Throughout my entire high school career, I would write my papers one or two nights before the deadline, never write a rough draft, and bullshit everything I wrote. For high school, this worked out fine. My teachers never really cared about what anyone had to say in their papers, so they just made sure it was long enough and you didn’t plagiarize but never read the actual papers. I would get A’s and B’s on papers where I said the same thing just in a hundred different ways.
I planned to continue this strategy when I signed up for ENC1101 over the summer. I thought that it’d be an easy class and I’d have more time to party if I took it since I never really had to do anything. On the first day of ENC1101 my teacher said to forget everything from high school since college English was going the completely different. Of course I thought she was bluffing so I wrote the first draft the night before like I had planned. It came out beautiful. I had written eight pages which was the max and didn’t even have to worry about plagiarizing since it was my life.
The next day we got our papers back from review and mine had marks all over it. There were at least five mistakes per crot and that wasn’t even counting grammar and at the end of my paper the biggest complaint was that I rambled too much and some parts didn’t make any since. I probably would’ve gotten a C at best if that were the final draft.
I struck me at that moment that she didn’t bluff and I was actually going to have to try. I went back to my dorm the same day and corrected every part of my paper for the final draft and for the first time I felt like I had actually written something that was actually good. I got my paper back the next Monday and got an A on the paper.
If it wasn’t for drafts I wouldn’t have gotten through that class. I could never have gotten the A’s that I needed without any peer review and the only reason I got my grade in that class to doing three drafts per paper. They helped me get from C worthy papers to A papers.
well this is very helpful. I too took the same route in high school at writing papers. In fact it is so much of a habit i just remembered I had to comment on something right now, at 12 the night before. I knew in the back of my head that my easy days of writing nonsense would soon be over when i got to college. However, i did do some quality work in high school, i really felt strongly about some topics we wrote about. At the moment i cant really recall one but I know i did.
ReplyDeleteI am very anxious to have my works fed through a college professor's grading scale. I figure my paper will look like a massacar with all the red marks that are sure to cover the page. But that is what i am here for, i am at school to become a better student and part of being a better stucdent is being a good riter. spelling probably wouldnt be a bad skill to akquire either.
I am mentally prepared for what lies ahead... or at least I think I am. I think this will be a good class and I hope to take a lot from it. Also this is my first blog, and I enjoy reading the comments that others have left so I hope you get some satisfaction out of reading this.
I guess i will have to stop rambling and start making sense, which is tough since in writing i have always made so much stuff up. I hope that my writing sins will be forgiven and I will bask in the holy waters that are ENC1102
I think it is funny how we both went through the exact same thing. In high schoo, we both managed to fly by the seat of our pants ans still get good grades but when we came to college, we realized that our old ways needed to change. As we both entered ENC1101, we realized that drafting and revising were necessary to the writing process and not only helped make the whole process easier but, it also allowed for us to receive better grades on our essays in the end. In general, we both learned that peer revising is a good thing an dnot something to dread and not look forward to. I feel relieved that someone else also went htrough the same thing I did and I feel comfortable now because I have learned that other people have had to change as well.
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