The first essay we had to do for our first year of this master course was an academic writing piece of work. We had to choose an indicator of poor welfare in animals and develop this topic based on sources after good literature research. I have completed my undergraduate studies ten years ago and during these studies, I never had to write a similar essay. Before starting to write the review, we had a couple of hours of taught lessons with the module tutor, the rest of the studying had to be done individually. Concepts like ‘literature search’, ‘referencing’, ‘critical writing’ were totally new for me. The feeling I had at that time was like somebody has thrown me into the ocean and I had to learn how to swim.

The subject I chose was ‘The Increase of Brachycephalic Syndrome due to Increased Popularity of ‘flat-faced' dogs. The reason I chose to develop this subject was my concern about the increased popularity of these breeds and the breathing difficulties they have because of their face conformation; and how this affects their quality of life.

First, I got feedback from my peers. Their comments were quite encouraging and kind. At that point, I was feeling I had done a good job. Apparently, I could not judge myself objectively as this was my first academic writing. Peer feedback turned out to be disorienting. I felt that my peers had either treated me favorably or did not recognize my mistakes. According to Ishchenko and Verkhovtsova, peer feedback contributes to a deeper understanding of the topic (Ishchenko and Verkhovtsova, 2019). However, in my case, my peers liked the subject I chose even though, as I found out later, it was totally incorrect.

Receiving the tutor’s feedback on my work caused quite disappointment and distress. My mistakes were plenty and I needed to work a lot to improve them. Firstly, I had not understood the task correctly. Instead of writing about an indicator of poor welfare (behavioral or physiological) I wrote about a problem that can cause poor quality of life. The sources I used were not enough. There was a lack of criticality throughout the whole essay and there were a few examples of poor scholarship as well. I did not evaluate properly the information I found, and I used unnecessary data.

To better understand my mistakes I had an online session with my tutor to specify areas that needed improvement. He also suggested that I should speak with another tutor for advice on how to improve my writing, which I did. That one-to-one tutorial was very beneficial, and I will use this method in the future again.

Failure can be part of the learning process  (Dahlin et al., 2018), I was aware of it before deciding to enter this course, I have been through many failures in my undergraduate studies and in my career after. The key point is to face the facts, acknowledge my shortcomings and find a way to improve. Rowe and Fitness reported that frustration at not understanding a concept can be associated with increased motivation (Rowe and Fitness, 2018), and this motivation I am going to use in my next assignment. Apparently, making progress in writing is depending on experience and requires time. I hope I can implement this knowledge in my future work.

 

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Dahlin, K., Chuang, Y.-T., Roulet, T. (2018) Opportunity, motivation and ability to learn from failures and errors: Review, synthesis, and the way forward. The Academy of Management Annals. 12.

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Ishchenko, O., Verkhovtsova, O. (2019) Peer Feedback versus Traditional Teaching. JET (Journal of English Teaching). 5(2), 115.

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Rowe, A.D., Fitness, J. (2018) Understanding the Role of Negative Emotions in Adult Learning and Achievement: A Social Functional Perspective. Behavioral Sciences. 8(2).