Forum; Shitty First Drafts

3/9/2015
1. From this, I personally believe that many people only see the final product and do not
stop and think about the journey involving complications and tribulations throughout the
way. All authors and writers start from square one and it does not come easy to produce a
well-written final product.
2. My previous impression has been that authors can literally just sit down and write
perfectly. After reading this article, I understood that all authors and writers struggle and
have to work to produce sufficient work.
3. I liked that he suggested to just type what is on your mind and to not worry about how
it sounds or if it makes sense. The main idea is to get the idea on paper and figure out the
rest later. All writers start somewhere.
Critical Analysis
This forum post helped me in more ways than one. In writing and English classes
that I have taken, I was unaware that it was okay for first drafts to lack all qualities
necessary. I was always under the assumption that first drafts were basically final drafts
that lacked a few sentences and minor grammatical corrections. I learned this by reading
the article and gaining the insight from a professional writer that first drafts are nowhere
near perfect and the simple task is too put the ideas down on paper and worrying about
organizing them later. To me, this was significant because of how detailed and involved
the Extended Inquiry Project was. It was important to start with a rough first draft
because it was easier to go through the processes and steps. Both my first draft and down
draft came together to be something that I have am proud of because of how shitty my
first drafts were. This forum post was important in regards to the semester because it
helped to ease my nerves and focus solely on putting what I wanted to say on paper and
not about making it flawless.
Forum; 3 Leads
3/25/2015
1. In this day in age, it seems almost impossible for someone to witness mass killings
going on for years and it become normal. The Holocaust is now seen as something so
unreal and far-fetched. However starting in 1933, hell on earth quickly came to be.
People were taken from their homes, and stripped of everything seen as comfortable for
them. Life after the Holocaust has been said to be more dreadful than the event itself.
Survivors came home to nothing; no family, no home, and no sense of getting their life
back. Once death has been surrounding and tormenting a person for so long, the
question of how these people eventually came to live a normal life again is thought by
many.

2. Currently, it does not seem fathomable that the government could be aware of mass
executions of a particular race and it seemed to be normal. However between the years

of 1930 and 1945, genocide directed mainly at the Jewish population surged through
most of Europe, causing mayhem. Once this awful government finally fell to defeat, life
for survivors was far from what they expected. Articles and survivor testimonies go into
detail talking about how when these men women and children came back to what had
previously been their home, nothing stood there. No one went back to the life they had
before. After death has been a weight on someones shoulders for so long, how does one
regain a normal life?

3. Every person I see is fighting an internal battle. Every person that I walk past on my
way to class is stressed or worried about an event is not visible Internal battles like these
may be small or a large live event. It may be hard to imagine, but at one point in time,
internal battles were involving the Holocaust. The survivors of the Holocaust were given
both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing that they made it out alive, but it was a curse
that they had to continue on in life with family members missing, their house gone and
having to start life over again. I was intrigued to dive head first reading multiple survivor
testimonies hearing how these people got through this. After death has been surrounding
someone for so long, how does one regain a normal life?
Critical Analysis
This was one of my favorite forum posts that were assigned to me. Forcing myself
to write three separate and different leads to my Final Exploratory Essay helped me in
multiple ways. Primarily, I liked that I had to craft leads that were all separate. By writing
three leads, in the end I believe that I morphed the three together and ended up with a
first paragraph that was better than all three. How did I learn from this? I learned to write
diverse leads that are out of the ordinary than what I would normally write. By doing this,
it changes the normal outlook of how one would start and write an essay. It is significant
to write three different leads because it has put me in the mindset from here on out to go
outside of my comfort zone and write leads that will end up being final product material.
I found this forum post to benefit me throughout the semester because it helped in the
way that I could start my paper by going in different directions and not doing the same
thing as other papers.
Forum; Topic Proposal
1/30/2015

Critical Analysis
My topic proposal that I published had both my prezi and concept map in it. I
enjoyed crafting my prezi because it has parts in it that I had written in it that again
helped me to narrow my thoughts down. In the beginning of the semester I felt like
everything I wrote and submitted was quite broad and failed to narrow down on what I
truly was thinking. I find difficulty in narrowing down my thoughts and putting exactly
what I want to say into words. I liked that the assignment of a topic proposal was
assigned to us because it organized everything I was thinking!
My Peer Review on Carryls Paper
4/8/2015
-Good title!!
-I liked the scene in your introduction
-I liked the opinion throughout your essay
-I would maybe add a little more research dealing with religion, and personal accounts
etc.
-I liked how you had so many rhetorical questions; it kept me interested and wanting to
read more.
-You could maybe expand more in your introduction about what you think and how
youre going to answer the question!
Critical Analysis
Having the task of peer reviewing someone elses paper was something that I had
always done in the past, but never this thorough. In this particular peer essay, I actually
sat down and read the essay word for word. Personally, I learned that more good than bad
comes from peer editing. What I picked up on is that when one reads their own paper so
many times, they become numb to what needs help and often overlook what someone
else may see. I learned that if one focuses on the paper of a peer and has the mindset of
providing constructive criticism, so much productivity could emerge. It is significant to
learn and experience how to peer review to both take criticism in a more effective way
and to properly edit and analyze a paper when in UWRT 1102.