During the drafting process of the cover letter, I had to pull multiple job ideas together, because not all the positions I looked for had the same ideas/qualifications they wanted. Even though they were under the same job title. Universities and museums all had somewhat different ideas. However, that was not an impossible task because I ended up taking some aspects of each job and compiling them into one description of wants and needs. Overall it was interesting to figure out what job was needed in order to begin writing the cover letter. In order to write the cover letter I had to pull all attributes that I thought would be appealing in order to grab the employer. During one class period, I spent revising and creating a rough draft for the piece. I thought that was a good use of time because I could work out any kinks that needed to be fixed. Today we are going to have actual editing to make sure a final draft is prepared. I cannot wait to get feedback as well as edit myself. The main goal is to hopefully give a receive overall feedback on the draft.
In my cover letter, my main struggle was maintaining an easy, charismatic tone without sounding too stiff. Since the job I’m writing for is for a summer camp, they’re going to be looking for someone with an easy sort of air to them, but it’s hard for me to write about myself and my qualifications without sounding too formal. I think the sort of peer review process that I would be most comfortable with is an anonymous review process. That way, people can really sink their teeth into a piece of writing without feeling awkward. This works great for me too, as I have a hard time picking apart a piece of writing when I have to relay it directly to the author.
After a peer review session in class, I will revise a few sentences that will benefit from re-working for better flow and some precision to the wording. I also received some helpful information on the readability of my paragraphs, and I will play around with the structure/format of one that is too short to stand alone. Having three different sets of eyes and perspectives on my cover letter was very helpful in catching things I have missed as I have been working with this one document for a week and can go into auto-pilot. I found some examples of formatting from my peers that I will use for parts of my cover letter, which is a nice way to share ideas. My group did a great job of highlighting all the positives of the cover letter and then working into helpful criticism and suggestions, which I know as a writer on the receiving end is super considerate, and that is always a great common practice.
During the peer review session in class, my group and I discussed how I need to work to condense bits and pieces of my cover letter. This is challenging for me because I have a lot of work experience that applies to the position to which I am applying. In doing this, we also reworked some sentences to optimize sentence flow. Overall, this was a very productive experience for me, as having a few different sets of eyes review my work helped ensure I had an appropriate amount of information. My group was supportive in highlighting the positives while also helping me re-work to ensure I had the best cover letter possible.
In revising my cover letter after peer review, I’m mainly going to focus on cleaning up any spelling and grammar issues, as nothing too egregious needs to be changed based on the comments from the peer-review session. A lot of my concern was making sure that I was concise and specific in my descriptions of my academic and career-related qualifications. Each paragraph for my interest section focuses on explaining one of these qualifications in detail, pulling what the job listing wanted to be emphasized. This is because the cover letter is related to a government job and a position I want to apply for when I graduate from college. It’s also an example of a position where I might be underqualified due to a lack of direct legal experience, even without a J.D., which is not required in a paralegal position. I want to also work on the formatting to get the cover letter within the rubric’s requirements for its structure. When I’m a peer reviewer, I want to focus on the negative first so that my fellow peer reviewers can highlight the more positive. It might come off as cruel or callous, but I also know it can be hard to criticize others’ writing, especially when you’re worried about how you will come off. I feel obligated to fill that role because the point of peer review is a balance of acknowledging what’s working and what’s not. If there is no criticism, then it feels like a peer review hasn’t been completely done to its fullest.
Today’s workshop was very eye opening and very helpful. I feel like since a cover letter is such a short piece of writing, it can be easy to overdo or underdo it. Having some people read over my writing helped a lot. I was able to ask them some questions about things I wasn’t sure about and I also was given feedback from a perspective different from my own. Some things they pointed out that I am going to work on were just ways of formatting and reading over my sentences to take out extra words. They also helped me re-word a few sentences and strengthen my word choices. It was also beneficial to read other people’s papers. In doing that you can see what is working or not working in other people’s papers and kind of apply that to your own. Everyone seemed very thankful to give and receive feedback and no one was too brutally honest. It was a good balance of hyping up each other’s papers and also giving constructive feedback, which I appreciate. Giving feedback is one of those things that sometimes people are hesitant to do so I think breaking the class up into smaller groups makes it easier for everyone.
