Reflection on Project 1

In the following post, I will answer a series of questions about Project 1, and I will reflect on them.

Restivo, David. "I'm thinking of..." 04/10/2008 via Flickr. Attribution Sharealike 2.0 Generic License.

What challenges did you face during the QRG Project and how did you deal with them?

• I had a lot of trouble with organization, presentation, and density of information. I had no concrete idea about how to organize the information. What would an audience want to read first? Presentation was difficult, but it also was obvious. I would present it in the QRG genre. I had trouble finding where to insert pictures so that there was enough information between them, but not too little. How much information to put in there was also a struggle, because I had read a ton of articles on the topic, so I wasn't sure what I should include and what I shouldn't, but it all got better as I got to writing it out. 

What successes did you experience on the project and how did they happen?

• I had success with my articles. Most of them gave a view of both sides, and it was actually hard to find a biased article. I think I ended up finding one that was a complete criticism, and the support section of my QRG came from primarily neutral articles and interviews. I also learned how to extract certain sections of important information from articles instead of taking everything. I would scan a document for a specific thing rather than get distracted by so much information.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices, and writing practices did you find the most effective for your project? Why?

• I found that scanning the examples of the QRG genre in class was very helpful and helped me choose the design choices, arguments, and writing practices for my own document. I enjoyed having lots of interesting pictures throughout my document, and the arguments were based primarily on how I phrased the questions for each section. My came across as what I think was pretty neutral, as my articles were pretty neutral. I tried to keep unbiased, even though I support the research on genome editing. 

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices, and writing practices did you find were not effective for your project? Why?

• I found that my usual elongated style of writing that I used in high school did not at all fit in this category. I had trained myself to use lots of extra words and make it as long as possible, because all that mattered was the word count. I like the QRG style better, though, as it is nicer to read and is something I would choose to read over a lengthy essay on the same subject.

How was the writing process for this project similar to other school writing experiences you've had in the past?

• I had never, ever done anything like this before. The last serious writing assignment I can remember having was junior year of high school and it was a formal rhetorical essay. It was a research paper, too, but I did nowhere near the same amount of research as I did for this project. With this project, you had to have information you just didn't include, but in a normal essay, you have to fit everything in. 

How was the writing process for this project different than other school writing experiences you've had in the past?

• This was very different, as mentioned in the previous question. I prefer to write in the QRG style, but the only catch is the crazy amount of research required to be informed and write a good paper on this in QRG style. 

Would any of the skills you practiced for this project be useful in your other coursework? Why or why not?

• It depends on the course. This is actually the only class I really write for, and it is the last English class required for my major, so I don't know if it will apply to my other coursework this semester. Down the line, though, I think that it may be applicable in writing some science stuff.

Reflection

After reading Elliot and Mira's blog posts about their experiences with Project 1, I feel more comfortable about the things I struggled with, and the things I found enjoyable. I was relieved that we all kind of struggled with the transition from normal essay writing to QRG genre writing, as well as revision and the amounts of necessary research. It helps knowing we all had a bit of trouble.