On Wednesday, 9/14/16, me, Drew, Jen, and Kyle met up in the Honors College to go over our Reading Annotations and our Built Environment Descriptions. From my study session on Monday, I felt more comfortable about the Reading Annotations and felt that I was able to give advice and feedback to people who needed it. Each of us had completed at least one Readding Annotation (for class prep Tuesday) and therefore we each had an example of what to show. This was helpful. I liked reading their annotations because they did things differently than I did. I think it is a good idea to include at least two paragraphs in an annotation about a source. Three would be the most, and four is too much, but one-two is definitely good to convey what needs to be said about the source at hand. After we discussed Reading Annotations and gave each other helpful suggestions and feedback we moved on to our next project, the Built Environment Descriptions. It was hard for the others to help me with mine because no one else in the study group was in Group 2. Everyone else began to talk about what they were interested in studying and visiting and I felt like I could really help out. Growing up only about 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta, I have frequented many of the places listed for suggested locations. I was able to tell others in my study group about what the place is like. I explained how for my Beltline location, I was going to study Krog Street Market. To me, Krog Street is amazing and has great restaurants. However, it is overshadowed by Ponce City Market. I’m excited to study Krog Street Market for my Built Environment Description and to shed some light on how great it really is. With this study group, I got good feedback on the Reading Annotation I had completed and also ended up feeling more comfortable about my Built Environment Description and the choices I was making for it.

On Monday, September 12, I got together with Noah, Miranda, Kai, Sedona, and Jen to discuss the Reading Annotations, the Built Environment Descriptions, and points in general. I was really confused about the Reading Annotations coming into the study session with them. I didn’t really know what I was doing, felt lost about what I had to write about in the individual annotations for each source, and was confused about what my group was doing. Miranda forwarded me the email she had received about the different places each group was doing. This email included a Google Doc with my group’s location, the Beltline. Listed underneath were suggestions about where we could go on the Beltline. This email provided me with relief. I wasn’t as confused anymore because now I truly understood where my group was supposed to go and the exact places that we should go. I felt more comfortable about the Built Environment Description and talked a little with Sedona (who is in Group 2 with me) about the potential places we could go and study. I felt better about the Built Environment Description. Now I believe I am either going to study Ponce City Market or Krog Street Market, both really interesting places to go. I voiced my concern about the reading annotations because I did not really have a firm grasp about what was going on. Noah explained to me what he had learned through an office hours visit. He told me what we should include in an annotation for a source, like who wrote it, why it’s helpful, how we can use the source, if the source is credible, and so on. Noah’s explanation really helped me because I had not done an annotated bibliography before so I was somewhat lost. But after Noah’s explanation, I felt I had a more firm grasp on not only what an annotated bibliography was, but also what it’s purpose is and how to write good annotations for it. As a group, we compared the amount of points we had. We saw where each other were and gave suggestions about how to improve point count. I suggested doing all the extra work from the First-Year Guide to Writing. Miranda suggested posting blog posts with pictures from Atlanta and descriptions of said pictures (I found this idea great and am going to start to do this). I also helped others at this study session. Kai and Jen were both confused about how to use Galileo since neither had used it before. I used Galileo throughout high school and was familiar with their interface. I also had discovered how to log on through Georgia State’s library and my personal username so I was able to help them. Now all of us are using Galileo not only for English but for other classes as well. This study session was very helpful to me because I felt like I became smarter from it and learned a lot. This study session lowered some of the stress I have been having and I feel like I have a better grasp on what I am doing. I’ll be sure to do another study session again because it was very, very helpful.