In Summary...

Monday, April 11, 2016
by Jameson Ngo

Me, sitting on a table, writing a conclusion on a piece of paper. I'm stuck, with a speech bubble saying
It’s hard to conclude your work when you get to the end, especially when so much has happened. This is usually where you question yourself: What have I learned? Why was this important? How could I improve? Did I enjoy what I did?

Because how can you effectively summarize what you’ve done? What do you leave out, and what do you put in?

Well, finding the answers to the questions that you ask yourself are really helpful.

Me, with my hand flailed up, angry, asking

Try to look back at what you’ve done with your work and what your main points were, and then play the “So what?” game:

  • Basically, I said this in my writing.
    • So what?
      • Well, it was important because of this?
        • Why should anyone care?

And so on. This helps to synthesize (piece together) the thoughts, purpose, and points in your writing. This is also a very great method to develop a draft!

But what else should you do? What about the ending statement? Keep asking yourself questions:

  • Why was this important?
  • Did this affect anything else?
  • Is there anything that should be further looked into?
  • Any course of action that should be taken?
  • Any questions unresolved?

These are all great questions to analyze your points and to address the broader implications. This further supports the subject's relevance and insight.

My face, being unsatisfied. I'm saying

And lastly, the most important questions to ask yourself is: am I happy with what I’ve done?

If you aren’t, then find ways to improve. Chances are, if you’re unsatisfied with something in your work, then other people will be able to point out holes. More importantly, you won’t learn if you don’t try to improve.

If you can’t find anything off with your own writing, try to get a friend to look over it and play the “So What?” game with them.

If you are happy with your work, still look at what can be improved because nothing is perfect. Get an objective opinion. Come to the Writing Centre!! Keep improving until you feel proud with what you’ve done.

Me, crying, waving goodbye, saying

Looking back, I’ve learned and grown so much in the past four months here at the Writing Centre, and I’m definitely gonna miss it here. There are things that I think I handled very well, and things that I could improve, but that’s what this experience was for, and I’m pretty happy.

OUTTIE FOREVER,

Jameson