Peer Review for Alex Vergara

Last blog post for ENGL 109H!! This is a very bittersweet moment but I am happy to be done with the blogs. Below is my peer review for Alex Vergara.

1. The name of the title and author for the project you reviewed 

• Alex Vergara
• Open Post to Peer Reviewers

2. A working hyperlink to the project you reviewed 

• https://alexvergara8.blogspot.com/2016/05/open-post-to-peer-reviewers.html?showComment=1462523598424#c3264742826206456323

3. An explanation of the peer review activity you selected for the project you reviewed 

• I commented on Alex’s form. This means I made sure she used all of the conventions of the video essay correctly.

4. An explanation of how you think you helped the author with your feedback (in other words, how did you help them make their work better?) 

• I told her she needs to add more video at the end because she made a video essay and there was just a black background while she spoke at the end. I also told her to fix the volume because some parts were louder or quieter.

5. An explanation of how you incorporated something from the suggested Student’s Guide readings (or any other course materials, if you’d prefer) into your feedback 

• The Student’s Guide stresses the importance of form. Good form and using the conventions of specific genres can be really effective. This is what I helped Alex with.

6. One thing about their work that you admired or think you could learn from

• I loved how she was very honest about her procrastination and used live video to show it!

Editorial Report 15b

Below is my second editorial report for the final project. I did not change very much but every detail matters!

Selection from ‘Rough Cut’:

T: Interesting…So you had a lot of successes with the projects then?

E: Yes and no. There were many nights where I cried and felt defeated by technology. The thing about working in different genres is that you have to write an entire script, and if you were just writing an essay you would be done. However, for videos essays you need to record your voice and then add images and videos, for podcasts you need to record your voice and add sound effects and music, and for QRG’s you need to format it in the write way. All of these genres go above and beyond essays and take up immense amounts of time, especially when you have never worked in the genres before, which was my case. I had no idea how to use iMovie and it intimidated me greatly. It took me hours to figure out how to even work it and upload images and videos to it. I got a hang of it after awhile but it still took a lot of time. My mom was visiting one weekend to watch my dance show and I wouldn’t even hang out with her because I wanted to work on my video essay. Her exact quote was, “You’re working too hard on this English project.” Maybe I was, but I had already worked so hard on it and I was very invested in the project that I wanted it to be perfect. Because I am a dancer, I am a perfectionist at everything I do. That did not help me when it came to the blogs. Balancing the blogs and the projects was one of the biggest challenges for me, especially for the first project. I wanted my blogs to be perfect so I spent the entire week working on them, but then I wouldn’t have time to work on the actual project. Sometimes the blogs were very beneficial in the creation of my projects. However, a few of them I felt were a little tedious and a waste of my time, yet I still put 100% effort into them. By project two I learned to space out my time more between my blogs and project. Overall, there were many stressful nights of me crying and getting very frustrated with this class (ask my boyfriend) but I feel as if I have gained very valuable skills that will be beneficial to me later in life.

T: That is so great to hear. So you went through a lot of struggles this semester, what was it all for? What motivated you to keep you going.

Re-edited Selection:

T: Interesting…So it’s safe to say you had a lot of successes with the projects then?

E: Yes and no. There were many nights where I cried and felt defeated by technology. The thing about working in different genres is that you have to write an entire script, and if you were just writing an essay you would be done. However, for videos essays you need to record your voice and then add images and videos, for podcasts you need to record your voice and add sound effects and music, and for QRG’s you need to format it in the write way. All of these genres go above and beyond essays and take up immense amounts of time, especially when you have never worked in the genres before, which was my case. Looking back on it I would say the video essay was one of the harder project for me to accomplish.  I had no idea how to use iMovie and it just really intimidated me. It took me hours to figure out how to even work it and upload images and videos to it. I got a hang of it after awhile but it still took a lot of time. My mom was visiting one weekend to watch my dance show and I wouldn’t even hang out with her because I wanted to work on my video essay. Her exact quote was, “You’re working too hard on this English project.” Maybe I was, but I had already worked so hard on it and I was very invested in the project that I wanted it to be perfect. Because I am a dancer, I have a perfectionist mindset with everything I do. That did not help me when it came to the blogs. Balancing the blogs and the projects was one of the biggest challenges for me, especially for the first project. I wanted my blogs to be perfect so I spent the entire week working on them, but then I wouldn’t have time to work on the actual project. Sometimes the blogs were very beneficial in the creation of my projects. However, a few of them I felt were a little tedious and a waste of my time, yet I still put 100% effort into them. By project two I learned to space out my time more between my blogs and project. Overall, there were many stressful nights of me crying and getting very frustrated with this class (just ask my boyfriend) but I feel as if I have gained very valuable skills that will be beneficial to me later in life.

T: Wow, I guess no one really can anticipate how mentally taxing and time consuming the projects are going to be before they start them, but the fact that you were able to balance them along with the blogs, put in as much effort as you did, and come out better off than where you started is so great to hear. So you went through a lot of struggles this semester, but what was it all for? What motivated you to keep you going?

