So I totally got screwed...

Yesterday in my Comp. II course we had peer workshops to get feedback on our recall essay outlines. I was with two other girls. One of the girls is from Africa. Her outline wasn't really an outline but more each point that she was going to hit on. I could tell the direction of her story and see that it was personal. Just the outline proved to be a very moving story about how coming to America has been a diverse learning experience, everything she overcame just to get her driver's license, and the events that led up to getting her license. The only problem is that she's pretty shy and not confident about her English vocabulary. So she did give some feedback but it wasn't to my outline.

The other girl came with a half-sheet typed outline of what is supposed to be a five page paper. Her subject was going to college, she said, because at this point in her life it's the only thing she's really learned from. I read what she wanted the content of her paper to be and it was, basically (not easy to do with the minimal amount of effort she put into it), going to college is hard. The reasons she gave for it being hard was not knowing where her classes were, not knowing where the gym was, and not knowing where the bus stop was. Then her second grouping of information was that she learned a lot by going to college. Her reasons were that she took a campus tour, she learned where her classes were, she found out where the gym was, and she found the bus stop. Her conclusion...College isn't so hard and she's made friends. After reading this I looked up and she asked, "Do you think I have enough for a five page paper?" I said, "Um no?!?!? I think you're going to need to really expand on your experience." So then she asked, "Like what?" I asked,"Was this really the hardest part about going to college? What about enrolling, registering, figuring that whole process out? You didn't have any problems with that?" I spent 45 minutes basically writing an outline for her while the African girl and I brainstormed what she could write about and what she may have learned by going to college. AND I WAS WORRIED ABOUT TAKING COMP II WHEN I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THIS GIRL IS ACTUALLY LITERATE!!!!!!

At the end of the class, which my instructor had to leave early because of a meeting, I went up to her and asked if she could tell me where the writing lab is. I proceeded to tell her that I did not get ANY feedback from my group and that I spent most of the time we had writing an outline for one of my partners. She replied that she had overheard a lot of that and that I wouldn't have to work with these same people again. She said that one the things she like about community college is the diversity in the types of people that attend and one of the things that can be a problem about community college is the diversity in where the people are when the come to community college. She said that if, because of peer editing, I don't get enough feedback and she grades my paper and I don't do well that I can talk with her about it. She can help me edit at that point and I can revise and turn it in again. I still plan on going to the Student Success Center and talk to the folks in the Writing Lab and get a little help from them for my paper.

I decided to write about going to my 10 year class reunion. I've been writing all afternoon, haven't even gotten to the actual reunion in my paper and I'm already nearing the end of page 3. I'm guessing I'm going to be able to take a lot of the stuff out about certain persons that I came into contact at the actual reunion. Otherwise, I could probably end up with a novelette.