Category: ENG-110 (Page 2 of 2)

Before starting at the University of New England, I had done maybe two peer review edits throughout my four years of high school. Due to that I was hesitant to actually peer review. I was worried my classmates would take my comments too harshly. Luckily, they did not nor did I with theirs. I think the peer review benefited me greatly because it allowed me to see things that I may not have seen if I had just reviewed myself. Laura and Renee helped me reorganize my essay, making it flow much better. I would recommend peer reviewing in every class that asks you to write essays! Now that the first edits were made, I am going to reread my essay and make more corrections. After that I will ask others to peer review again! I am really glad we peer reviewed. 

So far in English 110, we have read the introduction of Emerging by Barclay Barrios, Reporting Live from Tomorrow by Daniel Gilbert, The Moral Bucket List by David Brooks (an article), and What Makes a Good Life by Robert Waldinger (a Ted Talk). Through all these pieces we were asked to annotate and reflect. Before English 110, in high school I was always told to annotate and use sticky notes to mark pages. I have brought these concepts with me to English 110 because I feel as though annotating is very important as well as having an exact page number for discussions. Although I already knew the key concepts of annotating before beginning this English class, I believe my skills have evolved. We were given a handout that highlights the best ways to annotate works of literature and I believe it helps to keep you on track and focused. I have used this annotation paper with each piece and used it to broadened my critical thinking and ability to compare and contrast work. I also believe that being given different opinions has helped me create my own. Gilbert’s outlook on happiness is a very dark look compared to the article or the Ted Talk. Being given many different pieces has helped me create an opinion based on ideas from both sides Although my annotation skills have gotten better I still believe they need more work because I tend to stray from the reading and focus on other things around me. I hope after this class I will be able to stay focused on a reading and think more critically about the piece.