Zachary Goldman
Dr. Erika Paterson
June 13, 2020
Subject: Unit One Reflection
This introductory unit for our technical writing course required us to create a set of definitions for a term we selected, to edit the definitions with the assistance of our peers, and to incorporate those edits into our original posts. My partner throughout this process was Matthew De Rose, who greatly assisted me in writing the final version of my definitions. In this post I’ll go over my own editing process related to Matthew’s work, and then dive into what I learned when Matthew reviewed my work.
I reviewed Matthew’s definition for GUI first by engaging with it piecemeal. I looked at each paragraph separately and wrote down editorial suggestions on a piece of paper. After a few readings going through each paragraph, I moved on to engaging with the document as a whole which allowed me to get a better idea of the flow for Matthew’s definition. Matthew’s writing was detail laden but concise, which made the work on my end much easier. By far my most pertinent suggestion for Matthew’s work was altering the way they engaged with the question/answer format of their expanded definition. I was glad to see that this suggestion was well received.
For my own definition, I found myself struggling to come to a conclusion regarding the level of detail I needed. In Matthew’s suggested edits, they wrote that I needed more clarity in my sentence definition, and when I went over this I realized that they were correct. I tried to alter the definition to make it clearer, but am still unsure if I succeeded in that effort. Another area they suggested I look at was where I used the negation strategy in my expanded definition. Trying to separate Ethnography from more standard travelogue writing is something that even skilled ethnographers struggle with, and I found myself arguing with myself aloud about whether or not some travelogue writing could be counted as Ethnographic.
I have always found it easier to edit other peoples’ writing instead of my own, and I want to thank Matthew for teaching me something new, and for making the work on my end more bearable by being clear and concise with their writing style. Through this process I also learned a lot about how my own writing is perceived by others, which was illuminating, and informative.
As this unit ends I feel thankful that I have good writing partners, and I think I have a good handle on where I my own writing is at, so I feel confident about going forward into Unit Two.
Yours,
Zachary Goldman
Links to work in Unit One:
Original Definition Post: Ethnography
Original Definition Post: Graphic User Interface
Peer Review of Ethnography Definition
Final Definition Post Edits: Ethnography