During the composition of Writing Project 2, the schema that we designed was integral in informing what I wrote. Obviously a major factor was the idea (distributed weather sensors) that I wrote about, but when it came to me sitting at my computer, the schema told me what to write. To this end, the schema was incredibly useful; if I had no schema (it served as an outline) I would have no real idea how to write the report.
In terms of writing XML, I don’t feel hindered by it even a little bit. I write code for fun and for class, and XML is, from my point of view, just a really lightweight programming language. Sometimes adhering directly to the schema can be taxing, but Oxygen makes it easy to correct any errors.
Seth, for a class, wrote a feasibility report which he provided to us. Throughout the composition of my report, I used Seth’s almost as a template for both structure and content.
Both aspects, group and individual, helped with my understanding in different ways. In the group work, my teammates provided insights on the creation of the schema that I may, individually, not have seen, or at least taken longer to seen. This distribution of brain power helped expedite the process of schema creation and, in my opinion, made a schema more representative of the actual genre. On the other hand, individual work aided my comprehension as, in creating the work, I gained my own insights on the genre.
Ruminating on the assignment, I feel that something that went well for me was my group-mates. I felt that we worked well together. I also think that I, not to toot my own horn, came up with a fairly substantial idea that I could flesh out in my individual composition.
