Observation

While searching the library for students to observe, I happened to find a table filled with three of my friends, all writing diverse papers. Thus, I decided to quickly observe each of their strategies and how they differed based on the subject matter. First, Diane was beginning to write a first draft. She told me that she typically writes her thesis first and then gathers evidence from the book. She refrains from brainstorming and leaves her editing for later. What I found most interesting was that she was writing this first draft for a professor who had suggested that students in the class pass in this rough draft early for feedback. This brought about many questions that were raised in the St. Martin’s Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. Is the professor going to edit for content or for mechanical mistakes? What is his/her purpose for doing this? Should they leave this editing to the writing center? If the professor is editing for content, then how effective will the feedback be considering that she will just be writing down basic concepts in her first draft?

Next, Lesley was editing a paper she had already written. What I found most interesting was that she was only editing this paper for word count. She loved her paper and felt she did not need to edit it further for content or grammar, but she had fell short of the minimum word count. This leads to a crucial question, is a short, less that minimum word count paper better than a paper that meets the word count, but consists of more rambling?

Lastly, Jenny was working on a report for her Organic Chemistry class. She was much more focused on the layout and accuracy of the information. For example, instead of asking, “Does this sentence transition well,” she took a poll of who thought water was extremely polar. Additionally, she used diagrams to add another dimension to her paper; an addition that would not be used in a typically English paper.

Thus, we come back to the same question; how important is it to know the subject matter of the paper you are editing?