Definitions Assignment
When writing the definition assignment, I chose a technical word that I use in daily practice with both colleagues and patients – “periodontitis”. This condition is something that I explain to patients on a daily basis. However, I find it helpful when having a verbal conversation, that the person with whom I am speaking to can ask for clarification if I am not being clear in my description.
Writing without immediate feedback is difficult because you have to put yourself in the general populations’ point of view and level of understanding. I wanted my definitions to be clear and concise, but not to have a patronizing tone. It is challenging when you are unaware of the readers’ background knowledge on a topic and their level of education. I hoped to give my definitions balance in order to be understandable to the average adult reader.
Peer Review
I found the peer review process to be difficult. I re-read my peers’ assignment over and over again trying to think of critical and constructive comments that would be of benefit to her writing. I am not used to reading someone else’s writing with a critical eye. Most of my experience has been in adjusting grammar or small writing mistakes. Having guidelines from the text, as well as the course handout were helpful when reviewing my peers’ assignment, as I was not sure what I should be giving feedback on.
Knowing to review initial comprehension, audience, organization, use of jargon, and effective or ineffective elements of the writing, allowed me to help my peer by giving feedback of the necessary elements in writing the definition assignment. Any other peer reviews will benefit from having a template to help guide me (the reviewer) as to what is important in the editing process, and what comments would be most beneficial to the writer and future readers of the piece.
Receiving Peer Review
I greatly appreciated the critical feedback from my peer evaluation. Having both positive and negative feedback allowed me to not think too negatively that I had been completely wrong in my writing, but that I had completed some portions correctly while other portions required modification. I found my peers suggestions to be very helpful, including how I can make my visual appear better to my reader with a larger size and by having a small description to further explain it. She also pointed out that I had used jargon in my writing, which I had not realized. When you are used to speaking in technical terms, sometimes you forget that the terms you use within your profession are not the terms that are used with the general population. I did not recognize that I had used incorrect citations within my writing, I had combined two different formats without realizing it – this would look extremely poor if it had been published in its incorrect state. It was very helpful to have a critical eye point out the corrections that needed to be made.
Please find a copy of my corrected definitions assignment below.
Rebecca Coleman ENG 1.3 Corrected
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