Questions:

1. How did the content change (even slightly - details matter!) when you re-edited it? Why do you think the content is being communicated more effectively in the re-edited version?

• Again, the only thing that change from my rough cut was what my interviewee says. Before he literally said one line, “ That is so great to hear.” But after I edited the script, I gave him more of a response to what I answered to his question so it is more of a conversation rather than me just talking the entire time. 

2. How did the form change (even slightly - details matter!) when you re-edited it? Why do you think the form is presenting the content more effectively in the re-edited version?

• This is the script to my podcast so the only was the form changed was that it got a little bit longer.

Editorial Report 15a

Below is my first editorial report for the final project. It is still a work in progress and I will probably end up editing more later!

Selection from ‘Rough Cut’:
T: So Emily, to start off, I want to ask you about your writing process, and how it has changed this year compared to how you wrote in high school.

E: Good question! My writing process in high school was way different from what it is now. I think the reason is because my schedule was so different. In high school, I went to school all day, came home, and then went straight to dance. Sometimes I would not get home until past 10pm. By the time I got home and showered, I wouldn’t start my homework until 11. And of course, whenever I had essays due, I would wait until the night before it was due to start writing. I would end up staying up until 4 in the morning drinking coffee, trying to keep my eyes open, doing research, creating an outline, and then writing an entire essay. Crazy, I know. And I never learned….until I got to college. I realized that writing a 10-page paper, or creating an entire video essay the night before it’s due, is not possible. In this transition, I began working on papers a little bit everyday and began to truly understand myself as a writer and how I worked. I realized that my best work did not come from writing at 12 in the morning. In fact, I would rather wake up early, well 8 am which is early for a college student, and work on essays then. Because I started managing my time better, I had more time for research and outlining. I discovered I am a heavy planner and prefer to revise as I go. I like to be prepared so after I write I don’t have to change my entire essay, but only need to make small, local revisions. Discovering my writing process is what helped me survive English 109H.

T: Wow! What a difference from high school! So I understand Bottai assigns four major projects and you get to choose which genre to use for each, but by the end of the semester you had to use all four of the genres.

Re-edited Selection:

T: So Emily, to start off, I just want to ask you about your writing process and more specifically, how it has changed over the course of this year compared to how you wrote in high school.

E: Good question! My writing process in high school was way different from what it is now. I think the reason is because my schedule was so different. In high school, I went to school all day, came home, and then went straight to dance. Sometimes I would not get home until past 10pm. By the time I got home and showered, I wouldn’t start my homework until 11. And of course, whenever I had essays due, I would wait until the night before it was due to start writing. I would end up staying up until 4 in the morning drinking coffee, trying to keep my eyes open, doing research, creating an outline, and then writing an entire essay. Crazy, I know. And I never learned….until I got to college. I realized that writing a 10-page paper, or creating an entire video essay the night before it’s due, is not possible. In this transition, I began working on papers a little bit everyday and began to truly understand myself as a writer and how I worked. I realized that my best work did not come from writing at 12 in the morning. In fact, I would rather wake up early, well 8 am, which is early for a college student, and work on essays then. Because I started managing my time better, I had more time for research and outlining. I discovered I am a heavy planner and prefer to revise as I go. I like to be prepared so after I write I don’t have to change my entire essay, but only need to make small, local revisions. Discovering my writing process is what helped me survive English 109H.

T: (laughs) I think we can all sympathize with waiting until the last minute but I’m impressed you made such a profound change. So let’s talk more about the class itself. I understand Bottai assigns four major projects and you get to choose which genre to use for each, but by the end of the semester you had to use all four of the genres, right? 

Questions:

1. How did the content change (even slightly - details matter!) when you re-edited it? Why do you think the content is being communicated more effectively in the re-edited version?

• The only thing I really changed from my rough cut was my interviewees responses to me. At first I only focused on what I was going to say and gave him one word responses to my answers. I realized that is not the correct way to structure an interview, so I gave him more of a reflective response before he asks me another question.

2. How did the form change (even slightly - details matter!) when you re-edited it? Why do you think the form is presenting the content more effectively in the re-edited version?

• The form is an interview so the only way it changed was giving Tommy (my interviewee) more lines to say which made his part a little longer.

Open Post to Peer Reviewers

Below is the rough cut of my final project. I would love to receive peer reviews and comments on it!

The Rough Cut of my project can be found here.


1. Key information about your particular project that you would like anyone who peer reviews your draft to know

• I would like my viewers to know that this is the script to my podcast, that is why it is less formal and is structured as an interview.

2. Major issues or weaknesses in the “Rough Cut” that you’re already aware of (as well as anything you’d like to know from your editors about those weaknesses)

• I am worried that I do not go into enough detail for some of the subjects. I tried to elaborate and give specific details but I am not sure if I did that enough.

3. Major virtues or strengths in the “Rough Cut” that you’re already aware of (as well as anything you’d like to know from your editors about those strengths)

• I think structuring this project as an interview was very smart, especially because I am making a podcast. Instead of just talking about myself the entire time, I will have someone else speaking as well, asking me questions to make it more interesting.