Christo Summary Reflection

Rhetorical Knowledge: 

• How to use sources appropriately- I felt that this project really helped me refresh on the proper procedures for MLA citation, especially considering the source was a film. I would not have been able to remember what an MLA film citation would have even looked like without the assistance from the Purdue OWL. I was also able to look up the citation format for a wide array of sources, such as journals, newspapers, movies, video clips, and web sites. I really enjoyed the extra push the demand for a proper citation gave me. Without that requirement, I am sure that I would have completely forgotten the MLA citation format and I would probably not practice its use on my own time. 
• How to organize thoughts, focus, and create an impression- This project was very particular in this subject area. What I found to be one of the most challenging elements of the composure of this essay was the strict limitation to just a summary of the short film. I quickly discovered the difficulty involved in keeping the essay strictly a summary rather than an analysis. As I delved deeper and deeper into my essay I found it so tempting to naturally insert my own opinions and thoughts and disrupt the flow of events in the film with commentary. However, after much editing and a better understanding of what a summary really should look and sound like, I was able to cut out the "chit chat" and get down to the business of composing a true summary. 

Critical and Creative Thinking:

• Draw reasonable inferences- Although this project did not require much analysis in terms of composing the summary, there where still many inferences that were made in class as to what the idea behind the making of the film was about. Many students were able to mutually agree that the moral of the film was that although Christo was doubted by everyone around him in terms of the success of his massive project, he was still able to disregard the overwhelming doubt and press forward with his project. The students and I in the class were able to pick up on this subject rather quickly using our critical thinking skills and see more meaning to the film that goes beyond the major focus of it. 

Genre Knowledge:

• #3 As you grow in academic writing experience, you'll encounter more types of academic genres: researched arguments, reports, reviews, summaries, personal testimonies, etc... - This assignment was especially helpful in distinguishing the differences between summary papers and analytic papers. Weeding out text that did not relate to the sole description of the film and unfiltered description only was the most difficult component to writing this paper. To be able to identify the difference between analyzing and summarizing was a huge skill to pick up on during the construction of this essay. After the completion of this project, i now have a much better understanding of the differences between analytic writing and summary writing.

Mechanical Knowledge:

• I must be honest, I did not learn very much about the basic mechanics of writing a paper in this assignment being that I am already very familiar with how composing an essay works. If anything, the assignment was an excellent means of refreshing my memory in terms of how organize an essay and put it into MLA format. However, what i did learn is that in terms of summarizing any sequence of events, it is best to compose a paper in a chronological fashion that corresponds to the chronology of the story line itself.