Anthony Langella

English 110-C

October 15, 2017

Learning Log

1. I am currently working to achieve my first goal of attaining the ability to demonstrate an approach to my writing as a recursive process that requires substantial revision of drafts for content, organization, and clarity (global revision), as well as editing and proofreading (local revision). I am currently working towards this goal by focusing on my brainstorming and rough draft proofreads. A good initial brainstorm before the start of my first draft really helps me with organization, clarity (global revision), and editing. I have recently started to get my first drafts proofread by other people around me in the dorms. I usually like to get my paper proofread after my final draft too, just to make sure there are not any sneaky mistakes. I have developed a new writing strategy. This new strategy is actually just proofreading my writing out loud after each paragraph, which eventually leads to me reading my paper as a whole out loud. I am currently developing a plan of doing multiple brainstorms with different theses. I really am truly hoping that these new strategies make big differences on my papers. I feel like these newly developed strategies will help me write much more successful papers. I plan on using these new strategies in every paper I write, regardless of the class.
2. I am currently working very hard to achieve my second goal of being able to integrate my ideas with those of others using a summary, paraphrase, quotation, analysis, and/or synthesis of relevant sources. This learning outcome, or goal I am working very hard to achieve is a very tough one for me. I really do have a ton of trouble when it comes to integrating ideas with that of another. I also have trouble with quoting, paraphrasing, and synthesizing of relevant sources. I feel that my plan for this goal will be rather short and easy. I believe that I can create a plan to help me achieve my second goal. This plan is that I will practice using synthesis, quotes, paraphrasing, and summarizing. On top of practicing the previously mentioned topics, I will have to practice integrating into my essay the ideas of different authors, scientists, etc. With my individual practice plan mentioned, I will focus on having another person proofread my paper out loud so I can find the mistakes and so can the person reading. Throughout this class, I have learned much more about paraphrasing and quotations. I think that I am honing those skills every time I am writing.
3. I am currently working to be able to achieve my third goal, which is to employ techniques of active reading, techniques of critical reading, and techniques for informal reading response for inquiry, learning, and thinking. I have been steadily improving my third goal of using different techniques. Over the course it is something that has just sort of been developing. In the beginning of class, I only annotated and use the multiple techniques mentioned once, and that was because I was forced to by my teacher in high school. This was awhile back in junior year. I am working to achieve this goal by continuously practicing with these skills and techniques for every text I read not just the english specific ones. This is a goal that really only takes practice to be successful with. This is not a very difficult goal by any means. I should not have a ton of trouble achieving this third goal of mine.
4. I am currently working on achieving my fourth goal in my learning outcomes. This fourth goal I am working towards is that I should be able to critique my own writing and other’s work by emphasizing global revision early in the writing process and local revision later in the writing process. This goal is not very hard to achieve. I feel that this goal is achievable through our class time. I say this because we do a significant amount of peer review during class. If I did not want to learn this fourth goal of mine only from peer review inside class, I could review my own work that I write to help me sharpen my skills in the peer editing department. I could also help friends and review their papers for them as well. This is a goal that really only takes practice and hard work, but it is easily achievable.
5. I am currently working fairly hard on achieving my fifth goal in my six total goals in my learning outcomes. My fifth goal that I am working fairly hard to achieve is correctly documenting my work using appropriate conventions. Specifically those conventions are MLA. I personally do not believe that this is very difficult because many people have been using MLA format/conventions since middle school if not high school. When I have issues with documenting my source with MLA format, I usually use my go to website, which is Easybib.com. I feel that this site is really easy to use and is extremely user friendly. The only part that is remotely difficult is entering the source, which is pretty easy because you just have to find out what source you are using. If I did not have access to an external site to help me with citing my sources, I would just have to practice remembering the different sources and what the correct citations look like.
6. I am currently working very hard on achieving my last and final goal in the six learning outcomes. My sixth and final goal that I am working on achieving is correctly using control sentence level error. This goal consists of using the correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. This goal is not going to be too difficult for me to overcome, but it will take a lot of practice. I do have negative patterns that ruin my writing. These patterns are in the punctuation department. I tend to sometimes use too many commas when they are not necessarily needed. I do sometimes also forgot to add an s to the end of my plural words, but that is just because I am typing faster than I am reading. I am motivated to correct my grammar issues because papers or any documentation for that matter looks tremendously better when it has correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I plan on improving my grammar issues by working hard of proofreading and revising mine and other’s papers. I will also type slower and pay more attention to what I am writing/typing.