Me and Collaborative Essay

It was Sunday evening, around 8, when preparing my lectures as usual, I remembered that my class would have mid-test on Writing II the next day. At that time, I was a bit worried whether I could do it or not. Therefore, I just focused studying on that lecture, reviewing all materials which had been explained. I heard that the test would be individual but I thought it was still collaborative since I would be in group. Moreover, the test was to make a bulletin project, 1-week deadline. I could not wait the test any longer because I guessed, it would be one of my best writing experiences.

            Tomorrow morning in the Writing II class, Mrs. Ulil, our lecturer, divided the class into a group of 5. Following that, she asked us to discuss about the bulletin project. I had Fitria, Fauzi, Fikri, and Nabil. However, Fikri was absent on that day. Therefore, we only discussed on four, deciding the topic and who would write cause-effect, comparison-contrast, narrative, and descriptive essay. A few minutes later, we had decided the topic that was “rare animal”. I got effect essay; Fitri was descriptive; Fauzi was narrative; Nabil was comparison; and for Fikri, we decided that he had to write contrast essay. Before the class was over, we decided one more thing that was to make a group on Whatsapp in order to ease us when having some difficulties to ask.

              On the following days, I started on my essay. In the first time, to write what I had to was a terrible struggle for me. Fortunately, I got the idea: Sumatra Elephant on High Alert. However, I got other difficulties then: I had no idea to write the background of the essay, or even its body paragraphs. Therefore, I needed to read many articles which were related to my essay in order to collaborate my ideas. It was confusing since I had to filter whether the articles I had read were supportive or not. Even if it was hard—and useless sometimes—to do, but I realized that reading a lot could make me knowledgeable.

            On Sunday, before the deadline, after our group had finished the essay, we discussed it–or the class call it “peer review”—through Googledoc. It began in the morning ­­until evening so that I just stayed in my bed room all day long, coupled with my laptop. Sometimes, I just went outside to buy some foods for escaping my hunger, then went back to my room again.  About the peer review, we did the same thing all the time: corrected and gave suggestion to all of our essays and of course, alternately. Then, because of many ideas and perhaps, many mistakes corrected, we laughed. In the evening around 9, actually, we had finished our works, but there was one thing forgotten: the template of bulletin. Unfortunately, no one in group could design except Fauzi—he was ready to make it.

            The next day morning, we got the result: our bulletin was ready to submit. We were so blessed to have Fauzi, who had made the bulletin look so perfect; to have this group, who had worked so hard—especially on the due date; and to have Mrs. Ulil, who had guided us even until the end of the deadline. This collaborative work taught me many things, a few of which are to be patient and to help each other.