The Role of Collaborative Writing in Improving My Skills

Growing up I have always had a passion for writing, as I always viewed it as a great way to express myself. But I was never equipped with the right tools or skills to improve my writing academically and professionally. Throughout Foun 1019 class I have learned and experienced new ways of writing and the importance of working collaboratively. In Foun 1019 I was challenged to write a collaborative expository essay on Inclusive Education. This required the group to collectively develop a narrowed topic, research question, and thesis statement. In doing this I was forced to think out loud, share my thoughts, ideas and personality. This in return highlighted my strengths and weaknesses. To conquer the fear I had for something I first love, which was writing required me to be open to scrutiny and critiques to gain success. Collaborative writing in Foun 1019 summer school has positively improved my reading strategy and writing competence as a writer.

Collaborative writing has positively improved my reading strategy as a writer. Before Foun 1019 class I did not have a reading strategy and struggled at times to find hidden message, theme or information needed without reading an entire article. This weakness made reading and analyzing articles for assignment a task within itself. Through my engagement in collaborative writing, I have learned the proper mechanisms to strategic reading. I have learned to preview, click and cluck, and get the gists, etc, to develop me reading skills, a skill I have learned from one of my peers while researching materials for Barriers to inclusion a topic sentence the collaborative expository essay. I can more easily pick out the hidden themes and issues that authors include in their writings. Strategic reading is very essential to the entire process when tasked to collaborate on an assignment. However, I believe that Foun 1019 should incorporate strategic reading as a part of the lesson taught especially when students are required to do collaborative writing.

Through this class, my writing skills have also improved significantly due to the extensive collaborative work I was tasked to do. This change became noticeable after my improvements in strategic reading in researching materials for the essay concluded. The two go together and one improves the other follows. After my first draft submission came back highlighting the many grammatical errors, I dreaded having to write another piece of paper. Realizing that this didn't just impact me, it reflected on my peers. I started to take notes and seek help and feedback from my peers to quickly improve my writing to present a properly written introduction and first body paragraph for the collaborative expository essay. Over the past 2-3 weeks, I began seeing improvement and see the importance of teamwork. Initially, my writings were riddled with grammatical errors, now only fewer instances. Through revisions and criticism, I have learned where my common mistakes were primarily. It was tense related errors, that is. I had a hard time deciphering which tenses to use in sentences. However, I have significantly improved in such cases. I have employed an entirely new thought process through these improvements. I have learned that sometimes criticism is needed. I have learned that we all have weaknesses and have certainly gained a more proactive attitude towards improving things that I have struggled with for a long time. However, I believe that Foun 1019 should include learning grammars as a core part of the curriculum.

In the future, I hope that I can write and read at an expert level. This can be accomplished through reading and writing daily. Practice does not make perfect, but it does lead to improvements. Revisions and peer-based criticism is certainly a vital part of collaborative writing. This is how I realized the majority of my errors in both categories. Throughout this course, I have encountered many difficulties, but through that, the mind is opened to learning.