Meeting #6: Criterion-Based Feedback

There was little distress in the meeting because, as it turns out, most of the comments we have received have been criteria based. We came up with questions similar to previously asked ones, but new that dealt with the style and other qualities of our writing. There was no non-fiction so we spent most of our initial discussion time conversing about the criteria for fiction pieces. There was some debate over the legitimacy of the criteria. Some felt that it was too rigid and fiction is to broad a style to be bound with set criteria, while others felt that there could have been more criteria or that some of them could be worded a bit differently. In the end, most comments we gave or revived seem to deal with pace, in fact we all had some issues involving our pieces being too fast.

Chris Khatami

Meeting #5: Voice

The group presented their questions in the beginning of the meeting. We read it quickly, but spent a significant time finding the sentences that jumped out to us. Luckily, no to members picked the same sentences. We discussed what it meant to read "for a purpose," and found interest in accepting ridicule. We also shared what kind of voices we use and how they intermingle with each other. Our group had an interesting mix, but a fair amount of sarcastic or cynical voices, which may say something about high-school or Lick. Then in discussing the reading we agreed that the voice ad a fascination too it similar to childhood joy.

Chris Khatami

Meeting 2/29

After asking our questions and reading the voice piece we all shared our "5 star quotes".

One of our favorites ones was "voice gets to the heart of how we as writers come up with words, because we often write best when we feel we are 'giving voice' to our thoughts; and we often revise best when we sense that the voice doesn't sound right and change it to get closer to the voice we want." We talked about this quote and how it helped us to realize the ways in which we write. As we have been talking about voice a lot for the past couple of classes it has come to be an important aspect of the way we think about our writing. We talked about how a good way to write is to say things out loud, because we believe that good writing sounds as though it is being spoken. Also, we said that in revisions it is important to always reread, scanning for continuity of voice and making sure that you still find truth in it.

-Maya L