Outroduction

PART ONE: TWO Examples of Transformative Learning

1. Doing the Connect assignments actually really helped me organize my thoughts for research. Initially, I was a bit scared to have to find full length research papers rather than easier to consume sources like online articles, interview excerpts, etc. You get so used to instant food and now you're telling me to eat something organic?! I kid. But really, I think doing those assignments helped me focus on what I needed to get out of the papers. It was "busy work" I didn't mind because for me personally, I needed it!
   

2. This may sound odd and possibly risky, but I think my writing transformed the most when transitioning from the Literature Review to the Advocacy Project. With the LR, I still felt like a lot of my writing was very much still stuck in a place where I needed to write like I was analyzing a novel or a book rather than research. I couldn't grasp for a bit that all I needed to do was state the facts so to speak and not overanalyze it myself. It felt like I was doing backflips and flourishes when really what was asked for were more simple somersaults and rolls. I think this also came from correcting myself to avoid patch writing. Correcting this major error actually helped me later on for the AP. Quotes or citations I used in the latter portion of this quarter felt more deliberate and concise and not like I was grasping for the word count. Honestly, the whole writing process was an immense roller coaster because I've never been confident in many things especially my own writing.

PART TWO: Taking Stock-- TWO Problems & A Plan for the Future

1. PEER REVIEW. This is less a problem with Peer Review in itself and more of an issue for myself trying to get more out of it. I really want to be able to effectively give better critiques and commentary, because it trains my own eyes how to read and identify what makes a bad paper bad and a good paper good. During the times of the Peer Review, I felt terrible giving commentary because I was constantly comparing peers' papers to my own. Although I feel like in some areas, it was obvious there was a difference in quality, I didn't feel great using my own work as an awkward gold standard. There's no perfect paper, but I think to counter this I just need to expose myself to better writing and understand again what qualities they have that my peers' or even my own writing lack.
   

2. Definitely another issue I came along with was a bit of apathy during things like the obligated Twitter assignments. This probably also stemmed from my anxiety about the Literature Review at the time and knowing full well that what I was going to write was likely going to be terrible. For a bit, I had a bit of black and white thinking where I couldn't find motivation or particular interest to write. If I knew it was going to be terrible, why should I bother writing it? Why should I add more garbage to the academic world? I just didn't want to contribute and deliberately put myself in this imaginary "This student sucks at writing" box. It wasn't until the Advocacy Project that I felt like what I was doing was something I thought that was genuinely good work. For this issue, I guess I just have to find internal value/motivation in the work I do. A lot of times all students have to judge performance are their grades, but that's it. Finding personal validation is difficult and I just have to stumble my way towards telling myself that not accomplishing 150% doesn't mean I'm bad.

Well that's it for this blog! As the romance languages say,

Au revwell~

I wasn't exactly sure if we still needed an image for this blog, so I just put one for good measure. Above is a picture of my favorite band, Ninja Sex Party whose music has greatly helped me through thick and thin.