Assignment 2: Reflection on Feedback

Assignment 2, Reflection on Feedback

I am pleased with the positive feedback I received from my tutor for this work and feel encouraged to take on the advice to really 'polish' my essay. 

It was good to talk to my tutor 'face to face' (online) and really discuss the writing in detail and what could be done to make it work better. I agreed with my tutor to edit the essay so that the narrator's identity of 'Death' was revealed later on, and I think it has made the writing more engaging and interesting. I think it helped me focus more on the writing rather than just the character.

I also see that I perhaps missed out on some further exploration of time and place, and discussing it with my tutor helped me to uncover more areas of these themes to be explored. So I'd like to include those new thoughts in my essay. Having removed the revelation of the narrator's character from the main body of the essay has given me more space to expand on some of those points. I hope I have also managed to include more extracts. I think I worry about repeating myself by continually quoting the text I am studying, but I understand it's important for the reader to know exactly what words I am talking about, and to prove what I'm saying by quoting the text.

I've also rearranged some of the paragraphs to allow the text to flow better, though I'm hoping better planning for the next essay will help to make this easier. If I can plan each section more carefully and make specific points in each that can then lead on to the next section, I can get my point across more clearly and avoid confusion, for me and the reader!

I found reworking the essay to be quite daunting, because there was so much I wanted to include and I explained to my tutor that I was concerned about repeating myself when I first wrote the essay.  I think I got easily overwhelmed by trying to incorporate good writing, understanding and expression of my knowledge in an engaging way. Though I also hope that this skill will continue to be developed with practise and constructive criticism. 

On section 2, I have expanded on why I found the Hazel Smith essay more difficult as I realised I hadn't explained specifically what was difficult about it. But otherwise I'm pleased this reflection was well received and writing it really helped me to reflect back on the whole section of the course.

I will definitely be taking on the comments for areas that I need to develop, particularly with planning of structure and flow. I think this will help me become clearer in what I'm saying in my essays and hopefully it will be less overwhelming. I do try to plan the essays as much as I can but struggle to stick with plans as my writing develops. So I will try to address this in my next essay as well, and continue to expand on my reading to develop my writing as well.