The first high school class that I took at the tutoring co-op was College writing with Mrs. O. Because my mom had been my English teacher since Kindergarten, I was very nervous about taking the class, about if I would get good grades, how hard it would be, and if I would like the other people in the class. The place where the class was held was called KAT (Kalamazoo Area Tutoring), and the actual location varied by year. In this particular year, KAT took place on Mondays at a small church off of Drake road. Although I had taken a few other classes at KAT in the past (Spanish, Sign Language, Home Ec., Drama, etc.), this was different. I knew from having sat outside this teacher's classroom in past years that she was a tough grader and expected a lot from her students, so on that first day, I was freaking out a little bit and wondering how I would be able to pull it off.
In fact, during the first month of the class, my parents went on a trip for a week, leaving me to fend for myself, which meant keeping up with all my school, doing all my chores, and making it to all of my extracurricular activities on my own. I didn't do well without this supervision and spent most of my time baking and cleaning instead of tackling the homework due for the week, including one of my first papers in College writing. It was supposed to be an informational paper about corn and its uses, but I had no clue where to start, and ended up making a great outline instead and turning it in. To my chagrin, I got my first D ever! But luckily, Mrs. O. gave me another chance to write an actual paper with the information which I had used for my outline, and I was able to redeem myself.
After this learning experience, I actually did pretty well in the rest of the class. I found out that I am a natural writer when it comes to creative writing, but that I struggle with informational/research oriented papers. And so when I reached the required research paper assignment for the class, I started the work for it with dread. I chose a topic which was important to me at the time, Creationism vs. Evolution, and since there were no online research resources available to me, started the old-fashioned way, by cracking open a few giant book volumes. I remember thinking as I started that the assignment would take forever to complete if I had to read through entire books before I could even determine if they would be a good source for my paper. Even though my teacher had told me to "just skim" through the books to decide their value in regard to my paper, her advice didn't really make sense to me. How could I tell if a book was worthwhile unless I actually read it word by word?
The first few books which I looked at for my research took a long time to read. I remember writing on sticky notes any quotes I thought might be important, and writing the page number and book on them for later reference. After I got through 2 or 3 of these, I started to understand the idea of "skimming". If I read various sentences here or there, I could understand the general argument of what the person was writing about in the book or article. This meant that I could decide faster whether or not it would be useful in my research. By the time I had finally finished my research, I had to begin writing my first draft. I am not typically an outline writer, or a big believer in first drafts. I tend to write and rewrite in my head, only putting down my final desired product on paper. However, in this scenario, I knew that I would have things to correct once I turned in the first draft, since I had never written a research paper before. I tried my best to be methodical in my writing and to make as few referencing and clarity mistakes as possible.
After an intense few weeks of work, I turned in my first draft to Mrs. O. There was a slight feeling of satisfaction in having completed a first draft of something so out of my comfort zone. The next week of class, we all received our first drafts back with red ink and sticky notes pointing out the problems with our papers. I was really discouraged, because my paper had a lot of red ink all over it, but I dutifully took it back home to correct. I remember spending an entire Saturday afternoon and evening with my mom on the downstairs computer at our house, writing and rewriting wherever red ink appeared on my paper. It was a grueling process that never seemed to end! Finally, after hours of labor together, we decided that perhaps my paper would now be acceptable.
I turned my paper in to Mrs. O. for the second time, and received it back a week later with a grade. I had gotten an A- without revising it more than once! Many of my classmates were forced to take their papers back for a second revision, but I was allowed to keep my paper as it was. I had definitely turned a page in my technical writing ability. Although I couldn't claim to enjoy writing research papers, I was now able to do it with skill, and I have only improved at it ever since!
In fact, during the first month of the class, my parents went on a trip for a week, leaving me to fend for myself, which meant keeping up with all my school, doing all my chores, and making it to all of my extracurricular activities on my own. I didn't do well without this supervision and spent most of my time baking and cleaning instead of tackling the homework due for the week, including one of my first papers in College writing. It was supposed to be an informational paper about corn and its uses, but I had no clue where to start, and ended up making a great outline instead and turning it in. To my chagrin, I got my first D ever! But luckily, Mrs. O. gave me another chance to write an actual paper with the information which I had used for my outline, and I was able to redeem myself.
After this learning experience, I actually did pretty well in the rest of the class. I found out that I am a natural writer when it comes to creative writing, but that I struggle with informational/research oriented papers. And so when I reached the required research paper assignment for the class, I started the work for it with dread. I chose a topic which was important to me at the time, Creationism vs. Evolution, and since there were no online research resources available to me, started the old-fashioned way, by cracking open a few giant book volumes. I remember thinking as I started that the assignment would take forever to complete if I had to read through entire books before I could even determine if they would be a good source for my paper. Even though my teacher had told me to "just skim" through the books to decide their value in regard to my paper, her advice didn't really make sense to me. How could I tell if a book was worthwhile unless I actually read it word by word?
The first few books which I looked at for my research took a long time to read. I remember writing on sticky notes any quotes I thought might be important, and writing the page number and book on them for later reference. After I got through 2 or 3 of these, I started to understand the idea of "skimming". If I read various sentences here or there, I could understand the general argument of what the person was writing about in the book or article. This meant that I could decide faster whether or not it would be useful in my research. By the time I had finally finished my research, I had to begin writing my first draft. I am not typically an outline writer, or a big believer in first drafts. I tend to write and rewrite in my head, only putting down my final desired product on paper. However, in this scenario, I knew that I would have things to correct once I turned in the first draft, since I had never written a research paper before. I tried my best to be methodical in my writing and to make as few referencing and clarity mistakes as possible.
After an intense few weeks of work, I turned in my first draft to Mrs. O. There was a slight feeling of satisfaction in having completed a first draft of something so out of my comfort zone. The next week of class, we all received our first drafts back with red ink and sticky notes pointing out the problems with our papers. I was really discouraged, because my paper had a lot of red ink all over it, but I dutifully took it back home to correct. I remember spending an entire Saturday afternoon and evening with my mom on the downstairs computer at our house, writing and rewriting wherever red ink appeared on my paper. It was a grueling process that never seemed to end! Finally, after hours of labor together, we decided that perhaps my paper would now be acceptable.
I turned my paper in to Mrs. O. for the second time, and received it back a week later with a grade. I had gotten an A- without revising it more than once! Many of my classmates were forced to take their papers back for a second revision, but I was allowed to keep my paper as it was. I had definitely turned a page in my technical writing ability. Although I couldn't claim to enjoy writing research papers, I was now able to do it with skill, and I have only improved at it ever since!