Week 8: Commenting Review Week

Do you feel like you are making good connections with other students in the class at the blogs?

Yes. I have really liked being able to go back and read some of the people's writings that I have liked before.

What kinds of interactions do you think are most helpful in creating good connections online in a class like this? 

I think the "forced" interactions between students so far have been a good way to interact.

What kinds of comments have been most useful to you so far on your blog posts?
If you have received Project comments, have those been useful so far?

Yes and Yes. I have gotten really useful comments and critiques from multiple people on what would make my stories more readable.

When you are leaving a short comment, what do you usually focus on?

For short comments, I tend to focus on the story at a whole and any obvious mistakes.

When you are leaving a long comment on a Project, what is your focus?

For long comments, I tend to focus on the story as a whole, specific pieces of the story, the design and flow.

What is the easiest part for you about writing comments? What is the hardest part?

The hardest part is finding something to critique. The easiest is revealing the parts that I liked best.

Do you do a lot of commenting on other students' work in your other classes? Is your major one in which peer comments are generally an important part of the classes you take?

I do not take any classes that have peer reviews like this.

How do you make use of comments when you revise your writing?

I usually read the comments and first fix grammatical or spelling mistakes and then I see if any of the other suggestions could be useful.

Week 8: Writing Review Week

What have been your greatest writing successes in the class so far this semester?

My two best stories, I think, are the two stories I have chosen for my portfolio. I have had a little writers block the last couple of week, but I feel like those have been my most creative.

What writing goals do you have for yourself in the second half of the semester?

I hope to keep doing a good job and hope that I start getting back to the creative imaginative stories like I wrote in the beginning of this class.

As you look at your Storytelling posts, what do you think are some good strategies for coming up with good stories?

The strategy I have used so far is to look for key sentences that get me wondering and thinking about a story so much that I can't focus on the rest of the reading.

Have you been able to get some good writing ideas from looking at the writing other students are doing?

Not really. For some reason it doesn't help me.

Is the feedback you are getting from me and from other students helping you to improve your writing?

YES, it has been extremely helpful, especially with my punctuation.

What kind of feedback is most helpful for you in your writing?

All the feedback that I have gotten has been extremely helpful.

Have you learned anything useful about yourself as a writer, about the writing process, about writing techniques, etc. from your work in this class so far?

I have found that I like creative writing more than I thought I would. When I first found out that the main point of this class was going to be writing, I almost dropped it, but I'm really glad I didn't since it has been so much fun!

Week 8: Reading Review Week

What readings in the class have you enjoyed most/least?

I have enjoyed all of the stories that I have read so far. Each one has been interesting. I really enjoy that we have a different "region" that we have to choose from each week as it forces you out of your comfort zone.

What reading and note-taking strategies have you found that work best for you?

I usually copy the text from the online Un-textbook and paste it into a word document. I then delete all the pictures (since I've already seen them) and print out the texts in half sections. It's a lot easier for me to make notes and to go back to when I am doing my diary post.

Do you use your Reading Diary in connection with the Storytelling assignment?

I would say this is probably half and half. If I come up with a story while I'm reading, I don't need to go back to my Diary. If I still haven't had an idea by the time I'm done reading, I will go back to my Diary and even go back to the readings themselves.

When you look back at your old Reading Diaries from early in the semester, do they help you to recall the reading in a useful way?

Yes, although my Diaries have gotten more concise as the semester has progressed.

Do you read a lot for pleasure? Is there any overlap between the reading in this class and the kinds of things you usually like to read?

I do read outside of class. I usually read Stephen King books, but have recently ventured out of that genre and author. I recently read the A Discovery of Witches Trilogy by Deborah Harkness which is about a witch and vampire and alchemy and history and centers around a missing book from Elias Ashmole's collection. Since starting school for anthropology, I have had some classes overlap in reading, however, I have not had the joy of reading mythology before and I am loving it.

Portrait of Elias Ashmole by John Riley. Source: Wikemedia Commons.

Do you see any good connections between the reading you are doing for this class and any other class(es) you are taking?

Not really, I wish my other classes were as fun as this one. They are interesting and I love them since it is what I want to do for the rest of my life, but it would be very cool to just immerse myself in mythology.

Do you have any suggestions for me to use in improving the reading component of this class?

One thing I think would be helpful is making the readings available in a downloadable PDF format. I don't know if this would violate any trademarks but if it was already done, it would be awesome since I can't read on the computer very well.

Do you have suggestions I can share with future students about the reading?

As with past students ... get ahead. I haven't stayed that far ahead, but I in the beginning I was a week ahead and it has helped that I can just spend Friday night and Saturday morning doing the work from last week that I couldn't do last weekend (like commenting) and them doing my writing and reading for the next week. It frees up a lot of study time during the week and gives me a chance to spend time with my family.