The cover letter peer review session proved to be very helpful. I received some good feedback on my letter that I will take into account during my revision. Reading my peers’ cover letters was also a great way for me to reflect on my own writing. Seeing what they wrote and the decisions they made during their writing gave me some new ideas for my own work. The changes I plan on making to my cover letter are mostly rearranging where some details are. To improve my first opening “attention” paragraph, I plan on moving the ending sentence of my third paragraph to the end of the first one. This sentence provides a concise description of my passion for the position and will lead into the rest of my letter nicely. I also am planning to include specific times that I am available for an interview in the final paragraph of my letter. The goal of this is to make it clear when I am available and hint that I am ready to interview right away.
This is not my first peer review experience in your class so knowing what to expect from past experiences I was able to do a better job and be more prepared and equipped showing up to class.In the peer review experiences I had last semester I was very nervous and stressed which made me not able to be as present in the peer review discussions. Making the transition from high school peer reviewing to college peer review was definitely a shock. Last semester I dreaded peer review days and I have found that the cause of my stress was my lack of preparation leading into it. So for this assignment I had some extra time on my hands and I made sure that I was prepared for this peer review experience instead of procrastinating like I usually do. Because I was prepared I was able to be engaged and contribute to the conversations being had about other cover letters and my own. Because I have had to have a lot more experience talking in groups and talking to a class since last semester and that has helped with the social anxiety as well. I have never had to make a cover letter before so I think making one was very educational and beneficial for me. I got a lot of positive feedback on my cover letter and a few points of constructive criticisms that I thought were very helpful. I feel like this was the most positive peer review experience that I have ever had.
I appreciated the feedback I received from my peers during the cover letter workshop. I found it very helpful to see the stylistic and professional choices my classmates made in their own letters as well, and it made me reflect on my own decisions. From the feedback I received, I was made aware that my inclusion of the employer’s email address and phone number at the top weren’t necessary to include. I also included my own email and phone number twice, once in my closing sign-off at the end as well as in my final paragraph, and it was not necessary to have both. Finally, I was told that two of my paragraphs had the potential to be combined and reworked if I moved a sentence, and so I will be doing some reworking on that to help the transition of that piece. Other than those changes, I will thoroughly reread to double check for any mistakes or errors I may have missed. I look forward to doing more workshops in the future.
I thought that was a good use of time because I could work out any kinks that needed to be fixed. The overall feedback received was excellent as it made sure several eyes got a good look at it in order to make certain fixes work out. It also allowed me to figure out if the letter flowed well and was a solid balance between enthusiastic and professional. Not only but having the opportunity to view other classmates and see what they have done was interesting. Another aspect was viewing how peers had different formats and tones to their pieces that makes them sound like them. Now all I have to do is edit
The cover letter workshop was very helpful for me as I needed a lot of edits to make. It was great to get three more sets of eyes on it so they could see the mistakes that I missed. Taking in the information that my peers gave to me was hard at first because we all have different writing styles and techniques but listening to them explain why, it opened up my eyes and I now see why I needed to fix some things. One thing that was a common discussion point in our group was how to fix the format of the letter. Each person in our group had format problems and we all agreed on what the best format for the cover letter should be and what looks most professional. Another thing that was said for me to edit was changing around my paragraphs and moving things. In my first paragraph I had personal examples and I was told to put them in the third paragraph and now that I edited it it sounds a lot better.
Peer reviewing was kind of hard for me this time around, as I was unable to make it to class, so I had to do this process virtually. With this in mind, however, I was still able to receive helpful feedback. I am going to focus mainly on condensing my cover letter, providing specifics, and simply better wording some of my sentences to make them flow better. I was actually surprised by the amount of positive comments on my cover letter. This style of writing (professional) is one that I am not comfortable with, so I felt as though I was missing something, but Alexa reassured me that I was doing an ok job! I believe the redrafting process should be relatively straight forward given her feedback.
