WF 2020 Reflection post

What past learning have you applied to this project?

• I used what I learned from class to help me with the article.  For example, with the different types of news, I tried to apply a bit of feature article, highlighting Al Hornsby and his person, but also putting my own opinion in.  One thing that I think I used well was understanding the audience that I was writing to.  With the UWC mission in mind, I purposely tried to add uplifting and positive aspects into the shape of my story; implementing a problem, and then a call to action at the end to wrap it up.

 

What new learning have you gained?

I would say I learned a lot more about the ocean and the value it holds in all our lives.  but there were aspects of writing that I learned too, in the opinion writing part, I learned how to best explain my opinion without sounding too harsh and without forcing it onto the reader, this was learned through trial and error but in the end, I felt there was some improvement.  Alongside this, I learned the importance of journalism and how truth plays a part in the daily media that we intake.  Now, with the coronavirus still causing big headlines on the media, I see how different news agencies write different articles and how they approach the topic.

 

What new connections have you made because of the feedback given to you?

A new connection I have made is the importance of elaborating and being persuasive, in my first draft I didn’t elaborate that often and had stronger opinions and more wild writing, without the evidence and clear reasoning behind my words it was all quite empty.  From my feedback, I learned that by writing in a more styled, structured manner the same point could still be proven and that has played an important part in the way that I elaborate and give reasoning/evidence.

 

What mark would you give yourself for effort? Which ATL was most effective?

I would give myself a 5 for my effort, there were times when I didn’t put that much effort into the article and my time-management wasn’t so good, however, when it came to feedback, I was more involved with the people who gave me feedback and I tried my best to work and Apply them into my article.  The ATL most effective for me would be collaboration, because in the feedback part of the article, I worked on having good discussions to get the feedback that could help me.

 

What attainment mark would you give your article? Discuss the reasons why.

I would give myself a 5.  From the article’s first draft I had many problems, after receiving feedback and working on the structure of the article, I think I improved it but not enough.  The reason why I give myself a 5 and not a 6 is that I think my story lacks depth, despite having a reasonably relevant topic that can be applied to the world right now, my stories primary focus is very basic and isn’t something new or astounding that nobody has ever heard of before.  “make a difference” is a very cliche topic commonly found in articles that want to appeal to an audience that is looking for something relevant in our world.  Another reason why I gave myself a 5 is that the article’s conclusion is unsatisfactory for me, personally, my introduction and parts of the body were good, but when I reached the end of the article my conclusion caved in.  After rereading it, I think I overexplained and overanalyzed, making it a paragraph riddled with repetition of the same message.

In summary, I believe that certain aspects of the conclusion lacked concise and logical structuring and the story, in general, had a message that isn’t appealing enough; instead a cliché answer to the school requirement.