Linxin Jiang

After doing the public writing, I was able to learn from different women who grow up with different backgrounds and view things differently. After working on the topic: gender stereotypes with my team. I was able to reevaluate my knowledge about how gender stereotypes can affect the lives of women. One thing I think I can improve next time is becoming a better team player.

One thing I learned from reading public writing from other people is to understand that everyone can have different ideas. When I was reading other women’s writing, I tried to be as neutral as possible. I was trying to understand what her idea was coming from. For example, I don’t agree with the first writing I read. I carefully read her writing, and I tried to understand her ideas before I made any comment. I wrote down everything that I think can be changed, and things that I don’t understand after I read her work. I shared what I love about her work first, and pointed out some structure issues she had. Since I have a different idea than her, and I want her to write what she supports. Therefore, I thought it would be great for me not to question her ideas. I was focusing on how she was introducing her idea and making transitions in different ideas. 

One thing I can improve next time from reading public writing from other people is I should wait until other people give out their thoughts, so I know what she wants to hear from people. She was very happy that people agreed with her idea. I think that it is very important for me to share more about what I liked about next time.

One thing I learned and can improve next time when I do public writing is to communicate and learn from as many people as possible. I found it important to be able to get comments from other people. When I was writing my draft, I felt my eyes and thoughts were covered by something invisible. I thought my draft was good enough until I got suggestions from others. After our in-class break-out section, I shared my writing with others too. Hence, I got more great suggestions.

I learned how to improve individual work from reading and writing public writing. On the other hand, I learned how to work as a team from working on group research projects.

Communication and helping each other are very important for a group. I was doing great talking to people in our group chat. I kept track of everything. For example, I update every task that we discussed during research day for group members who were not able to come to the class during our two research days. I came up with the idea and asked all the team members if they agree to talk about the life of the girl so we can cover all the gender stereotypes that our group thought is important. I tried to be a bridge between all our group members. Put all the tasks together and remind everyone. One of my team members was not comfortable with talking in group chat. She directly messaged a lot. Therefore, I tried my best to update her. I imported a template for our PowerPoint Slides. I reminded my group members to keep using the same format as well.

A few things that I can improve next time include that I should encourage my group members who are not comfortable talking in group chat. I will tell them it would be great if they can also tell other members of our group. It will be more efficient. Another thing that I can improve is stopping using ‘I think’ when I am working in a group. The use of ‘I think’ and ‘I guess’ is a habit of mine. I reminded one of my members several times that I think using paragraphs was not a good choice. We can talk more during the presentation. But we should keep our slides short. But she didn’t want to delete anything. If I have a second chance. I will spend more time convincing her. Additionally, there is an animation in slide 17. However, I didn’t check with my team member who is sharing the screen before the presentation. I found out she is using a local file during the presentation. Therefore, the image with numbers was not able to appear. I decided to say it instead. It is all because I am not confident, and I don’t like conflict. Even when I suggested things that I think are very important. I used ‘I think’ and ‘I guess’ at the beginning of my sentence. And if they don’t want to change it, after all, I will stop saying it. These are something I will improve next time.

This is the best class that I have taken this semester. I was able to take a break from all the mess that I had this semester. I learned to be ‘sensitive’ because I viewed most of society’s issues in a positive stander. However, I noticed many voices against women this year both from men and other women. I was so disappointed at talking to people online, but I see hope from this class. I meet a lot of people just like me who care and want this society to change. I have a little brother who is nine years younger than me. I can change all the men in the world, but I would teach him how to be a normal guy. Someone who can think independently, respect women, support Feminism, and can empathize with women.

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