Project 2 Reflexion: Ambiguity

The things that came easily to me for project two included solidifying my topic, analyzing each side, and researching to find the appropriate resources to back up my arguments.
Writing the project was a chore. I remembered the nightmare of project one and forced myself over one weekend to write all 2000 words. Toward the end, "paralysis by analysis" began setting in. I pushed myself to write it and ended up with eight free hours before the due date. For once in seven weeks, I finally had a quiet, relaxing sunday.

My biggest struggles included the 'take away' and 'how-to' factors.  I honestly still don't even know if I fully understand evaluative writing. I understand it's purpose, but I do not know HOW to sit down and write it. It was a constant "catch 22" process for me. Sometimes I felt like I was writing in the dark. I'm used to solid rules when writing expository essays. I really latch onto these basic parts of writing. They're almost written in stone because they're so necessary for strong and reliable writing. For example:
Introductory paragraph--starts out your paper and alludes to a few things you'll be discussing in your body. Ends with a thesis.
Body paragraphs--start with intro statement that introduces the topic and transistions, include the gist of the argument aided by the 'golden bricks.' Ends with a concluding sentence that sums up and transistions to the next paragraph.
Concluding paragraph--begins with restated thesis statement, reviews the important points covered in the paper and concludes with a noteworthy concluding statement.

I understand paper writing when it's put in the said format. During the project, I was constantly in the process of figuring it out as I went along--sticking to one format and hoping it worked.
Even after I read the chapter (which was really long and talked more about blogs/reviews than academic essays) spoke to the professor, asked lengthy questions in workshop, read my peer-reviews, and revisited my rough draft I was still confused how it would work.
It was only until four days it was due, that I Googled, "How to write an evaluative essay" and found out how to write my paper. In this case, it wasn't About.com that helped, it was eHow.com.

I learned that I need to improve my in-text citation and works cited skills. I can't tell you how long I wrestled over the formatting of the works cited.
I also learned I need to work harder at setting time aside to finish the final draft.  Assignments kept getting in the way, so finalizing took place on Friday, instead of Monday-Friday. That really kept me super stressed during the week.

My evaluation seems as strong.  However, I have no idea what the annotations are doing. I tried to create a 'lens' as best as I could, but I still feel like they were missing something.

In the future, I will get someone to look over my final draft and give feedback.  It's as simple as that.
Hopefully, in the next 4 years I won't have to publish online drafts of evaluative essays.  I get the idea of a blog, but I feel like the tangible map option would have been WAY easier. I can't stand meshing academic essays and blogs together.