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My Experience Writing an In-Class EssayWriting an in-classRead More »My Experience Writing an In-Class Essay

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Blog Post: Reflection on In-Class Essay and Associated AssignmentsHow I prepared for this exam was that first, I read the story that was assigned to me, and later on, we would discuss and ask questions to the class about the story. With some of the questions, we got an idea for a blog post, and I personally used some of the questions to write in a blog post. Then we continued doing the same pattern with other stories. These questions asked in class helped us get an insight into what to write in our essay. Then we had time to study. Personally, I did not study until one day before but had an idea of what to write. Also, we had the chance to bring an outline for each question asked. The day before the in-class essay, our professor told us that we would be able to pick the question we liked. I was very happy and picked number three since I felt the most confident in writing, and I could pick the stories I mostly liked, which were Inventory and Eight Bites. I made an outline, studied it, and also picked out evidence for my thesis, and then I was done. Then for my discussion, I read my story, which was Inventory, and then asked myself some of the questions I might ask myself or others. So I thought and came up with ten, but I did feel like my best one was: Why did the author decide not to say the character’s name and actually choose a number? I had an answer for my question because in inventories, there are such things as numbers used, and she was doing an inventory of past relationships. But I did like to hear what other people’s answers were for this question, and I do feel like it went well. A lot of people had different opinions and answers, which also made me look at things from a different point of view and helped a lot with my in-class essay. Going into the in-class essay, I would say that I write a lot, especially when it’s a topic that I like, and in this case, it was a topic I liked to talk about, so the timing was fine for me. First, I feel like I could write a lot of things that don’t make sense in any way, and then it would take me longer to edit and see if it makes sense, which would take me more time. I also feel like maybe I should organize my thoughts because I did feel like they were all over the place. I could write something and then write another thing in the next line, so I do feel like that is very important to keep in mind. Lastly, I do feel like in the future I will have less anxiety because I had an anxiety attack while writing this essay. I have written an in-class essay before on paper, so it was cool that we were able to write on a computer and also use an outline to help us. Everything will be fine in the end. Well, that’s all, and I really did like doing this. I feel like in the end, it made me become a better writer due to the mistakes I mig […] “Blog Post: Reflection on In-Class Essay and Associated Assignments”

Blog Post: Reflection on In-Class Essay and Associated AssignmentsI was assigned 8 bites to do a presentation with my group. I was really hoping it wouldn’t be a complex piece like some of the other works in that collection, and it wasn’t. I found 8 bites to be relatively easy to understand, at least the main points, and the nuances needed more analyzing but after calling with my group mates and discussing some of the key things in the text, I felt pretty good about my understanding and ability to lead a discussion on 8 bites. It was interesting to see what my groupmates thought was significant to raise as a question compared to the points that I thought were key moments. Nobody was incorrect but it was nice to see that some parts that I didn’t give much thought about, were actually much deeper. I thought my group led the discussion well, it was a plight scene in the class with half the people that usually talked missing, however we still managed to get a good discussion and we got to provide more of our input to help get the discussion moving. I started the discussion by asking the class to give a quick summary of the reading to get people refreshed on the story. That in itself caused a discussion which I was not expecting but nonetheless grateful. I then asked the question that I thought was most significant and after a discussion of that question, which I also contributed to, everyone else in our group was able to ask their questions as well. I think I could have provided a more specific follow-up question to my original question that made people think about the points that i wanted to raise but i didn’t because the discussion was going well anyways. Even then I think I should have mentioned it. I took this reading the most seriously compared to others in the collection which helped me with the in class essay if I chose to use 8 bites as one of my stories used for evidence. I didn’t use 8 bites on my in class essay, I chose the husband stitch instead because the prompt about how marriage/relationship affected the narrative came easier to me and the husband stitch provides many answers to this prompt. I already knew some of the key moments in the husband stitch that I could use for my in-class essays so I looked through the book and noted them down. I reread the book briefly before planning out my essay during my gap periods. I just used a google doc, I knew that the 5-6 paragraph essay with an intro, 3-4 body, and a conclusion would be easiest for me so I structured my essay in that manner. I wrote my introduction fully, trying to use a hook and thesis statement. Then I listed my 4 main points and bullet pointed out some key things I wanted to mention about those points as well as the evidence supporting my argument and why it supports it. I didn’t write anything about my conclusion, and my conclusion in the essay was also lacking which I hope to improve in the future. I had plans for the conclusion to relate the theme to society and give examples but I didn’t have time. I think the reason I was barely on time was because the outline felt like a double edged sword; it was helpful to help me remember my main points but I kept getting stuck trying to write my essay exactly as outlined. My ideas would be more streamlined and quicker to write if I hadn’t done that. I hope to improve my pa […] “Blog Post: Reflection on In-Class Essay and Associated Assignments”