12 thoughts on “JOURNAL #9”
During the drafting process of the cover letter, I had to pull multiple job ideas together, because not all the positions I looked for had the same ideas/qualifications they wanted. Even though they were under the same job title. Universities and museums all had somewhat different ideas. However, that was not an impossible task because I ended up taking some aspects of each job and compiling them into one description of wants and needs. Overall it was interesting to figure out what job was needed in order to begin writing the cover letter. In order to write the cover letter I had to pull all attributes that I thought would be appealing in order to grab the employer. During one class period, I spent revising and creating a rough draft for the piece. I thought that was a good use of time because I could work out any kinks that needed to be fixed. Today we are going to have actual editing to make sure a final draft is prepared. I cannot wait to get feedback as well as edit myself. The main goal is to hopefully give a receive overall feedback on the draft.
In my cover letter, my main struggle was maintaining an easy, charismatic tone without sounding too stiff. Since the job I’m writing for is for a summer camp, they’re going to be looking for someone with an easy sort of air to them, but it’s hard for me to write about myself and my qualifications without sounding too formal. I think the sort of peer review process that I would be most comfortable with is an anonymous review process. That way, people can really sink their teeth into a piece of writing without feeling awkward. This works great for me too, as I have a hard time picking apart a piece of writing when I have to relay it directly to the author.
After a peer review session in class, I will revise a few sentences that will benefit from re-working for better flow and some precision to the wording. I also received some helpful information on the readability of my paragraphs, and I will play around with the structure/format of one that is too short to stand alone. Having three different sets of eyes and perspectives on my cover letter was very helpful in catching things I have missed as I have been working with this one document for a week and can go into auto-pilot. I found some examples of formatting from my peers that I will use for parts of my cover letter, which is a nice way to share ideas. My group did a great job of highlighting all the positives of the cover letter and then working into helpful criticism and suggestions, which I know as a writer on the receiving end is super considerate, and that is always a great common practice.
During the peer review session in class, my group and I discussed how I need to work to condense bits and pieces of my cover letter. This is challenging for me because I have a lot of work experience that applies to the position to which I am applying. In doing this, we also reworked some sentences to optimize sentence flow. Overall, this was a very productive experience for me, as having a few different sets of eyes review my work helped ensure I had an appropriate amount of information. My group was supportive in highlighting the positives while also helping me re-work to ensure I had the best cover letter possible.
In revising my cover letter after peer review, I’m mainly going to focus on cleaning up any spelling and grammar issues, as nothing too egregious needs to be changed based on the comments from the peer-review session. A lot of my concern was making sure that I was concise and specific in my descriptions of my academic and career-related qualifications. Each paragraph for my interest section focuses on explaining one of these qualifications in detail, pulling what the job listing wanted to be emphasized. This is because the cover letter is related to a government job and a position I want to apply for when I graduate from college. It’s also an example of a position where I might be underqualified due to a lack of direct legal experience, even without a J.D., which is not required in a paralegal position. I want to also work on the formatting to get the cover letter within the rubric’s requirements for its structure. When I’m a peer reviewer, I want to focus on the negative first so that my fellow peer reviewers can highlight the more positive. It might come off as cruel or callous, but I also know it can be hard to criticize others’ writing, especially when you’re worried about how you will come off. I feel obligated to fill that role because the point of peer review is a balance of acknowledging what’s working and what’s not. If there is no criticism, then it feels like a peer review hasn’t been completely done to its fullest.
Today’s workshop was very eye opening and very helpful. I feel like since a cover letter is such a short piece of writing, it can be easy to overdo or underdo it. Having some people read over my writing helped a lot. I was able to ask them some questions about things I wasn’t sure about and I also was given feedback from a perspective different from my own. Some things they pointed out that I am going to work on were just ways of formatting and reading over my sentences to take out extra words. They also helped me re-word a few sentences and strengthen my word choices. It was also beneficial to read other people’s papers. In doing that you can see what is working or not working in other people’s papers and kind of apply that to your own. Everyone seemed very thankful to give and receive feedback and no one was too brutally honest. It was a good balance of hyping up each other’s papers and also giving constructive feedback, which I appreciate. Giving feedback is one of those things that sometimes people are hesitant to do so I think breaking the class up into smaller groups makes it easier for everyone.
