I am the type of writer who revises so many times that my final draft is completely different from my rough draft. I think this one of my greatest strengths as a writer because it gives me the ability to add and edit everything until I have good feeling that it is exactly what I mean. Along with self revision, my paper was revised three times, by my older brother Colin, my father Peter, and my classmate Ava. After these revisions, they all agreed that the paper needed a connection to an article or film related to the topic and I needed to make my conclusion more powerful. I took both those suggestions and implemented them into my Ted Talk. I connected my paper to the documentary The Ivory Tower, and discussed the importance and value of college. For my conclusion, I made it less repetitive and used specific ways that I came to my discovery of learning. My revisions will allow my viewers to truly understand the meaning of my Ted Talk, I think that the revisions make the paper easier to understand and make the message more powerful.
After finishing the Ted Talk, I had a few questions regarding both my paper and the actual video. I first wondered if my Ted Talk was powerful enough and if my message came across in a meaningful way? I then wondered if my connection to the Ivory Tower made sense to the viewers? And finally, I ask if my story gave readers the opportunity to connect with the story on a personal level?
After writing and recording this Ted Talk, I am very proud of the outcome because I think I was able to convey a strong message through my challenging college story. I think I am the proudest of my ability to connect my story of struggling at Texas Christian University to my ultimate discovery of learning. I am proud of this because I often struggle with connecting a story to the overall message of the essay. I did really well on describing my emotions and feeling throughout the unessay, both through the story and in the supporting paragraphs. I believe that I shined through describing my feelings, I often have a hard time putting my thoughts and feelings into words, but in this Ted Talk I was able to simply describe every emotion I felt. After completing this assignment, I believe this is one of my best writing pieces because although it is short and portrayed in an untraditional form, it shows exactly how I felt in one of the hardest times in my life. It also it a great piece for me because it incorporates things I struggle with such as descriptions, connecting stories and messages, and not being repetitive, and overcomes those writing challenges. It took a lot of effort to overcome my writing struggles, but I really enjoyed this topic so it was easier for me to write clearly, making it one of my best pieces.
-Micaela Gotfredson