Therefore, I decided to just post the script below, because that is content from my video, just not the video itself. Note: The video in its current "rough cut" state is 4 minutes and 33 seconds long.
Some things I want my peer reviewers to know:
Well, obviously you can't see my video but it is done and I'm just trying to work out tech issues.
Weaknesses of my video:
The sound, I'm working on making it sound better than it does right now but it'll be fixed before I turn it in (although you can't see that). But content wise, I just want to make sure that the content is in a logical order and everything makes sense.
Strengths of my video:
Besides whether or not it is in a logical order, I do think that I have good content that I included that fits the topic of the project and includes everything required.
Script:
Hey everyone, my name is Kelly from the U of A and today's video will be discussing my writing process throughout the course of my English 109H class as well as successes and challenges that arose over the duration of this past semester.
Specifically, I will be talking about things such as the blog posts I have written and completed, projects 1 through 3, organization strengths and weaknesses, and strengths and weaknesses of my project content.
Throughout this semester I have seen myself as well as my writing grow exponentially. Although this course was definitely difficult at times, I feel as though overall it helped shape me into a better writer as helping me lean to manage my time better and learn different programs for different projects.
Most importantly, my writing style and process has changed and developed throughout the semester. First off, looking at blog posts, the tone I used in the first posts are very different to the tone I would use now. This is because, when I first started with the blog posts I wasn't familiar with blogging at all. So I feel as though I wrote them more like essays, or more formal writing.
As the semester went on and I became more comfortable with the blogging process I began to put my personality into the posts more. Also, my process overall changed when it came to working on the projects themselves. For the first project I tried to start working on it without planning everything out first.
Although I did fine on that project, I should have planned more. Not planning made it very difficult to go back and edit as well as put the project together overall. For the second, third, and last project, I definitely did more planning before jumping right into the project itself. That made it so much easier for me to gather my thoughts and have a smoother production week because I already knew what each part of my project was going to say or do.
I felt that overall my writing process became more smooth as the semester continued and I found a process that worked for me because of all of the freedom I had in this course to work in a manner that worked for me. Because the class was laid out like that I was able to find different ways that I personally like to write, rather than the standard writing process most students use in high school, for example. My newfound writing process will now be able to help me all through college and beyond.
Throughout this semester there definitely were strengths and weaknesses I encountered. In areas such as time management, organization, and project content, I had both strengths and weaknesses.
With the topic of time management, I definitely had some difficulties. I remember for the very first project I left all of the blog posts and the rough draft till 3 days before it was all due. Lets just say I never made that big of a time management mistake again.
With the other projects and blog posts after that I still sometimes procrastinated, but I definitely did not have as much time management issue that I did in the beginning.
That being said, some of the strengths I had with time management came later in the semester. I began getting some (not all) of my blog posts done early, giving myself more buffer room and time for the project itself. The decrease in the number of blog posts halfway through the semester also definitely helped me out with that.
Organization I have realized is a huge part to the writing process and time management as well.
Again, referring back to project 1, I was definitely not organized. New to the course and new to the kinds of genres we were working in, I was not prepared and wasn’t aware of how much organizing and planning I would have to do.
That being said I definitely was unorganized going into project 1. I didn’t look at the blog posts ahead of time and jumped right into everything without a real plan.
I still managed to get everything done but it would’ve gone much smoother had I created a plan for myself.
However I definitely did have some strengths with organization. For every project after that, I planned what to get done when. Shoutout to the content outline and production schedule blog posts because those definitely helped.
Although I didn’t stick to the production schedule exactly, making it still gave me a sense of what I was going to have to get done, so I was aware ahead of time of how much work I needed to do that week.
Project 1 definitely gave me the most trouble in relation to content. Because the project was to pick and issue and stay completely unbiased on it, that was hard. I am a very opinionated person but that taught me to just tell the facts about the situation.
Also, that project’s topic was so specific that it made it hard to find information and credible sources. Realizing halfway through that I didn’t really like my topic because I wasn’t able to take a stance on it also made the process of getting it done more difficult.
I had picked a QRG for project 1 because I felt as though it was the easiest genre to use for an informational topic.
Thankfully project 2 proved to be more successful. I picked to do a podcast for this project for a very good reason. Interviews. This project was all about interviewing people from my discipline (business) about their writing process.
Although I didn’t end up using the actual audio from the interviews in my podcast, a podcast was still easier to use for this project because I could just speak about what my interviewees said, rather than trying to write it all down.
I definitely enjoyed project 2 more than the first because of the topic itself. It was very cool to be able to interview people from Eller so I’m very glad I got that experience.
Project 3, by far, was my favorite project. The topic pertained to an argument, and as I already said I can be a very opinionated person, so this was right up my alley.
I chose an essay for this project because I felt it was the easiest way to gather my thoughts. Also because project 3 was the most weighted grade wise and between an essay or a video, I’m definitely more comfortable with an essay.
Project 3 was successful all around. I got things done early because I was so excited to rant about my topic, UA Alerts. I was definitely the most proud of that project and I was ecstatic to see that the grade I received reflected the hard work I had put in.
And now we get to this project. The final project of the semester. I feel as though this semester went by way too fast. It’s cliche to say but I really do feel like I just got here.
Through all the ups and downs of this course this semester, I am happy with what I have learned and how my writing process has evolved.
I enjoyed the people in this class as well as learning how to work in different genres and styles. All of the things I did in this class, especially the blog posts, have helped me transform into a better writer that is more comfortable sharing my writing with other people, rather than keeping it to myself and just the person grading it.
Well, that’s all from me. Thank you for tuning into my video!
