Friday, May 6, 2016

Editorial Reports 15a and 15b

 These blog posts concern editorial reports for both 15a and 15b.

As far as my first body revision goes, I simply chunked my thoughts together so it would sound less like me droning and more like me talking. I also included more substance to fill the time.


Raw Body:
“On the very first project, when we were told we had to pick something to write about within our major, I knew that put 90% of the thing I wanted to write about off the table. I enjoy English class because it’s somewhere that I don’t have to go full on math-science mode. Don’t get me wrong, I love math and science, but not here. After I had chosen a topic that semi-suited my interests, I slammed together a bunch of paragraphs about how artificial intelligence is something we shouldn’t fear. My essay was pretty solid. I made my finishing touches, submitted, ready to get an A or a B at lowest. I was SHOCKED to see a 60% a few weeks later. Mortified, I opened the dropbox, to see that it was my ROUGHEST form of all the rough drafts I created. Lesson learned – do it right the first time. Don’t space out when submitting a paper, because that could be the thing to bite you in the back.

Revised Body:
"The layout of the class blindsided me from the start. On day one, we were told that we weren't going to read any books, do any quizzes on comprehension, or any of that normal song-and-dance English work. Instead, there were four major projects, one which just happened to be an essay. This seemed to be the easiest, so I decided to go with that. Once I was told that we had to write about something pertaining to our major, this is where things got a little bit funky. As an engineering major, I found it extremely hard to get passionate about WRITING about engineering.

I enjoy English class because it’s somewhere that I don’t have to go full on math-science mode. Don’t get me wrong, I love math and science, but not here. English is enjoyable because it's English class, not because it's "write about Engineering" class.

After I had chosen a topic that suited my interests, I pieced together my essay carefully and I have to admit, it was pretty solid. I made my finishing touches, submitted, ready to ace the first project. I was SHOCKED to see how low of a grade I got. Mortified, I opened the dropbox, to see that it was my ROUGHEST form of all the rough drafts I created.

This was a learning experience to not only double check, but triple check my submissions.


As far as this second revision goes, I decided that I needed more context to what I was talking about, and the exact difficulty that arose as a part of the interview. The t

Raw Body 2:
“When I heard we had to interview somebody, I was nervous. How was I going to speak intelligently to a PhD in electrical engineering when I struggle to write 5 lines of code on my own, have no experience with circuit boards, and haven’t even passed baby land math yet? After I sorted the details out, I realized I probably couldn’t speak intelligently and would be a waste of their time to go in person. So, I decided to do an email interview. After emailing 5 or so professors, I already had 2 lined up that I said I was going to on the blog work. One of the guys I intended to said he couldn’t do it, and the other said he could. I completely spaced, and I sent questions I made for the guy who couldn’t do it to a back up. And it was a MAJOR screw up! They were extremely focused questions about self-repairing mechanisms, completely proprietary to this one man’s work and theses. I had no choice but to backpedal awkwardly, and I never spoke after I got the answers to the interview. That’s why I hardly incorporated quotes into my QRG, but still got an A!

Revised Body 2:
“When I heard we had to interview somebody, I was nervous. How was I going to speak intelligently to a PhD in electrical engineering when I struggle to write 5 lines of code on my own, have no experience with circuit boards, and haven’t even passed baby land math yet? After I sorted the details out, I realized I probably couldn’t speak intelligently and would be a waste of their time to go in person. So, I decided to do an email interview.

After emailing 5 or so professors, I already had 2 lined up that I said I was going to on the blog work. One of the guys I intended to said he couldn’t do it, and the other said he could. I completely spaced, and I sent questions I made for the guy who couldn’t do it to a back up. And it was a MAJOR screw up! They were extremely focused questions about self-repairing mechanisms, completely proprietary to this one man’s work and theses. I had no choice but to backpedal awkwardly, and I never spoke after I got the answers to the interview.

The answers that I got from the interviews were lackluster at best. You could clearly tell that there was little time put aside for each person. Maybe it was how I worded the questions, but I think it was more a result of the individuals not wanting to dedicate time to some random freshman that they have no attachment to. Also, I might have screwed up saying it was for an English project. I think I would have been taken a little more seriously had I not done so. But hey, I ended up with an A on the project, so I can't complain too much. ”

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