Reflection on Project #1

Project #1 is done. Now for the most important part..

Richard Outram. "Snowdon reflection". 12/6/08 va Wikipedia. CCA2 Generic.

What challenges did you face dealing with the Quick Reference Guide Project and how did you deal with them?
I think my biggest challenge was honestly just finding something to write about. It takes a good foundation and I'm not sure I put enough time into finding a good controversy, so then when it came time to write about it and really analyze it I'm not sure that I had enough to work with.

What successes did you experience on the project and how did they happen?
Honestly the biggest success was the trajectory change it took to get my project onto a controversy that I could write anything about. In the beginning, I was writing more about a concept than a controversy and it wasn't producing anything for me. Then I was able to find a controversy related to what I had been writing about, so I didn't have to completely start over, but it certainly wasn't the same.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find the most effective for your project? Why?
I honestly think I do my best work when I can be candid and casual in my writing. That's definitely what I ended up doing for my QRG and I think that's when the writing really started to flow and become something whole. I'm not sure why exactly this works for me.. It's possible that I'm just that kind of person and so it's actually me writing in my own voice.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find were not effective for your project? Why?
Lots of them. In short, when I tried to be someone I'm not, it just wouldn't work. At first I tried being really formal and serious in the writing but it just didn't sound right and I felt like I was leaving a lot out of the piece.. Then I tried to mimic some of the example QRGs that were available to me, but even then I just wasn't really getting the style right. My honest opinion is that I'm best at being me, and any attempt to do something otherwise was second-rate.

How was the writing process for this project different than other school writing experiences you've had in the past?
In so many ways!!! I'm not used to doing everything online.. like I prefer to make a really messy ugly word scramble monster in pencil/pen on an actual piece of paper and just collect my ideas from there. You know? I'm really just not good at staying super organized and in one place. For the majority of this project I ended up with like 20 tabs open at once and jumping back and forth between web pages trying to make sure everything was correct. It would've been so much easier to have real class time and get clarified lucid directions that I could understand. I think this is just that I'm a visual/auditory learner and so the whole reading and writing and reading and writing and reading and writing thing really just doesn't work for me.

Would any of the skills your practiced in this project be useful in your other coursework? Why or why not?
Definitely. I really do think that I got a lot of value out of this, I just wish I had more time to adjust to this style of instruction instead of just getting thrown right into a project. One of the most useful things is going to be the ways I learned to find sources. That's super useful in pretty much every course when we have to find articles or information about a new subject.