So this week, the assignments were to tie the threads, to somehow make all of the components of our MRPs cohesive. We needed to make some sort of way to navigate through our blogs other than through the topics page. Also, we were supposed to review the peer reviews that we had given to others and that others had given to us, then compare them and decide how they were different and what we would strive for next time. My goal was to be creative and somehow come up with a unique idea to accomplish this. Unfortunately, of course, that fell through. I had great intentions and hopes, but those almost always fall through and I end up just doing whatever I can to meet deadlines (as I type this at 10:18 pm, one hour and 42 minutes before it’s due :).

This week, I definitely didn’t get as creative as I had hoped. I don’t know if everyone from this semester or last year all used the links at the bottom of their pages to tie the threads or not, but I honestly didn’t know any other way to set that up. Had it not been for Geneva emailing Mrs. McComas and Mrs. McComas replying to the class list, I would never have guessed how to set up the boxes at the bottom of the pages and stuff. Whew! Other processes involved in this week were trying to think critically about how I am a reviewer. It’s like being a meta-meta thinker. Thinking about thinking about someone else’s work. Hmmmm….Figure that one out! It seemed easy enough when I was doing it, but when you think about the actual process, it gets kinda tricky!

From this week, I realized that I will somehow always get stuff done......sometimes at the expense of lots of other stuff, but usually sleep. And I realized that it doesn’t matter if an assignment gets done a week before it’s due or a minute; it’s going to meet the deadline as long as it’s before. Period. Also, I think I realized how often I rush through stuff that could very well be important to other people. I just started reading Mere Christianity this week and one of the most profound statements I read (and this is definitely paraphrasing here) is that as humans, we often get upset at people for not meeting the expectations we have of them, when we fail drastically at meeting them ourselves. So I should only expect out of people what I deliver myself. A good peer review deserves a good one in return (not that that situation occurred with my particular group…I’m just saying….:)

The semester's almost over! The semester's almost over! Sorry....couldn't contain the joy. :) Every week, I try to find new things to say about how the time has flown and this is all I could come up with for this week.

Because our genres are finished, we were assigned to come up with the other accompanying parts of publications, like "About the Author" pages and "Acknowledgement" pages. My goal was to get those done this evening (Sunday) because I knew they wouldn't take very long at all. And I was right! They were very easy to do. Also, we had to peer review reference lists for others in the class. My goal was to get that done early, when I had an APA reference manual on hand or another document that had correct versions of citations in it.

This week, I had to think objectively about myself , which was fun. It was neat because I was actually doing stuff that people do when they publish real books and publications that other people will read. Also, I utilized the blogs from people who finished them last summer. I read the same pages from Mrs. McComas' blog and it helped, too, but I didn't have enough poetic inspiration to do as nice of a job as she did. I guess, too, with this week, I had to be super picky with reviewing Geneva's and Cindy's references lists, which I'm not used to. I had to do a lot of shuffling around and try to find out if they had used the right formats and stuff. Also, this week, I had to think critically about my MRP. I hadn't really thought before about someone else visitng my blog for the first time and what they would need to know to understand my position and purposes in doing this MRP.

So, I would say that this week, I really had a hard time with the process of reviewing others' references because I wasn't even sure if mine were right. And at one point, I thought, "Why does it really matter? Is Mrs. McComas really going to go through these reference lists with a magnifying glass to make sure that every element is where it's supposed to be, and if it's italicized or underlined and all of that?" When I realized that the answer to those questions were probably "Yes," I decided not to give up, but to make them as accurate as possible, because that's how we're supposed to. I understand that it's important for readers to understand where information came from and that we should be consistent with the formatting, but I think what drove me to really try to get details right about the citations and stuff was the thought that Mrs. McComas probably not only wants us to realize those things that I mentioned earlier, but also to get used to scouring information to figure out how to follow directions and follow them accurately....which is something that can be applied in all areas of life.

Whew. How about that wisdom? I feel like Dr. Phil! :)

This week, I set out to finish my last genre. I think it was supposed to be our unifying genre but I already did that one with the email exchange. We had to also decide which genres we wanted Mrs. McComas to review and offer her feedback for. I decided on the Powerpoint one and my email exchange, just to see if the Powerpoint was long enough and if the email exchange was what she had in mind. Also, this week, I set out to really fix my reference/resource list and get it as perfect as I could because it was due this weekend, too. I went out of town this weekend and had actually planned on getting the genre done tonight, instead of before the weekend, as I usually do. I knew I wouldn't have enough time to get it done before Friday.

This week, I really had to get down to that one last genre I was indecisive about and post it. I changed it several times at the last minute, and finally decided on a reference letter. I actually used a bit of the formatting from one of our 424 workbooks and it helped a lot. With the references, I had to break down and go to the library to check out the APA manual for a little bit. I still don't know if it's right or not, but I had to skim and search and compare and see if my entry fit the exact criteria for each type's format (did it have an author? two authors? was it a periodical? accessible online?).

I guess after dealing with finding APA style online and having to go to the library, I realized that we (or maybe it's just me...) are spoiled by having everything delivered to our fingertips in just moments when we type in a few things on a keyboard. I felt like I "drudged" to the library to find what i needed in a book and definitely felt like I was in the Stone Age, using it! I guess I've been jaded by utilizing the web so much in the progress of this project that getting my hands on a tangible resource seems a little out of date. Anyway, I am glad that at least the roughest drafts of my genres are finished and I can't wait to get to fix them all and make them look better!