Yosif (Joe) Zaki

Project 1 Reflection
ENGW3307
February 6, 2018

I oftentimes have trouble remembering that I have an audience when I write, and
moreover, that what I write should convey a clear message to my intended audience. While I
write, I know what I’m trying to say and when I read a draft, I often think, “damn, I got the point
across well this time.” But just as often, I haven’t.
That’s why I value peer review so much—especially when the peer has no idea what you
want to convey. They don’t think, “I know what Joe meant to say.” They think, “I’m not sure
what he meant by this,” or, “I wish he would’ve provided more background first,” or, “A big
topic shift…”
These sorts of comments allow me to re-evaluate my words. Maybe this sentence doesn’t
need to be 5 lines long. Maybe if I put a short equation on its own line, it would emphatically
sum up the idea I’ve been trying to explain for half a page.
So, from draft 1 to draft 2, I think I explained myself better. I broke up dense ideas, and I
added pictures where it would’ve brought the imagery to life.
But now I’m faced with another problem: how to be concise. In writing a second draft,
my piece went from 2 pages to almost 4.5 pages, and it almost certainly did not need to be.
That’s what I would have liked to address next.