Individual Reflection
Voting is an issue of importance because young voters need to start caring about what’s happening in America. I was one of those young voters and I thought if this is the issue I chose for this semester it would force me to get involved and learn more about our government, and I’m glad I did. My perspective was that voting was about being a good citizen and doing America a favor. The more I researched the issue it was more about your individual voice and caring about certain issues that our government was discussing and these things are important. So my perspective did change and I learned a lot about voting. Why my perspective changed was because I did so much research and found a lot of stories that were inspiring it changed how I saw voting. And when I went out to vote it was a very positive experience and I was glad that I did it.
For my adaptations translation projects I chose to do a poem and comic. I chose these smaller projects because it gave me a chance to be creative, take a small idea and expand on it represent it visually. I linked photos and videos to my poem this helped my readers understand the history of voting and the right that we have as citizens. This one was my favorite project to do. My comic was a little challenging; I adapted it from my post card activity. It was about how voting restriction laws aren’t very strict and sometimes they can be. The final product was what I was most proud of, looking back on it I could see my words come to life.
My revision choices for my proposal and memoir are ones that I’m very proud of. My writing can be really choppy with a lot of run ons and grammar errors, so I spent a lot of time taking out parts I didn’t need making it make sense and adding words that connected it all together. The other big thing I worked on was the organization. When I read my memoir through a few times it didn’t make sense the paragraphs didn’t follow the correct order. So I did a lot of cut and paste to re-organize it and make it a whole new paper.
This magazine was a group effort and I couldn’t have gotten a better group. I role on the team was editor in chief and my duties were to keep up on emails with Kati and explain our revision plans we had and our work schedule on the magazine. I think I did this well and stayed on top of it. I also worked on the Editor’s note very closely and gave the idea that is shouldn’t be one blocky letter and that there should be hidden pages. As far as everyone in the group, they did an awesome job. We all decided right from the start that we were going to help everyone with their jobs and no one was going to have to struggle. I would say that everyone was sort of involved on how the magazine would look the layout and the editor’s note. This is what a group magazine project is all about and I think we did it perfectly.
When it comes to advice for English 2010 class is to make sure you have Kati Lewis. She was an awesome teacher, she made us write a lot but it was only to make our writing develop and mine defiantly did just that. She also is the director for eportfolio so she had a lot of knowledge for when it came time for our online magazine project. She also made time for all of us and had meetings and sent emails back and forth periodically. She made the semester fly by. For incoming students just manage your time and have an open mind to learning about different genres and online tools. Also don’t carry around the idea that your writing sucks, because it probably doesn’t just work hard at it and you will succeed.
Thanks,
Kiana Shaffer
