One of the privileges of being an “average writer” is that feedback is always a plenty. I am glad to take it too, although it is a little frustrating to know what to do with it (in the bruised ego and growing pains sort of frustration). A recent assignment in my “Writing as Communication” course found me writing a civic letter trying to inspire some action in someone who has some influence over such things. I like to choose easy assignments, so I chose to write to college students about why going to war with Iran is a bad idea and what students can do to stop a war with Iran from happening.
So like I said, one of the privileges of being an average writer is the abundance of feedback. I got a lot of feedback. Most of the feedback I got concerns a lack of clarity identifying the audience that I am addressing. The rest of the feedback involves my deepness in organization and the suggestion that I rewrite.
If you weren’t sure, this writing (the one you’re reading now) is part of the current assignment: to make something useful of this feedback by applying it to our next big assignment. The next big assignment is to do research and write on the topic of our choice. I already know that a lot of people are thinking about my topic, participatory media, particularly on the web, within academia and the media industry to some extent. I also know that I don’t know much of what they’re saying. Personally, I do have some experience working with participatory media, but in an action packed, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of way, not a solid step-by-step intentional kind of way.
Applying the feedback from my last writing assignment to the next writing assignment is a little tricky, mostly because I don’t have a specific area of participatory media chosen. If the feedback does give me one definite red flag sort of change in the course of action it will be to do research before beginning to write the piece. Last time I knew what I wanted to write and found info to back that up. It wasn’t until I had a lot of info in front of me and sorted it out that a solid cohesive thesis and course of action became clear. I spent most of my time researching (I put in a bunch of hours) and less of time actually writing. This has happened to me before. I hope that I can hone in my research skills so it takes less time and leaves me more time to write.
December 5, 2007 at 9:16 pm
I wish I had some handy-dandy rubric to give you for organizing your writing. My own is a mess: I post immediate, quick thinking on the blog, take notes in several places (whichever notebook or random scrap of paper is ready-at-hand), and write drafts….and more drafts.
You wrote: “It wasn’t until I had a lot of info in front of me and sorted it out that a solid cohesive thesis and course of action became clear.” This is true for me, too. Most knowledge doesn’t settle in me until I have had a wide and broad exposure with mucho repetition.
If I can’t pass on a magic tool to make things easier, at least I can offer an indicator that the path you’re on makes sense.
Good luck – your topic is neat and timely.