Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Process Journal for Evaluative Essay

I love writing the Process Journal, it's fun and easy once I feel the relief of having my paper just so. I'm still struggling with two words in my paper I want a different meaning on but I'm happy with it overall. The Process Journal needs to be my struggles, trials and tribulations of writing the actual Essay, the assignment requires it be 2 - 3 pages long. Mine end up being 3 pages. I hope you enjoy!

Process Journal - Evaluative Essay

I was initially excited about writing a movie review. I love movies almost as much as I love reading and I knew instantly I wanted to write about Hairspray. Hairspray is a staple in my household, my children and I watch it at least once a month and the significance of the movie is something that I feel passionate about.

As I arrived home I began thumbing through our movie collection and could not locate Hairspray. I went to the public library to get a copy and they were all checked out. I reserved a copy and hoped it would come in over the weekend. Sunday as I was grocery shopping, I traversed through the movie aisle looking for Hairspray. I found it! Immediately I placed the movie in my already over flowing grocery cart and headed home merrily.

My family and I piled on the sectional to watch the movie the first time through. My boyfriend groaned at my insistence he watch the whole movie with us. Usually it’s just the kids and I that watch it together. My boyfriend is much more interested in science fiction and horror flicks than fun musicals with John Travolta as a woman. Amazingly enough he thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I’m sure he would not admit so to any other man, but I’m here to do so for him.

I scribbled pages of notes and then looked at the Movie Notes assignments. Two to three pages I read. “Oh, fantastic!” I thought. After I concluded typing the notes out there were ten pages. Talk about overkill. I began weeding down my notes and reduced them to six pages when I looked at the time and noticed I needed to leave for John’s doctor’s appointment.

I assumed it was just a cold and was shocked and stricken with fear as the doctor’s explained he has RSV and wanted to verify he didn’t have pneumonia. The remainder of the day was spent having my baby boy get a chest x-ray, going to two pharmacies to get the prescriptions filled and stopping at a home medical store for a nebulizer. The next four days I was exhausted and thought little about my Evaluative Essay. Every four hour breathing treatments are as hard on the mother as they are on the son. After the doctor’s extended the breathing treatments to every six hours I felt refreshed and ready to begin my first draft.

I stared at the blank page. I procrastinated. I wondered why it would be hard for me to write a review on a movie I loved. I looked at other reviews of the movie… I felt daunted. Maybe the movie was too big for me to write about. A very astute man (my boyfriend) said you just want it to be instantly perfect and it’s not going to be. I know this about myself. When I hand in as second draft, it has to be as good as it gets. Maybe that’s not what a second draft constitutes by academic English standards but it does to me.

I kept trying to write and the hardest part was summarizing the movie. I knew it couldn’t be all about plot summary. I had to give my opinion. I just didn’t know where to cut and every time I started I was a page into the opening scenes. I went to the public library and picked up the 1988 version of Hairspray. The opening scene dragged for what felt like years. Okay, I know that’s an exaggeration. It did drag though as well as the rest of the movie. I was able to summarize the movie I now disliked but still was stuck on Hairspray 2007 summary.

I went to my sister for assistance. She hadn’t seen the movie. I was personally offended. After I pushed that emotion aside she suggested I email her why she should rent the movie
tonight. And so I did. The writing came easily then as I was all fired up about her not seeing it. It was exactly what I needed.

The following morning I awoke with thoughts tumbling in my head in a different tactic of writing. I hurriedly opened a new document and began typing. I went through what I had typed and still felt it was off. I went to a lunch with a friend who enjoys writing and has given me fantastic advice so far. She continued her streak of helpful guidance suggesting I number my paragraphs or outline what I want to convey. I recall in high school I was not a fan of outlining but it assisted me to a great extent in this essay.

I sat at my computer desk with a feeling of hope. I systematically moved and rewrote paragraphs, merging sentences together, taking out others. The product fit the criteria of a rough draft. Once I had that I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and started revising, using thesaurus as it was my long lost friend and emailed it out to my groupies. Okay they aren’t my groupies though I like to occasionally think so and chuckle to myself. I received great ideas and revised again. A second draft for me would be more appropriately said as the fifteenth draft.

I am pleased with the essay I am handing in as second draft. I am confident that it fits the criteria of the assignment and flows well. I may be obsessive about my writing but I’ve made my peace with it. I want to succeed in English and I’m willing to put in the work to be successful.

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