The process of the first writing project is a little surprised me when I need to use XML for a writing class. I thought writing is something that I need to describe my thoughts clearly, XML won’t make any differences. However, not as I thought, writing in XML did help me for annotating bibliography. Using XML as a coding language is not hard for me as I code for other classes. But writing in XML is different. What appears in Oxygen doesn’t look right and I can’t do any spelling check, formatting check (formatting check here is the format of an essay like spaces and punctuations) and words count. I had to commit to master when I was done for the first draft and check the formatted file online to see if I need to change anything. The schema which we discussed in class helped me think about the sources. Before, I may just write something, but by using schema, I can write and think. It makes my writing more fluently and more logical. I might have some redundant meanings of my essays before but schema avoids it. For using Oxygen and GitHub reminds me about my Co-op. I had similar process for submitting code in my Co-op this spring. I need to edit my code first, make sure it’s working and submit it to the workspace that my group shares. Every time when I submit something, I need to note it. The process is the same as I do for this project, sync, write description, commit to master and sync again. I need to find sources first and then using the schema as a guide to annotate it. GitHub keeps tracking the changes that I made and I think it’s going to help for group projects so that we can sync and edit and track the changes. Using Oxygen is not a problem for me and I’m glad that I can learn and use XML for this class.
