Midterm Reflections

Section 1

Please read the description of the course goals as they are listed on the course website. Do you feel we are proceeding towards these goals? What is so far proving most useful? What would you change, and why? I feel like our class is meeting some of the goals for ENC 3310. Myself and a few of the other students that I have talked to have certainly branched out and tried different ways of communicating ideas with each other. I've seen that some of the students have really blossomed on the wiki and are looking for the next level to take their talents to. Jillian, for one, talks about technologies that I don't even begin to understand. We certainly have been collaborating, through our papers and wiki-sites. I think that most of us have had a chance to view video games from an angle that we had never thought about before, and I'm positive that every student has learned about something that interests them. I'm sure that we are proceeding, but not so sure that all of the students are proceeding at the same rate. I think the peer-calibrated grading over the wikis has been useful, as well as the in-class discussions about our ideas and papers. Those two things have been the most useful to me, at least when the responses from my peers about my paper is more than "that was good." I would have more collaboration in the future, but on a larger scale, like the final project. I would love more open discussions in class as well. 

What are you learning in class? What more do you think you could learn in class? How can class be structured to help you learn what matters to you? I'm actually not sure what exactly I've learned so far. That's not to say that I haven't learned anything in class. I've learned more about my paper topics and the topics of my peers. I've learned about reviewing papers fairly and giving positive feedback. I've learned about some broad writing techniques and the ways in which they are sometimes used. I've learned about the different mediums on which people may lay out their ideas, from comic books to wikis. Okay, so I guess I have learned a lot, but I mean that I'm not sure what I've learned about my personal writing abilities. I've written papers and had people give me some feedback, but I still haven't the faintest idea of where I fall in the realm of expository writing. This is what I could learn in the future in ENC 3310, more about where my faults and strengths are when it comes to expository writing. I think more emphasis on expository techniques and examples of them from our papers, would help me learn this. I feel that we don't always focus on the expository aspects of our papers enough.

How do you define your responsibilities to this class? How are you living up to those responsibilities? What are your greatest contributions to class? What can you improve? This class has a lot of responsibility. There is a lot of writing to be done, and many, many places in which to do it. Aside from our own projects, students are to focus on their peer's pages and projects and writings and interact with those as well. Coming to class is a must in my opinion because we cover so much in each and every class. I can't imagine missing one, I'd feel very far behind. Keeping up with the readings is important too. I feel that I'm doing alright, but not great in meeting my responsibilities. I get my assigned writings in on time and come to every class. I also try to keep up to date with what's happening around the wiki, although this is a bit hard because it has grown so much since the beginning. I do feel like I'm not on the wiki as much as I would like to be though, which I hope to improve. I'd also like to interact a bit more with some of my classmates that I haven't quite paid attention to yet. I believe this is because I get along very well with a few members of the class and tend to gravitate towards them. I also need to keep up better with the readings.

How do you define ShareRiff's responsibilities as teacher of this class? Is ShareRiff fulfilling those responsibilities? What more or different can he do to help you fulfill the work of this class? That is kind of a tough question. This is a very different class than any others that I've had, so to compare him to other college professor's seems pointless. I suppose the generic answer would be that his responsibilities include having us write a certain amount of words over the course of the semester and guiding us through the process of expository writing and grading us at the end. In this class though, he probably has more responsibilities because there is so much more going on. He has to look over the wiki and answer technical questions and deal with computer problems/excuses. There is a lot of material written by students to be read, and it may not always be easy to find. I think he is doing well with these responsibilities, but I also think he is frustrated. It as a large project to oversee with a million different parts. As students, we have been writing and we have learned a few writing techniques to use. He somehow manages to keep up with the wiki and the students using it. Some things that could be done differently are the focus of the classes. I think more class discussions or more interactive lectures would be good, as every class it seems like he is the only one talking, which has to be tiring. I think some form of feedback would help a lot. I personally have no idea how I'm doing in this class, or whether I need to change the way I'm doing things. Some of the other students have also expressed confusion about what exactly we are doing and how we're supposed to do certain assignments. Maybe examples could clear this up.

