First Draft of Three Definitions
For the last two weeks, we have done three steps of our first writing assignment including three types of definitions, peer reviewing, and revising. In the first writing stage, I needed to introduce a definition of a physics term to non-background audiences. I found this work was challenging since firstly, English is not my first language, secondly, the definition includes a lot of terms specifically used in physics and mathematics. From this point, I learnt how to reduce and minimise using science terms and change to familiar words. I also got an idea how 3 types of definitions are used in a different way. Especially in the expanded definition, I realised that the most efficient way to easily explain is visual. Using visuals led the formula to clarification of definition. Through the first work, I was able to learn not only how to make a different definition for technical terms, but also to improve my own writing skill.
Peer Review Step
In this writing step, I had a chance to review my team mate’s (Kelly Kim) writing and got a detailed advice paper on my writing from her. This stage was a good opportunity to improve my writing skill. Firstly, I can get my team mate’s writing skills from reading and reviewing her assignment. She is good at writing and composing the continents, so I could get references for my own revising. Also she is almost native speaker of English, so I learnt a lot of vocabulary from her writing which is useful for academic writing. After getting back her review paper on mine, I felt how she concentrated on reviewing my assignment. She pointed out some expression errors and gave composing suggestions with examples. Overall, my peer reviewing was so satisfying and helpful for my writing improvement.
Revision Step
After getting a peer review paper, I could understand which points of my writing were wrong or ambiguous. My writing’s main goal was introducing a technical term to non-technical readers, so I moved on to change some specific vocabularies. Luckily, I have great team members and reviewers, I was able to improve my writing weaknesses that could be missed. Usually, reviewing my assignment by myself is not useful since I could not find my mistakes. But this time, I finished and minimised my faults with support from thankful help. Overall, through the first unit and assignment, I got a bunch of insights for my writing improvement that I would not be able to get otherwise. I strongly get the confidence to do my further assignments in this course, with my wonderful team mates.