the middle of an ongoing discussion and inserted his textual evidence there. What this did for my local and global development, for my paper, was it made the topic I was discussing make more since as a result of adding Wallace’s textual evidence to support my idea’s. It also structured my paper in a better way allowing the three main concepts I was talking about to flow in a more coherent path to my analysis paragraph. On top of all this I have started to structure my papers more around Barclays Formula. I used to just write a paper in the way and order I would talk about something, but this left my papers with pore structural frame work. With implementing Barclays Formula, it has made my papers easier to read, and therefor made the concepts I was trying to discuss make more sense as well.

We discussed many of these topics and “writing moves” in our in-class discussion before and after peer edits. What this did was allow us to not only learn new methods of revising for our own papers, but also our peer’s papers. This allowed us to make our peer group edits more effective and efficient. A very large portion of this course was helping us move away from the high school method of writing, “one and done”, to a more appropriate and sophisticated college writing, and more importantly, enhance our revising methods.       

Framing statement 2-

I used several quotations in my “significant (showcase)” paper to help support the thoughts and discussions in my paper to help validate what I was saying. Along with adding validation to what I was saying, I was able to also use the authors words as a second way to help explain what I was trying to say. It also gave me a starting point to initiate discussion in my paper as well with my reader. A good example of this in my paper, “Reconsidering the Lobster” was when I quoted Wallace explaining the simplicity of a lobster’s central nervous systems anatomy. I used this quote to show my readers that the lobster has almost no biological capability to experience pain while they are getting boiled alive. After I gave a sentence explaining my quote, I then discussed how the lobsters crawl and scratch at the side of the boiling pot, as if they were trying to escape the pot. These two quotes contraindicate each other; however, it makes the reader start to grasp the complexity of the topic of eating and killing living animals. My quotes greatly improved my paper, structurally and content wise, when they were used correctly, making sure I explain how they relate to my thesis and introduce the author properly.

Framing statemnet 3-

My approach to critical reading is slow and detailed. Much like what Susan Gilroy suggests in her paper from the Harvard Library, “Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard.” I start off by quickly scanning through the article or paper to see what I am about to read and consider. Like Susan Gilroy says, “Get in the habit of hearing yourself ask questions: “What does this mean?” “Why is the writer drawing that conclusion?” “Why am I being asked to read this text?”. These questions help you focus on the big picture of what you are reading and what you should be looking for in your annotations.

After focusing on what information I need be looking for, the next thing I do while I am reading is underline all the interesting and important information I find. After I underline a sentence or two, I then will write down a word, or short blurb, to help remind me what I was thinking about when I go back to read it a second time. This not only helps me remember the information I just read and make it easier to find later on, but also, helps me organize what I am going to write based off of the in-text evidence I have. I like the way Gilroy said it, “It’s also a way to have an ongoing conversation with yourself as you move through the text and to record what the encounter was like for you.” The ‘conversation’ with yourself not only forces yourself to make sure you are engaged with your reading, but also gets you more involved with the authors text to help you relate your ideas to it.

Our class has used these methods in our discussions and practiced them, methods of critical reading and annotation, several times through the year. One of the most productive classes we had was for the paper, “Consider the Lobster”. In this class we spent a large portion going over everyone’s ideas and the bits of text that caught their eyes. This ultimately helped the whole class consider, and see, new topics and thoughts they previously had not thought about or seen. These methods of critical reading and annotation are extremely helpful, and I wish I learned them earlier on in my education.  

Learning outcome 4-

My peer edits where extremely helpful to my writing process and overall improvement in this course. Most of my peer edits reflected what my instructor said, my example being on project 3. My peers and instructor all said that I had good information and interesting thoughts in my paragraphs, however, they seemed to be too long and wordy. With this information I went back into my paragraphs to reorganize and break up my thoughts and ideas into smaller paragraphs. After doing this, I was then able to expand and explain in more depth, each thought I had previously stated making my paper better. Because of these edits my paper had a better structural framework and made the paper flow more smoothly from one thought to another thought. As a result of my paper flowing more effectively, my readers will be able to comprehend what I am trying to say, and explain, in my paper more.

Learning outcome 5 and 6-

Coming into my English 110 class, I did not fully understand how to cite sources in MLA format. I was very comfortable and use to APA formatting from all of my past, and future courses I will take, but not MLA formatting. This confusion was shown in paper one, favorite food essay, where I think most people in the class struggled and were confused as well. After this paper, our teacher brought in a paper with one example of MLA formatting and had us all look up how to properly cite sources online. Because of this paper two and three both had proper MLA citations.

In paper one I had my parenthetical citation correct, using the author’s last name and page number in quotations, however, I did not cite my author correctly in the work cited page. I then used Owl Perdue’s MLA page to follow proper formatting on the next papers. This was an extremely important skill to learn that I’m glad I learned in this course.

css.php