Conjunctions? Verb agreement? Ellipsis? The world of grammar offers so much insight, alongside the many questions that come along with the proper usage of grammar. The first half of this week of class consisted of grammar rules. The main purpose of this day was to clear up any confusion on whatever the students had questions on. Questions ranged from where to use a comma, how to use a semicolon, proper sentence structure, etc. Although this presentation was rather straightforward, it was very helpful and provided us with the information on grammar that we may or may not have had at a younger age. The presentation on grammar is also located under class resources which is nice to have as a reference for future assignments in this class, or even in other classes. These are basic skills for writing that everyone should think about whether they are writing a paper, doing an assignment, sending out emails, etc.
The second half of the week focused on our unit project on the natural sciences. For the first unit project we had to choose a current health topic that is controversial and write a popular health article on it. These articles that we are writing serve the purpose of informing the public on experiments that are being conducted and how the information is useful to people. The rough draft for our popular health articles were due the night before class on Thursday. Then, during class we had our first big workshop, where we edited each other’s papers and gave both verbal and written feedback. This process was a little intimidating at first, considering it was the first time our peers were looking at our bigger projects as a whole. We also had to discuss the proper way to edit papers before diving in. The main things to consider when looking at someone’s paper includes fluidity of the paper, whether it is easy to understand, if it meets the basic requirements and grammar of course. Sometimes it can be hard to look at your own paper and point out its flaws, which is why it is best to always have a fresh set of eyes to suggest some revisions for you. With that being said, it can be hard to have someone criticizing your work, but in the long run it is more than worth it. I also found that it can be difficult to give comments on the work of someone else, because you can become afraid of relaying the wrong message or not providing them with proper feedback that can help their paper flourish.
For me personally, I felt that I grew a lot as a writer with the information that Professor Blom gave us on grammar and that we gave each other with peer reviewing. I also think it is safe to say that some others in the class felt this way as well. This was a busy week for our class, compared to previous weeks because we had our first big assignment due. Stay tuned to see how the final drafts turn out next week.
