Open Post to Peer Reviewers

This is a rough draft of my project for Project 2. It is important to make more than one draft to allow for the editing process to happen. Peer review is one way of editing in the editing process.

(Music playing, fade in with speaking) Welcome to this podcast segment on my experience in English 109h! My name is Ben Barnett and I am currently a freshman at the University of Arizona. I am majoring in Chemical Engineering and am finishing off English this semester with Professor Sean Bottai. In this podcast I will be reflecting on certain sections of my writing process that have been improved or harmed throughout the semester. There will even be a guest speaker later that will help me with my reflection on how my researching process changed. So sit back, relax, and listen to the story of how a young lad was changed by a college English class.

One of the most important effects this class had on me was my time management. Up until this class I had always done things the night before they were due. I would write 6 pages essays the night before and turn it in without reviewing it (screeching tires). It worked out really well in high school and for the first semester in college. I even started using this method in the beginning of this semester but I have quickly learned that that I can't always do this and that I must plan out when I need to get certain parts of the project finished. I have always been secretly proud (sound of trumpets) that I can figure out roughly how long something will take me and then wait until the last possible second to do it. Usually it would always be the night before. But with the second project, I found that it just wasn't possible to do everything last minute. For those of you who don't know, I did my second project using the genre of a video essay. Video essays require lots of editing to look good. So I foresaw this and started working on it throughout the week so I wouldn't be rushed at the last minute. This started a habit, more like a goal, for the rest of the semester. I have since worked on all my projects throughout the week and not waited until the last minute. This habit has transferred over to some of my classes most notably math and physics where I have been doing the homework at least two days before it is due. This has relieved a lot of stress which has in turn affected something else dear to my writing process: Sleep. (Sound of snoring) (Transition to next section).

 Now I know this might not seem to be connected to my writing process but it is actually a very important part. Without sleep, I am really bad and concentrating and therefore whatever I write when I am sleep deprived is very bad. (Sound of snoring loud) In the beginning of this semester I wouldn’t go to bed until midnight or later and then only wake up right before my classes the next morning. I always felt tired in class and most days tried to stay awake. My sleeping schedule was even worse on Sundays because I would stay up to finish English and then do the rest of my homework. After spring break (Tropical sounds) I realized that I could not go on doing this to myself so I started going to bed earlier and therefore moved my English homework time around so that I could accomplish this goal. The effect was amazing! I no longer was forcing myself from falling asleep in class and all my writing assignments were of higher quality. Another thing that was of higher quality as the classed rolled on was my research (Transition sounds).

Going into this semester, I hadn’t done much research in college. I did a few research assignments in high school, but they were super simple and didn’t require much. In the beginning of the semester I really struggled on my research assignments. I would take hours finding articles that would be credible enough to use in my essay and read the whole article to find as much information as I could. This changed a bit in the end of the semester. I stopped reading the articles from top to bottom but instead quickly scanned for information that I was looking for. I stopped looking for articles and then write my essay based on the information I found and instead decided my arguments and found information that would support it. (Transition song).

Well there you have it, my lessons in English. I think that taking English overall helped me be a better student by improving my time management skills, amount of sleep, and research process. I hope you guys enjoyed this podcast segment. Please join me next time, if there is a next time, I will be having some technical problems with D2L after May 6^th. This is Ben Barnett signing off, and remember the three R’s to use on your life: read, reply, reflect.

1. Key information about your particular project that you would like anyone who peer reviews your draft to know

This is my script for the podcast. I think it is good but any suggestions on content would be great.

 

2. Major issues or weaknesses in the “Rough Cut” that you’re already aware of (as well as anything you’d like to know from your editors about those weaknesses)

One weakness of my Rough cut is were I should put sounds to make it interesting but not boring.

 

3. Major virtues or strengths in the “Rough Cut” that you’re already aware of (as well as anything you’d like to know from your editors about those strengths)

One strength of the rough draft is its length. Other than that there isn't much.