So far, I have written three pages for my essay. I am surprised how much I have actually found to say for each paragraph. In class we talked about how we all should start writing, and how many people start writing their body paragraphs for their essay first, but I surprised myself with how much I actually had ready for the introduction as well. We have also started peer revisions. I am hoping I get good responses for mine, and good suggestions. I think with the peer revisions is a really good idea, it helps not only the writer improve their essay, but also helps those who are editing, notice more mistakes or expand their mind on the format of an essay, which will help with their writing as well.

         My first semester here I learned how to do a annotated bibliography in my university 101 class, but I never understood who would actually go through and re-read them. Now l completely understand how it is helpful. I wish I was more thorough and gave specific examples when I was writing them, because it helps so much when writing me essay. Each of the articles I read were rather long, and it helps to not have to go and re-read each of them, but sometimes I find myself having to go back for the annotations I wasn’t as precise with. It is all a good learning experience for the next essay though!

         I have also learned that with longer essays, making a layout HELPS. I went though and decided what I was going to write each paragraph on, and as I get to each paragraph, I lay out how I will write that specific paragraph, as we learned in class. They may still need some work to them, but for right now they have the basic idea down. I found it kind of confusing trying to tie in all the information into each part of my thesis, but I don’t want to leave any of the articles out since they all have such good information about gangs. I am still working on my outline to make everything fit and flow well. I don’t want it to sound choppy and disorganized.