Leaving Your Comfort Zone #1
Expanding my comfort zone and what I was willing to do as a writer as influenced my writing this semester as I attempted to “Join the Conversation” which is the daybook entry I chose to focus on. Joining the conversation was a bit of a challenge for me because I had been used to writing very formally my entire educational career up until this point. Every essay, college/work application, assignment, and even online blog responses have been very formal, and following the MLA format and grammar. Now that I am introduced to multi-modality and freedom in my writing, my tone and voice has slightly changed to more witty and casual. For example, I add humor and satire in my writing, like in my very first blog entry I wrote, “As you know, media is limitless and, it seems, endless, so why not fight fire with fire and discuss media’s so-called issues on, well, media?” I used an oxymoron “fighting fire with fire”, which provided a lighter mood in my post. I also posed a casual question to my readers, which is a writing tactic I usually do not use in my introductions. In my daybook entry, I wrote, “You are writing said paper to add your own unique spin/opinion on the topic of your choice. In order to do that though, you must research what has already been said about your chosen topic…” In entering any writing engagement, previously, I had not even attempted to think of what other perspectives have already been written about my research/analyzation, or how I could impact what was being said. Joining the conversation has taught me better researching methods. For example, in the past I only read articles that I had found on google to interpret, analyze, and write about. I wrote in my daybook entry, “Internet is usually my main source of information.” Now, I am able to not only research on a search engine, but now I am comfortable with watching documentaries, finding scholarly journals, and finding books in UNCC’s library or an external store. In reflecting on my writing, I think of the quote “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” which I think can also apply to someone’s writing. Writing is limitless and understanding your strengths and weaknesses can help evolve your writing for the better.
Leaving Your Comfort Zone #2
My relationship with peer editing has been a rather rocky one over the years. I was not fond of it at all when I first came into the class, but throughout the semester I began to warm up to the idea of it. I chose to include two smaller daybook entries to talk about the growth of my comfortability with peer editing. For example, in the smaller daybook entry, I write, “ I felt it was sometimes hard giving feedback to peers, it had the tendency to feel a little awkward since we didn’t know each other very well.” I started to question why I felt so uncomfortable with others reading my work and editing it for corrections. The issue stems from my perfectionism and the the fact that I do not want others to see the flaws in my work when I did not. In thinking more about this issue, I realized how unrealistic it is not to have anyone read your work until it’s completely perfect. I also came to realize that it is okay for people to read my work and tell me what they think I could be doing better. It is a part of leaving my comfort zone that is difficult for me, but I have definitely grown in. For example, I also included a daybook entry from a group conference towards the beginning of the semester. In reading my work, my group offered helpful insight like, “looking up documentaries instead of articles,” “researching childhood obesity in other countries,” and “the hardships of diet changes.” Once my group gave me some concrete advice on my line of inquiry, some of which I did use (Is this Legit? for childhood obesity in other countries), it was apparent that peer editing is a huge part of the writing process, and that I better step out of my comfort zone and become more familiar with it, in order to arrive at a quality piece of writing.