Post-conference Reflection

To be completely honest, I was unbelievably terrified about the first peer conference.. not because Dr. Martin was a particularly scary woman, but simply because the idea of reading my first draft of my first research project to a college professor who has a doctorate in writing scared the crap out of me.  Although I felt I put an acceptable effort into research, development, and structure, I felt as if nothing would be good enough for someone who has been mastering the art for years.

Surprisingly, my conference went pretty smoothly.  I definitely read too fast out of pure nervous habit and I stuttered a lot, but, I think I got my point across.  The advice and constructive criticism I received definitely came from a reliable, well-informed source.  Dr. Martin’s advice to me was to talk more about the culture of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina before I went into my personal story, rearrange my paragraph on looters to reflect the common theme more accurately, change some pictures to tell the story more clearly, and develop more in my ending about the attitude of New Orleans Native throughout their existence.  I definitely agreed with all this criticism.  Even in reading my paper aloud, I noticed small body errors I could fix on my own.

I got to know my group members more as we sat outside Dr. Martin's office, anxiously discussing our apprehension and expectations of our first conference.  Both Amanda and Stefanie were really helpful with my paper, and I will definitely be going to them for more advice and pointers.  Overall, I really enjoyed the conferences.