It’s Sunday night, and here I am, reflecting on the essay and (obviously) stressing about its fast approaching due date. I’m thinking about other essay ideas my fellow classmates have shared with me over the past few weeks. I have had many of my own ideas, which have been corroborated by peers and professors, and other ideas that have been contradicted by other students, only to be replaced with other concepts that seem to be far better than anything I could have thought of. All of this (my own confidence and hesitation included) has been brought along, at least in part, by group work.
Working in groups has been a large part of our time in English 203. Dr. McCoy often puts us into groups to bounce ideas off one another about books, analysis, world events, etc. Over the course of the semester, I have noticed that these acts of conversation have improved my ability to reflect on my own ideas, listen to others in a constructive way, and learn new things (both English-related, and, honestly, not – did you know the sky used to be orange? And watermelons used to be the size of grapes? Does that count as interdisciplinary work?)
While all of these things have been incredibly helpful (especially the watermelon fact, which is actually true – who knew?), some of the most helpful conversations have happened in the past week. However, I’ve found that bouncing ideas off of my peers while working on this essay, can be just as harmful as it is helpful.
Last class, I spoke with Dr. McCoy on solidifying an idea for my essay. I was feeling very overwhelmed with the amount of feedback I had received, and had what seemed like 50 pages of good material to work with. I became overwhelmed, as every piece of evidence I had appeared to strengthen my essay. I realized that while discussing ideas with my peers can be helpful, there is also a moment when helpfulness can turn on a writer.
Now, I am forcing myself to sit with my ideas and condense them into one concise point with my strongest evidence. I know that by doing this, I will come out with a second essay that is thoughtful, concise, and less wordy than my first.