I was assigned an assignment for ENG 2100 and I struggled a lot. The topic was on how language played a role in my identity. For some reason I was not able to think of any moments in my life that language influenced the person that I was. My essay went through major revisions from the first draft to the final draft. I conferenced with my professor about what needed to be edited in my first draft and received some ideas about what I could think about including in my essay. Even then, I still felt like I wasn’t answering the assigned question so I decided maybe I should get another person’s opinion on my final draft. What better way of getting this done than to go to the Writing Center. If you had ever tried to make an appointment with the Writing Center you would know that it is hard since spots get taken up quickly. Since this was a last minute, urgent situation I decided to go to the 25 minute walk-in session at the Newman Library available on Monday-Thursday from the hours of 1pm to 6pm. Spots are first come first serve. Luckily I didn’t have to wait too long. I met with Joshua Weber. I told him exactly what I wanted him to focus on while he was reading my final draft which was whether or not I was answering the prompt and if the examples I used worked in the essay. The only problem he found was that the order of my paragraphs could have been rearranged so that it would strengthen my essay. He taught me a strategy that I could use to better arrange my paragraphs. He told me to write a summary of each paragraph in a complete, concise sentence. Then from there he told me to rearrange the sentences to see if there was a better order that I could use and it turns out there was a better way to have organized my essay. This was a great tip that I will be sure to use in the future. In the end, it was a pretty productive session despite it being only 25 minutes long.
