Reflection on Project 1 Draft

For my two peer-edits, I read Jayni and Mehruba's QRGs. They both wrote concise but informative drafts, and most of the suggestions I made were local, grammar based edits.

Audience

Who is going to be reading this document? Who am I trying to reach with my argument?

Bottai and my two peer editors (Dylan and Alyssa) are probably going to be the only people reading my QRG. However, I am trying to reach anyone who has an interest in my topic and wants to learn more about it.

What are my readers' values and expectations? Am I meeting those expectations?

My readers are expecting to learn about a contemporary controversy in the field of psychology. I think that I met this expectation, because I wrote about a contemporary controversy. Alyssa commented at the end of my draft that she learned from my QRG, and that it was easy to read. 

Photo by Tacke, Oliver. "Vortrag". Uploaded 2/19/14 via Flickr.
Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

How much information do I need to give my readers?

The purpose of a QRG is to inform readers. The assumption is usually that readers of the genre don't already have a lot of background knowledge on the topic at hand. Fortunately, my controversy doesn't involve much technical language or complex data, so I didn't have to simplify anything. It's possible that someone that is well informed about this topic would be bored by my QRG, but they likely wouldn't feel like their intelligence has been insulted. 

What kind of language is suitable for this audience?

QRGs tend to be fairly casual, but Alyssa pointed out that one phrase I used was almost too casual. Unlike some of the more science-based topics that some of my peers did, the language in my controversy is easy to understand.

What tone should I use with my audience? Did I use that tone consistently?

My tone is generally informative. Because I am trying to provide an unbiased account of the argument(s), I try not to stray into a critical or opinionated tone. I want my readers to decide for themselves which side they are on, rather than feel persuaded to pick my side. 

Context

What are the formatting requirements of the assignment? Do I meet them?

The requirements of this assignment were to discern the conventions of QRGs from the five examples, and integrate those into our own QRGs. I did my best to write in the QRG style, and I think that I effectively used headings, short paragraphs, and white space. I most likely need more images and/or graphics though. 

What are the content requirements of the assignment? Did I meet them?

For my QRG, I included all of the information that I think is necessary to teach my readers about this controversy. That was the most important part of this assignment, besides using the genre conventions. 

Does my draft reflect knowledge or skills gained in class in addition to my own ideas and voice?

I knew nothing about QRGs before we talked about them in class, so I incorporated that knowledge into my draft. I also used what we learned about summarizing the main ideas of a longer written piece down to a single paragraph. However, the writing that I did is definitely my style. It doesn't sound like I regurgitated others' work and writing. 

Have I addressed any of the grammatical issues that were pointed out?

My peer-editers pointed out a few things that I need to fix in my draft. I am afraid to make those changes though because once I do, it will make their comment go away, and I don't want them to lose points.