Lesson 14 Prompt: Research Paper Reflection

The prompt for Lesson 15 is : write about what you wish you had done differently while you worked on your paper.

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If I had an opportunity to write this paper again I would integrate more sources. I feel like citing eight sources for the paper doesn't cover the vast amount of knowledge I acquired in order to write it in the first place. I read countless articles, talked to my peers, talked to coaches and teachers and friends, and poured over newspapers in order to gain enough knowledge on the International Criminal Court, yet that is not reflected in my work because the information I received was general, and considered common knowledge in the world of international judicial practice (thus there is no need for citation, according to Hacker).

Also, I would liked to have consulted more print sources. Aside from brief articles from The Economist, it was challenging to find up-to-date print sources on the international Criminal Court. Without signing up for an expensive international politics magazine, finding sources was challenging.

All in all, however, I am very pleased with the paper I wrote for this class. It was a wonderful journey in writing and reflects my learned abilities. 

-Ace 

Lesson 13 Prompt: Consulting with an Editor

For lesson 13 students were to have another person edit or look over their work. The prompt for lesson 13 is: Write about your experience consulting with someone about your writing. 

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I have always found it fun to have someone else look over writing that I have worked hard to research and write well. Not only does it give someone a chance to see my work other than myself and my teacher, but consulting with another person also drastically improves my writing.

When working on a paper longer than six pages, it becomes very time consuming to edit every word with a fine-tooth comb, and by the time I'm around the eighth or ninth page my comb is often missing several teeth and it's certainly no longer as fine. Of course, I often start on the last page and work backwards later, which solves a great deal, but even after I've been staring at the pages for days I miss things. This is my largest problem when it comes to writing, especially when I'm writing about a subject that I have been studying and researching for months. I lose sight of any logical fallacies, contradictions, and complications in my writing; problems a fresh pair of eyes with little to no knowledge of the paper's subject can spot within minutes. From the large problems, unclear arguments to contradicting arguments, to the small problems, grammatical errors and misused words, I tend to blur them together after working on a paper for a long time. Just having one person read the paper pointed many, many problems out to me. Problems that I was embarrassed as to have missed!

I actually had three people read through my rough draft, not including the instructor for this course. I emailed my paper to one of my parents friends who, while not an avid writer, has a nit-picky eye for detail and small errors. Because I asked her to only focus on the really small things and nothing big-picture, I did not have her send proof of consultation to R. Kline. The second person I emailed my paper to is a friend of mine who debated the topic of the International Criminal Court (my research paper's topic) several months ago and accumulated quite a bit of knowledge on the subject. I asked him to go through the paper briefly and look for any incorrect information, illogical arguments, or weak arguments. He was happy to do this for me, and did not find anything wrong with my arguments. I did not have him send an email to R. Kline because we never really met and discussed the paper, he just let me know my arguments were all strong and correct. The third person I consulted with was my main 'editor' for the rough draft. I printed a copy out for her and we met to discuss general ways to improve the paper. She has quite an eye for detail as well, so she helped me find all the little errors in my paper that could be fixed easily. While she did not know much about the International Criminal Court, she was able to point out several ways to improve my arguments, and several points that were slightly contradictory. I was ever grateful to meet with her and discuss my paper, because her fresh eyes were able to catch many things I missed when I went through it myself.

All the consultations will make it much easier to complete my final paper.

-Ace