Blog 16: Peer review recap, part 4

What was the most useful aspect(s) of peer review? What parts of the process did you find least useful?
The most useful aspect of peer review is getting some insight into your work. It's nice to hear what others have to say - even it it's somewhat negative - as long as it can be used constructively, it's okay with me. The least useful aspect was receiving positive comments without any critical comments.

What do you think you have learned this term about responding to others' writing?
This term I learned that it is crucial is be as concise and constructive as possible when responding to others' writing. We're all in this boat together, we should be working together to recieve the grades we deserve.

What do you think you have learned this term about making use of your classmates' advice?
I was taught a long time ago that you should use your own discretion when recieving feedback - that is to say, only use the suggestions you feel will be useful or beneficial. I thought recieving advice on my papers was extremely useful, but there were some I didn't necessarily agree with - which is OK. In fact it's good because it opens your mind to new directions your paper may or may not take.

Anything else about peer review?
It's is very useful when used appropriately. I enjoyed learning about and using Google Docs and plan to use it in the future.

Thankyou,
David Slaga.

Blog 15: Looking back at past readings, looking forward to the essay about the movie-making process

I think Strunk and White, Williams, & Ong will be particulary helpful for me when writing my essay.

Through this experience I've learned that writing is the backbone of any technological medium. You need to start somewhere. For this assignment we needed to create a video depicting some sort of grammar rule. This required us to go back to our readings (particularly Strunk, White, and Williams) and create some sort of script or outline for what we planned on filming. Surprisingly, I felt the writing part was the easiest. The filming and editing has been giving us the most trouble.

Since we are making such a low-grade video (at least our group is) it's difficult to draw strong connections between some of our readings and this project. However, we drew from 'Elements of Style' and 'Style: Toward Clarity and Grace' in that we expand on the "Omit Needless Words" rule.

Ong believes writing is a technology and I couldn't agree with the guy more. Especially in our information age... so much writing goes into everything we see on television and the internet. Albiet, TV is jammed with mostly "reality" shows now - but I would bet my tombstone that quite a bit of writing goes into those shows. Makes me think of the writers strike a year or two back. This proved that writing is the backbone to our media relations (entertainment, news, etc...) and without, there is much less direction. Writing directs so to speak.

I feel like I will have quite a bit to write about when I start my essay on this project. There have been things that went smoothly and things that have been borderline disasterous. For example... writing and filming the first scenes were a breeze but when it came to editing... one of our group members forgot the camera one day. No big deal, really... but it put a damper on our project I think. Also, our file was deleted off the school computer. Thankfully, it was saved on one of the cameras. It's been a bumpy ride, but I can't wait to see the final result.

YouTube: is it good? is it bad? is it writing?"

For me, this process has more more confusing than I expected. I've heard many times that making your first video is always the hardest and I've found it to be true. Maybe it's because we are collaborating for this one. Actually, I'm sure of it. Too many people with too many different ideas to get things done in a timely fashion. Since this is a low-end video we should be more concerned with the writing part than the video part. This isn't the case for some in my group. I think the writing part is the most important part, actually. It's the "meat and potatoes" or backbone of the whole operation. Remember the writers strike? TV sucked after that (It's always sucked, but it got even more pathetic because of the strike).

I think there is a strong connection between writing in video making. Sure there are spur of the moment or "caught on tape" videos but most videos with purpose have some sort of script laid out before filming.

Furthermore I think it's a misconception that anybody can pick up a camera and make a good video. Some work needs to be done.
For example, check this guy out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo-eoFgmzlo
Some may think that this guy just sits in front of a camera and drinks, but he has a purpose. I don't think any writing goes into his videos, but he definitely thinks them out before filming. This example in particular is him challenging himself to accomplish a near impossible feat. On others he talks politics or about his favorite music as if he had an outline in front of him (as well as a 40).

Today my group finally got over the writing hurdle and we plan to film on Friday. I'm excited to see how our writing is adapted to film. It will probably be low quality, but I still expect it to be a great experience.

Peer Review Recap, Part 3

Nothing changed for this peer review. I'm glad we used Google Docs again, but nothing was significantly different in how we went about it.

I recieved helpful comments from one of my group members, and none from the other. Maybe she will put some comments up tonight, but as of this morning there were none.

I do see some repeating patterns in the responses I recieved. For one I need to be a little more clear on connecting my "creations" to the readings. Also, I should work more on creating a stronger introductions and conclusions. My introductions thus far have been "filler". This is probably because it's a rough draft, but I definitely should be taking more time to complete these assigments. I wish I had that time. I'm not going to complain but I've been pretty busy with all my other classes and this is the balance I've found.

What I've learned...
We are all capable of successful peer reviewing. Unfortunately, some refuse to take it as seriously as others. One of my fellow classmates feels that since these papers are online he instintively "scims" them. This blocks a successful peer review. Personally, I don't see any problem with them being online and I've enjoyed learning how to use Google docs and Wiki.

All-in-all our peer review processes could have been much better, but they did work. It's awesome to have a tool like Google Docs, but if your reviewing with pen and paper I think it's easier to see mistakes. Besides, it much more fun to mark up a page then to type some words.