Reflecting on Writing and Reviewing a Definition Assignment
The English 301 definition assignment was a great lesson in the various types of definitions used in technical writing. It taught me how choosing a type of definition is very context sensitive and the level of detail and language used must be adjusted depending on the audience.
I chose to do my definition assignment on the “synapse”. I am a General Science student with a focus on the Life Sciences so I thought this would be a fitting definition. Also, the synapse seems to come up in a lot of my classes so I believe that it is important enough for everyone to become at least slightly educated on it. It is involved in all of our senses and although it seems complicated, it works in a fairly logical way. I chose to expand on what the synapse does, what it is composed of, how it works and where it is located. Doing this assignment also helped to improve my knowledge of a subject that is vital to my degree.
As is noted in my Letter of Application, a weakness in my writing is that I am often too verbose. It became evident to me after reading the peer review of my definition assignment that this was the case once again. My definition assignment contained terms that were beyond the scope of the audience and paragraphs that were verbose to the point that it took away from my intended message. To fix this, I made sure to go back and better define any scientific jargon that I had used. I also edited the “How does a synapse work?” section to make it more concise and pleasant to read. I believe that these changes make my definitions better suited to the intended audience.
The peer review segment of the definition assignment was a very valuable exercise. Examining a fellow students writing allows you to apply any edits/revisions that you notice to future writing of your own. It was also great practice in applying criticism in a polite yet effective manner. The assignment that I peer reviewed elaborated on a definition that I was only superficially familiar with. This was helpful because it allowed me to suggest clarification on certain terms. Having little knowledge of the term also let me suggest elaboration on certain parts of the expanded definition which I believe will provide a better understanding for uneducated readers. Lastly, the peer review process helps identify grammatical and punctuation errors with more scrutiny. I noticed that when reviewing a peers work that these types of errors became more clear. This allowed me to go back to my own definition assignment and critique it with higher standards.
Overall, the definition and peer review assignment worked in tandem to reinforce what I need to improve about my writing. I hope by engaging in more peer reviews as the semester goes on that I can continue to improve my technical and professional writing. Thank you for reading.
Here is my edited definition assignment:
Here is my peer’s review of my assignment: