Model Senate Reflection:
During this project, our class modeled the Senate and voted on three bills; Immigration, Climate Change, and College Tuition. Each student was issued a Senator and a role for the senate. My role in this project was being Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and also a lobbyist advocating for NumbersUSA, an orgamization on immigration reform.
Legislation: (Mock Bill)
Lobbyist Speech:
3 Writing Goals for 2016
Goal 1: Citing- I will make sure that I am able to cite any piece of evidence in parenthetical MLA format throughout my work this year. In my, “Habits of Highly Cynical People,” mini project, I spotted many places where I thought that I had miss-cited the evidence in the text. It was not clear to me what needed to be included and that’s a big problem because I could potentially face plagiarism. In the essay I wrote, I said, “Naive cynics shoot down possibilities, including the possibility of exploring the full complexity of any situation.” (Solnit, The Habits of Highly Cynical People, 2).” The citation was abnormally large and was somewhat redundant. Instead of this format, I should’ve said, “Naive cynics shoot down possibilities, including the possibility of exploring the full complexity of any situation.” (Solnit, 2).” This will tell the reader which page number to reference as well as who wrote it. To prevent this mistake from happening in future assignments, I will need to pay close attention to exactly what parenthetical citation entails and also which kind of evidence I’m citing. For example, if I’m citing a book, it’ll look different than when I’m citing a film. I will make sure that all of my work is cited precisely and in relation to it’s source.
Goal 2: Proofreading- I will make sure that my work this year is perfectly proofread and has no grammatical errors. In my college essay, I wrote, “An aroma of rising bread and cigarettes fill my head the second I walk out of the airport. This obviously was not home and at that moment, I didn’t think it ever truly would feel like home.” In this assignment, I struggled with staying in past tense consistently. I switched from past to present tense a lot and didn’t seem to notice until a peer critiqued my work. Also, I added an unnecessary comma in the middle of my sentence which interrupted the smoothness of it. Instead, I should’ve said, “An aroma of rising bread and cigarettes filled my head the second I walked out of the airport. This obviously was not home and at that moment I didn’t think it ever truly would feel like home.” There, I changed all of my sentences into past tense and continued that throughout the rest of my essay. To avert this from happening again, I will rely on myself to proof read it to myself more than 4 times keeping in mind the rubric and what I need to do. Also, peer critiques are a big advantage because they point out mistakes I never noticed until then. They also help to get a different perspective on my work and ways it can be modified for the better. I will apply these skills to propel my proofreading skills in school this year.
Goal 3: Annotating- This year, I will make sure that I have broken up articles that are presented in front of me and have highlighted key points so that I can understand the text better. While reading an essay called, ‘The Habits of Highly Cynical People,’ it was apparent to me that I didn’t understand the text a little or even at all. I hadn’t written down key points or terms throughout the article. Therefore I had forgotten a lot of the gist and couldn’t refer back to it because of lack of notes. I had to re-read the bulky article 3 times before I understood it enough to seminar. To fix this from happening again, I will need to actively highlight, underline, question and write points that I find important in the readings. This will prevent me from forgetting previous knowledge and I will also be more engaged with the text.
College Essay Reflection- While writing my college essay, I grew as a writer by tangling creative language into my work to make it more authentic. In the first sentence for example, I had originally written, “It was at that moment, when the light coming from the seatbelt sign had finally stopped, that I transitioned to adulthood.” After many revisions and critiques, I adjusted my word choice to make a more meaningful sentence. “It was at that moment, when the light illuminated from the seatbelt sign had finally extinguished, that I transitioned to adulthood.” I wrote. Something that pushed me into adding more colorful language was the fact that I wanted to describe EXACTLY what those moments were like. Without descriptive words, it was almost impossible to vision what I was trying to say. To make this change happen, I referred to Thesaurus.com for help finding different words to use and also peers for which words they thought fit best in my sentences. The process was long and I went through many drafts. In the end, I am satisfied with the outcome and happy I put extra effort into it.
Goal 2: Proofreading- I will make sure that my work this year is perfectly proofread and has no grammatical errors. In my college essay, I wrote, “An aroma of rising bread and cigarettes fill my head the second I walk out of the airport. This obviously was not home and at that moment, I didn’t think it ever truly would feel like home.” In this assignment, I struggled with staying in past tense consistently. I switched from past to present tense a lot and didn’t seem to notice until a peer critiqued my work. Also, I added an unnecessary comma in the middle of my sentence which interrupted the smoothness of it. Instead, I should’ve said, “An aroma of rising bread and cigarettes filled my head the second I walked out of the airport. This obviously was not home and at that moment I didn’t think it ever truly would feel like home.” There, I changed all of my sentences into past tense and continued that throughout the rest of my essay. To avert this from happening again, I will rely on myself to proof read it to myself more than 4 times keeping in mind the rubric and what I need to do. Also, peer critiques are a big advantage because they point out mistakes I never noticed until then. They also help to get a different perspective on my work and ways it can be modified for the better. I will apply these skills to propel my proofreading skills in school this year.
Goal 3: Annotating- This year, I will make sure that I have broken up articles that are presented in front of me and have highlighted key points so that I can understand the text better. While reading an essay called, ‘The Habits of Highly Cynical People,’ it was apparent to me that I didn’t understand the text a little or even at all. I hadn’t written down key points or terms throughout the article. Therefore I had forgotten a lot of the gist and couldn’t refer back to it because of lack of notes. I had to re-read the bulky article 3 times before I understood it enough to seminar. To fix this from happening again, I will need to actively highlight, underline, question and write points that I find important in the readings. This will prevent me from forgetting previous knowledge and I will also be more engaged with the text.
College Essay Reflection- While writing my college essay, I grew as a writer by tangling creative language into my work to make it more authentic. In the first sentence for example, I had originally written, “It was at that moment, when the light coming from the seatbelt sign had finally stopped, that I transitioned to adulthood.” After many revisions and critiques, I adjusted my word choice to make a more meaningful sentence. “It was at that moment, when the light illuminated from the seatbelt sign had finally extinguished, that I transitioned to adulthood.” I wrote. Something that pushed me into adding more colorful language was the fact that I wanted to describe EXACTLY what those moments were like. Without descriptive words, it was almost impossible to vision what I was trying to say. To make this change happen, I referred to Thesaurus.com for help finding different words to use and also peers for which words they thought fit best in my sentences. The process was long and I went through many drafts. In the end, I am satisfied with the outcome and happy I put extra effort into it.