The cover letter peer review session proved to be very helpful. I received some good feedback on my letter that I will take into account during my revision. Reading my peers’ cover letters was also a great way for me to reflect on my own writing. Seeing what they wrote and the decisions they made during their writing gave me some new ideas for my own work. The changes I plan on making to my cover letter are mostly rearranging where some details are. To improve my first opening “attention” paragraph, I plan on moving the ending sentence of my third paragraph to the end of the first one. This sentence provides a concise description of my passion for the position and will lead into the rest of my letter nicely. I also am planning to include specific times that I am available for an interview in the final paragraph of my letter. The goal of this is to make it clear when I am available and hint that I am ready to interview right away.
This is not my first peer review experience in your class so knowing what to expect from past experiences I was able to do a better job and be more prepared and equipped showing up to class.In the peer review experiences I had last semester I was very nervous and stressed which made me not able to be as present in the peer review discussions. Making the transition from high school peer reviewing to college peer review was definitely a shock. Last semester I dreaded peer review days and I have found that the cause of my stress was my lack of preparation leading into it. So for this assignment I had some extra time on my hands and I made sure that I was prepared for this peer review experience instead of procrastinating like I usually do. Because I was prepared I was able to be engaged and contribute to the conversations being had about other cover letters and my own. Because I have had to have a lot more experience talking in groups and talking to a class since last semester and that has helped with the social anxiety as well. I have never had to make a cover letter before so I think making one was very educational and beneficial for me. I got a lot of positive feedback on my cover letter and a few points of constructive criticisms that I thought were very helpful. I feel like this was the most positive peer review experience that I have ever had.
I appreciated the feedback I received from my peers during the cover letter workshop. I found it very helpful to see the stylistic and professional choices my classmates made in their own letters as well, and it made me reflect on my own decisions. From the feedback I received, I was made aware that my inclusion of the employer’s email address and phone number at the top weren’t necessary to include. I also included my own email and phone number twice, once in my closing sign-off at the end as well as in my final paragraph, and it was not necessary to have both. Finally, I was told that two of my paragraphs had the potential to be combined and reworked if I moved a sentence, and so I will be doing some reworking on that to help the transition of that piece. Other than those changes, I will thoroughly reread to double check for any mistakes or errors I may have missed. I look forward to doing more workshops in the future.
UPDATED JOURNAL #9
I thought that was a good use of time because I could work out any kinks that needed to be fixed. The overall feedback received was excellent as it made sure several eyes got a good look at it in order to make certain fixes work out. It also allowed me to figure out if the letter flowed well and was a solid balance between enthusiastic and professional. Not only but having the opportunity to view other classmates and see what they have done was interesting. Another aspect was viewing how peers had different formats and tones to their pieces that makes them sound like them. Now all I have to do is edit
The cover letter workshop was very helpful for me as I needed a lot of edits to make. It was great to get three more sets of eyes on it so they could see the mistakes that I missed. Taking in the information that my peers gave to me was hard at first because we all have different writing styles and techniques but listening to them explain why, it opened up my eyes and I now see why I needed to fix some things. One thing that was a common discussion point in our group was how to fix the format of the letter. Each person in our group had format problems and we all agreed on what the best format for the cover letter should be and what looks most professional. Another thing that was said for me to edit was changing around my paragraphs and moving things. In my first paragraph I had personal examples and I was told to put them in the third paragraph and now that I edited it it sounds a lot better.
Peer reviewing was kind of hard for me this time around, as I was unable to make it to class, so I had to do this process virtually. With this in mind, however, I was still able to receive helpful feedback. I am going to focus mainly on condensing my cover letter, providing specifics, and simply better wording some of my sentences to make them flow better. I was actually surprised by the amount of positive comments on my cover letter. This style of writing (professional) is one that I am not comfortable with, so I felt as though I was missing something, but Alexa reassured me that I was doing an ok job! I believe the redrafting process should be relatively straight forward given her feedback.