Welcome Back! This is my last blog post for Writing 39A as I reflect on these ten weeks of class.
Transformative Learning
During these ten weeks of taking Writing 39A, not only have my writing and reading skills improved substantially, but my understanding of the course topics has also changed a lot. At the beginning of the quarter, my knowledge of the social construction of gender roles was very limited. I recall that in my first exploratory draft, I wrote that Disney princesses are tagged with labels such as elegant dresses, the meeting of a royal prince, happy ending, etc. As I examined more films and peer reviewed my classmates’ drafts, I realized that there are much more than these--these are purely social constructions of fairy tale genres rather than gender-specific disciplines. The way that I interpret the course questions has been a big shift in these ten weeks compared to what I wrote at the beginning of the quarter and my final essay.
Another significant gain from this course would be the importance of peer review and self reflection. Before taking this class, I had never thought that peer review could be so impactful. Although most of the minimum requirement of our peer review assignments is to comment on 2-3 posts, I always enjoyed reading more. I could find a lot of interesting angles that I have never considered before from my classmates’ drafts. They provided me with more insights in constructing the final essay. As I was exposed to different perspectives and reflect on my drafts, my thoughts on course questions are constantly changing. This is one of the most valuable learning experiences of this course, and the habits of peer review will definitely go along with me in my future journey.
TWO Problems & A Plan for the Future
One aspect that I think I can do a better job in the future is reading. Personally, I think I am better at writing than reading. I can easily lose concentration or not engage with the text as much as I should have when I read a lengthy text. As I was doing the reading assignments in McGill Connect, I can also easily feel some deficiencies in my reading skills. Sometimes, I have trouble analyzing the author’s intentions and how the author approaches the explanations. I think doing more practice with the reading strategies with various genres would help me become a better reader.
I also have a lot of room for improvement in terms of writing. Despite having done an intensive amount of writing in these ten weeks and I indeed have improved a lot, I think I can write in a more scholarly manner in the future and make my writing more well-polished. Sometimes, I still struggle with having concise wordings and clear explanations, but the habits I have developed in this class will definitely guide me to the next level. Reading is the foundation of writing; therefore, I will try to read more in the future and do more “imitations” practices as it says in the Anteater Writing Guide.
Hi Cuiwen,
Peer review is so crucial to us. I did not know how important that discussion section is at first. But when I look back to it, peer review helps us know the different angles of same topic. Everyone in the courses help each other find the question and problem they have. in this case, we can have a good score in the end.
Hello Cuiwen! I have the same feeling with you. After 10 weeks of study in WR39A, my writing and reading skills also have improved obviously. I have never realized that peer review is so important. Based on the feedback from others, we can have a clearer understanding of the problems existing in our articles. We are in the same group in the project of podcast and microsite. Many feedbacks you give me in our group discussion have worked when I write my analysis essay. Thank you very much for your efforts and hope you will better achievement in next quarter.
Hi Cuiwen!
I very much agree with you that this class has changed our limited understanding of the social construction of gender roles in the past. Indeed, before learning this lesson, I never realized that the inherent concept of gender is so obvious. I didn't notice it until after watching movies, making annotations, analyzing various scenes, and the differences between male and female characters regarding traditional concepts about females and the times' progress. Anyway, I have really enjoyable group work with you. I hope you will have a nice GPA this quarter! 😊