What more or different can ShareRiff do to help you understand the work he is asking you to do? "What more or different can he do to help you fulfill the work of this class" is in the last question as well. Some things that could be done differently are the focus of the classes. I think more class discussions or more interactive lectures would be good, as every class it seems like he is the only one talking, which has to be tiring. I think some form of feedback would help a lot. I personally have no idea how I'm doing in this class, or whether I need to change the way I'm doing things. Some of the other students have also expressed confusion about what exactly we are doing and how we're supposed to do certain assignments. Maybe examples could clear this up. A revamping of the goals for some assignments, or at least a restatement, may help ease confusion.

What suggestions do you have for how we can improve class, to help you learn more, and enjoy the class and the learning more? (you can bullet your list for easier reading)

• more class discussions and interactive lectures
• a restatement of our goals as a class
• feedback
• closer examination of expository techniques
• examples of assignments

Section 2

1. The videos that I made for fun to accompany my piece on interactivity are here :) I feel that they represent some of my experience with video games and interactivity. I found some more really cool stuff to do with my DS the other day, so I may be adding some new videos soon.

2. I'm not entirely sure what a cover letter is, but everything that google found looked pretty much the same so I'll try that, minus the personal information.

Cover Letter

Michele Ruppel

mruppel@mail.usf.edu

ShareRiff

ENC 3310

Dear Mr. ShareRiff,

My name is Michele Ruppel and I am a student at the University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg campus. I am enrolled in your Expository Writing  course. I am writing to assure you that I am meeting the requirements of your course.

I am posting on the wiki site quite often, both professionally and personally. I have all of my professional papers organized on my page. I also have a personal blog in which I write my feelings as they occur. I have been analyzing and revising my works, as well as analyzing the works of my peers. I have been interacting with my peers a lot, discussing ideas and papers, mainly through the wiki site. My writing does not stray, but focuses upon the topic that I want my audience to become knowledgeable about.

I believe that I have gained Rhetorical Knowledge. I have learned how to clarify points in my writing so that my audience can easily comprehend my examples. I have learned how to properly use expository writing to explain my topic in a way that makes sense. My research was intriguing because it included a lot of examples from both ordinary people and experts. My tone and context fit well with my topic because they allowed my audience to understand that I had personal experience in my topic and that my information was relevant.

Critical thinking, writing, and reading all had a part in my writing because I needed to relate my own experiences and knowledge to my audience. I believe that I fulfilled my duty to my audience because I presented my ideas in a clear manner and provided examples and research. My research was well-founded, and went deeper than I planned because I wanted to really know what Second Life and interactivity were capable of so I could share that information with my audience. I feel that I have become a more critical thinker about what I write and how I write. When coming up with ideas, I just couldn't find one, so I sat down and thought about some of the games that I play every day and how cool it is that they connect me with other gamers all over the world and then, well, then I had my paper.

In composing my papers, I got to play a lot with the way I write. I've learned to think a little more broadly about some topics because that allowed me to better supply my audience with information. Planning has become a much bigger part of my writing and adds a lot to the way my paper is organized. Working with my peers was very useful and gave me a lot of ideas for my interactivity piece. Peer reviews also helped me realize that I do need to step back and really look at my work again before jumping back in, because both little things and big things are important. The only way that I could think to make the peer reviews a little better would be to pay more attention to the idea of the paper, rather than to just focus completely on the little things. I really enjoyed branching out and playing with videos to go with this paper. It was something that I had never done before and I'm really happy with my scratchy videos.

Writing today includes more technology than you'd think. I write from my laptop, which connects wirelessly to the home computer in my living room. The internet is a technology in itself, as is even this wiki. I also used my experience playing with my Nintendo DS Lite and my boyfriend's Xbox 360 in my interactivity piece. The drawbacks that come from using technology are in all shapes and sizes. Last night a lot of them came after me. My internet connection broke off because of my brother's Xbox 360, the wiki kept messing up my text, and my laptop turned itself off to do updates. Then there is always the possibility of files vanishing. I have all of my stuff backed up, but the thought still scares me to death.

Sincerely,

     Michele Ruppel