Summary Self Evaluation

In order to evaluate how I feel I did on my summary of Christo's Valley Curtain, I'm going to use the holistic rubric as a guideline.

Rhetorical Knowledge
How to use sources appropriately- The summary was a nice refresher for MLA citation. Having never cited a film before, the refresher was especially useful. Before this project, I didn't know how to cite a movie. I would not have known if the title should go first or the directors and whether or not I should include the names of actors. I also learned that, even for a movie, I have to cite the source directly in the paper even if I did not pull a direct quote from the movie. If we didn't discuss in class about how we needed to conclude our last paragraph with (Curtain), I would have never known to do it.

Kairos, syntax, and flow- This project taught me what I should include in my paper and what I should not. I wanted to set up my paper with outside information so that the viewer could really get a sense of what was going on, and where, and by whom, but I soon learned that, that was not advisable for a summary. I learned that I had to focus on what was explicitly found in the film. I also learned that my flow was originally a tad hard to follow because I had really long sentences loaded with commas. To make the paper easier to read, I had to get rid of some of my commas and I had to cut down the size of my sentences.

Critical/Creative Thinking
Draw reasonable inferences- It's hard to say how much this project helped in this category. Though, I must say that this project is a good foundation for the critical thinking and creative category. I'd say drawing reasonable inferences was involved with this project. I had to determine which details are important in order to get the reader to understand my summary. I chose which details to use and I had to use reasonable inferences to determine with details to focus on.

Genre Knowledge
Summary vs. Analysis- This project helped me realize how to write an objective summary without my own subjective opinions. I really wanted to say that Christo was elated or Christo was nervous but I couldn't. I could only say what I saw. You can't see happy but you can see a smile. "The show don't tell" advise, although tricky (for me) to adhere to, was very helpful.

Mechanical Knowledge
I didn't learn much mechanically from this project. Two things I did learn were that, for a summary, I should shorten my sentences, and that I sometimes overuse my commas.