Draft Workshop & Unit 1 Project - Kailey

I really enjoyed our draft workshop today. While I have done peer editing before I've never done a structured draft workshop like we did today. I felt that it was very effective and helpful, especially since the paper we edited was part of a group assignment. I know for my group, the draft workshop really helped to clear up some fogginess we had concerning the tone and styles of our individual papers. It also gave us an idea of how we can connect each of our individual papers so that the entire introduction meshes and flows in a logical order.

For me personally, the workshop helped to better organize my paper and kept me focused. I had a clear thesis statement and made logical points but they were a bit out of order and one needed more supporting details. These are things that I know need to be in the paper, and that I thought I had included, however, after talking with my group it was clear that there was some ambiguity that made sense in my head but not to the readers.

My favorite part of the draft workshop was having the opportunity to correct my errors right then. By the time I've gone to my next class, hit the gym, and had dinner I usually forget all the little things my editor has said, especially the small tweaks that I forget to write down because I think I'll remember them later.

Overall I felt that the draft workshop was very effective and extremely helpful. I can't think of anything that I didn't particularly like :)

As far as the Unit 1 Project goes I'm surprisingly enjoying it (as much as one can enjoy homework). At first I was nervous about doing group work but it has gone really well in my group. I feel that we all get along really well and so far that everyone has equally contributed to our project. Content wise, I really found Harper's New Monthly Magazine interesting. I am one of those "math and science" kind of people so at the beginning I didn't think I'd like reading historical documents and journals. Harper's has surprised me in that I can read it similarly to the way I's read magazine articles from today. So far I have enjoyed this unit project and working with my group mates!