At first, I thought this module would turn out to be very tedious and boring as I was bad in writing essays. As I thought this module would be conducted in a very large group, I doubted the ability of this module to help me in improving my essay writing skill. However, these negative thoughts disappeared when this module began. The small learning groups with around 20 students made me feel better. This study process is not only fun and full of laughters but also fruitful as I get to know my essay writing skills better from the comments given my tutor and my peers. I feel satisfied and happy when I receive positive comments from them, and these comments never fail to motivate me to do better in my next essay. Also, I get to know my weaknesses such as poor grammar concept in essay writing from the advices given politely from them. These comments always remind me to not to repeat these silly mistakes in my essays again. Reading others essays and reader responses is an enjoyable task too as everyone has different experiences and stories to share. Being able to relate my own experience with others also helps to build up the friendship among students.
In my opinion, I appreciate the comments given from my tutor and peer but I will be happier if they can leave comments to point out my errors directly as I believe these comments are utmost useful to me in improving my writing skills, especially those common errors in many essays that have become the "blind spot" of many students.
As I believe reading is a crucial way to improve one's english, the process of reading peers' essays exposes myself to various writing styles and new vocabularies. These essays become my references to write a better essay. Besides that, as students have to leave comments on others essay, it makes me to be more cautious when I am writing an essay. It actually reminds me not to come out with an essay with less solid content and full with errors. Therefore, I often spend much time and effort before starting an essay writing. This process is rather tiring, but it helps to me to study different materials which are not related to my major.
In a nutshell, this fulfilling English learning experiences help me to develop better writing skills and write an academic essay logically.
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Thank you, Jia Ning, for this comprehensive critical reflection. You do a good job of reviewing the feedback component of our course and the way that receiving and giving feedback has helped you. I'm glad you found great benefit in that. My only question is whether you think it would be practical to solicit feedback from a friend or classmate for an essay you have written for another course. How can feedback be gotten before submitting a paper when you're not in an English class?
ReplyDeleteYou also state that you would have been happier if the feedback had been more specific. I feel, however, that at least the feedback you got from me was very specific, and thorough. What do you think?
At the same time, there are some lingering verb tense and s-v agreement problems in this post. Can you see the problems when you reread this?
Despite those minor details, I found your reflection to be a very personalized, Jia Ning. I have clearly seen improvement in your writing over the course of the term. Now I wish you all the best as you continue your learning journey!
Hi Brad!
ReplyDeleteI think soliciting feedback from a friend or classmate for an essay I have written for another course is actually practical because an individual can collect more comments from others for his essay, especially when his friends aren't taking that course.(To me, it's like showing our academic writing to someone who doesn't know anything about digital divide, it helps you to edit your essay so that even people who are not exposed to these information can understand what is your essay about.) I think students from ES1102 can still use their own blog as a platform to share their essay to peers to obtain comments. However, to avoid plagiarism, it is safer to privatise the blog post.
Yes,your feedbacks are actually very useful to me! Thanks to your feedback, I know how careless I am in grammar and other minor errors that I can actually avoid from making these errors!
Finally, THANK YOU so much for guiding us throughout this not short yet not long learning journey! I actually enjoyed this journey so much (FASS courses are normally conducted in very big group so I don't even get a chance to interact with everyone and even tutors!=()
Best regards,
Jianing=)