First Outline Reflection
At first the outline did seem tedious and just extra work but after completing it I feel like I have a better idea of how my structure will be for my paper. I think it definitely helped a lot and will make it easier for me to remember my main points as well as better develop my analysis. My experience writing it was okay, I went through all of my sources that we had used for the annotated bibliography. As I went through each one I found evidence that would best support my claim and figured out which sub topic it would best fit into. I have a few really good sources so I can definitely take multiple pieces of evidence from each one to further support my claim.
I think the outline was definitely helpful. I have a bad memory so it was a good way to get all of my ideas in one place, that way when I begin my first draft it will be a lot easier. Especially considering I already have multiple pieces of evidence backed up with analysis. This makes it so that all I have to worry about is transitioning and any other little details I might have missed. Since I have most of my main ideas together this will create a good structure for my first draft when I start it.
Honestly I didn’t really enjoy making the outline, it just felt like another assignment I had to hand in. However, after finishing it I realized how helpful it was gonna be when I began writing the paper. I’m happy this assignment was given because I definitely would not have thought to do that on my own and now my paper will be easier for me to develop. This is definitely something I should do with my future writing assignments but if I’m being honest I probably won’t just because that’s extra work. But it was definitely helpful and maybe if I’m feeling studious I’ll use it again. But I am definitely grateful I was introduced to this idea.
Draft Reflection
Right now I feel somewhat confident in my current draft. I have about 7 pages so I only need about one more which is making it a lot less stressful. After editing my two body paragraphs I feel like there’s not a lot of editing for me to do other than more indentations and making sure my subtopics connect well to the thesis. I think my next steps are to find a couple more sources of evidence to finish off my paper. I also need to structure my conclusion but I will do that at the very end since it’s more of a summarization of the topics I went over. Overall, I’m not too stressed out about this paper and more stressed out about the presentation.
One piece of feedback I got was to either stretch out my evidence or get new evidence. This is because I discussed all of my subtopics and analyzed my evidence within the 7 pages whilst the minimum is 8-10. To do this I will find one more subtopic I can discuss which could be possible solutions for social media controlling us subconsciously since I briefly brushed over that in one of my body paragraphs. Another piece of feedback I got was to connect my real life experiences to evidence used in texts, that way my argument will be stronger. I plan to do this in at least one or two more body paragraphs since I already have once, I think it helps for the reader to better understand my point. This is because I’m connecting the point to relatable real life experiences.
The process between me writing the first and second draft was a little different. This is because for my first draft I was able to practically copy and paste everything from my outline without looking for new information. However, for my second draft, I was only able to do that for one of my body paragraphs and for the other one I had to find another source, analyze it, and connect it back to my thesis. Nevertheless, I found this helpful because I need scholarly articles anyway to better seal my argument. Overall, first draft was definetely easier to write but only because of the outline, otherwise the second draft would’ve been easier.
