Process Entry #2.
Week 4 Forum – Assignment Analysis Revisited
Metacognitive Reflection
544 words
This process entry is my response to one of the process forum task in Week 4. I was asked to analyze the environmental autoethnography project assignment and list the challenging elements for me. The analysis was done after I roughly understood the genre of autoethnography and before I started to write the draft of the project. I selected this piece because it represents the planning of the second project. It has served as a guide for me to conduct research and compose drafts during the entire writing process of the environmental autoethnography project.
I wasn’t a writer who tended to have a detailed plan before writing. Before taking this class, I often started writing directly or, if I felt planning was necessary, I would list a brief outline, which would serve as my plan. In Writing 2, I started to understand the necessity of planning before writing a complicated project. For the environmental inquiry project, I need to consider the secondary sources carefully, and I would organize them as an entire piece. For the environmental autoethnography project, I need to consider how I should tell my story and implement other voices to make the article more effective. Although this was a required task, I had already realized the importance of planning after I finished the feedback draft of Project #1. Therefore, despite I was not wholly familiar with the genre of autoethnography, and I was just introduced to the idea of “thick description” at that time, I still had some thoughts on the project planning in my head before responding to this task.
In particular, for this task, I tried to grasp all the elements that could be helpful to my project and compile them into one piece. Based on my understanding of autoethnography at that time, I put my narration as the most important part of the project. I carefully chose the stories and scenes from my childhood memory to compose a fluent and compelling narration. To make the description complete, I also planned to include voices from others like my parents and friends. Secondary sources would be used to provide scientific voices to my project. I tried to be as comprehensive as possible in this planning, and I identified my project’s focus and objective. I also recognized the challenge for me at that point – which was my unfamiliarity with this new genre of autoethnography. So, I came up with some ideas to ensure I would be more familiar with it before I actually started to write the draft.
To sum up, this process piece reflects my understanding of the project before writing. My understanding of autoethnography was undoubtedly improved compared to one week before. However, I still listed it as the major challenge because there was a lot to learn, especially the “thick description.” As a result, this planning has served as a guide throughout my later writing on Project #2. It sets the basic organization of my project, and although I altered my planning several times later, the main structure has basically been maintained in all of my drafts. I think that’s the advantage of planning prior to writing – I will get confidence in the structure and organization even when I haven’t started to write a single word on my draft.
The Process Piece
Reread the assignment guidelines and rubric for Project #2–the Environmental Autoethnography–carefully. Go through the steps of analyzing the assignment using the structured writing activity described below. As you do this, plug in details related to your chosen topic (the site and the environmental issue or problem that it represents/illustrates). Post your response as a reply to this discussion topic.
First, focus on the big picture: Identify the key elements of the assignment–what, how, and why
• What kind of writing/research are you being asked to do? What makes your topic choice a good one for this kind of writing/research?
• What will your topic/focus be (in terms of subject matter/content) be?
• How will you do this? What kinds of personal experiences/memories will you draw on? What voices will your readers have the opportunity to hear? What kinds of secondary sources will you need to use to fill in context to make your descriptions “thick”?
• Why do you think you’re being asked to do this? Why do you this kind of research/writing activity might be meaningful to you? to your readers? What purpose(s) might it serve?
Second, focus on the details. Make a list of the specific requirements and note which elements you think might be challenging for you and why:
• Length
• Documentation format
• Source use
• Source types
• Research methodology
The Prompt of Assignment Analysis Revisited, Posted by Kathy Patterson
Response
This assignment asks us to write an autoethnography to address an environmental issue related to our own experience. The topic I chose is the project of land reclamation in my city, which I had a lot of experience with it and I also have been personally impacted by this land reclamation – and those make this topic a perfect choice for this assignment. I’ll mainly focus on the environmental impact of the project, but I’ll also talk about my personal experience (like more crowded traffic) as introduction. I’ll use the memories when I was young and when the project was going on to revive the scene before the land reclamation. I’ll include the voices of my parents (mainly), and probably some of my friends. I’ll use statistics of the project of land reclamation and government report on this issue to support my descriptions. This project is particularly meaningful to me because I’m impacted by this issue and it provides me a very good opportunity to reflect over on this. For the reader, I’ll have the opportunity to introduce the conflict between the city development and environmental protection to them. It will mainly serve as an overview and description of the issue, as I might not offer the solutions. What I’m trying to do is to depict the problem and give readers (and also myself) a chance to think of a solution on it.
I think the most challenging part for me might be the documentation format. I’m new to this format of autoethnography, even I’m not so familiar with the format of ethnography. So I’ll try to read more on how this format works and tried to revise my draft multiple times to make sure it is effective.