Junior Theme Part 3

On tuesday of last week I turned in my Junior Theme final draft and it felt great. All the hard work had finally come to an end. I felt very proud because this was the biggest paper I have had to write so far in high school.

I learned a lot throughout the whole writing/editing process. The peer editing day helped me realize the value in letting others criticize your work. I thought my rough draft was fine and there wasn’t much to change, but the peer edit quickly helped me realize I was wrong. My partner Colin showed me some passages that weren’t very fluid and could use some word changes. He also showed me places where he was confused with the point I was trying to make. I was able to expand in areas that were a bit under explained once I saw where these areas where. I learned that letting a peer look at your work will have a positive impact on the quality of the work.

I also learned that it is important to stay open minded and not put too much prind into my work until it is finished. What I mean by this that It isn’t good to hold onto ideas that won’t help. For the first three weeks of the research process I was determined on including a section in my  paper about the way in which we eat our food as an example of change in the American diet. I had come up with this idea completely by myself and I really wanted to include it in the paper. I started doing research on this topic and couldn’t find much. After three days I should have just given up and looked for a different subtopic, but I kept looking. And looking. And looking. I wasted so much time searching for something that just wasn’t there, and I couldn’t let go of the pride in my idea. I learned that I need to be able to realize what is good in my writing, and not blind myself with what I want to be good.

The Junior Theme paper was a great experience for me. I believe I became a smarter and better overall writer because of it. I am looking forward to getting my final draft back so that I can make the appropriate edits and improve my work.