Reflection of IR

Brian Radcliff

Reflection

            Our first major assignment was to write an informational report on writing, both academic and non-academic, in our chosen career field. Through researching for this assignment and writing I learned about the several different types of writing in my field, Education. I learned that teachers use writing in their everyday life a very significant amount. Teachers have to write emails, notes, and lesson plans almost every day. My assumptions about writing in my field were pretty much confirmed by the research I did for this paper. I already had a good idea of the kinds of writing used in my field; this paper just helped me see a few more examples. My research fully supported my prior knowledge in the subject area.

            The biggest challenge in the process of writing this paper was differentiating between academic and non-academic sources, and finding the sources. The description of academic and non-academic was very confusing, and this made it hard to identify which source was which. Also finding a good source was hard. I had to read through several different sources in order to find one with a good substance, instead of just choosing the first one I saw. Also writing in an informational format was a challenge for me since I do not strive in this type of writing, nor do I enjoy reading it at all. I had to continuously remember that this was not a descriptive paper or an argumentative paper; rather it was supposed to be more cut and dry. I am certainly not this kind of writer.  I learned that I do not do well with informational pieces, I am much better when writing has more room for elaboration and personal expression.

            I found group conferences helpful when it came to learning how to improve my paper. But I think individual conferences would be a little bit better. This way each student can just focus on his or her own paper for the allotted time. And also everyone would get the same amount of time this way. Whereas in a group conference, one paper may be talked about a lot more than the other, and then we run out of time.