Abstract: This is a reflection of my writing during this semester; this will incorporate journal posts as well ass comments from my teacher and classmates. This will evaluate if I have truly understood the learning objectives for English 21000.
Who am I?
To whom do I owe the pleasure of writing? This question is something I constantly ask myself throughout my writing. My audience is one of the most important features I include in my writing. How can I start any paper assignment without them in mind! I have developed as a more mature writer this semester when I consider them. I choose to explore topics that have been constantly battled about in mainstream media in order to inform my intended audience on discrimination and geneticaly modifed foods. This was shown through on my opinion edited piece, Language and the visual analysis of Language as well as my conference paper of Is genetically modified food safe for Consumption? Through these papers I was able to further develop my skills with writing.
Prior to taking this course I looked up to Aristotle, he was my prime example of how to be a good writer in high school. He was able to use language that effectively communicated with his audience. When I attempted to employ his tactics and dialect many of my papers were cited for being too complicated and uneasy to understand. This was because Aristotle used language that was good for his audience in 335 B.C. My work needed to be for my audience in the twenty-first century. I was forced to find new writers that I could be inspired from. This led to a big step in coming out from my bad habits as a writer.
Using Aristotle as the benchmark for bad writing I was able to see the difference between good and bad writing. One thing that has tweaked my writing is other writers. To them writing is their way to convey a message. When writers convey their message they have their own unique style to create a theory of writing. Their style of writing usually expresses their opinion and clearly states the argument, just like Aristotle. My older writing lacked those qualities and could sometimes be confusing. In order to improve this I made sure to look for authors that used sophisticated language that effectively expressed their message. The resources used for my opinion edited essay, Op-Ed, included the detailed dialect of June Jordan. She inspired me to create an informal tone with my audience inorder to grab their attention using pathos and then later informing them with logos and ethos.
Since taking this course my style of writing has changed. Even though I still view writing as a daunting task I believe I have gotten better. What truly advanced my writing was being able to observe how other writers view writing. Reading the examples and discussing in the class discussions gave me insight on how to improve my drafts. Anne Lamott’s use of Shitty first Drafts taught me a better way to tackle my first drafts when assigned our prompt. One of the most notable things I wrote down in my journal on Blackboard was Lammots suggestion of writing like a child. “A child doesn’t care about who their audience is until they become older and more self conscious. Creating my first draft with this in mind I believe that I will be more comfortable. And when I have all my thoughts down I will take it and mature it so it’s better for my audience of scholars, scientists, my fellow students or for a group of parents.” This initial prompt to the Journal discussions made it easier to start my writing processes. With the connection of Brenda Ueland I was able to effectively start my essays and move on to the next part of reviewing.
Using the course objectives was an important factor when revising my drafts. One of the most important products to a good essay was using resources to prove my claims and validate my points. I can not possibly express the importance of having resources in the writing .One of the objects that was truly put into practice was objective eight. Using various library resources, such as jstor, made it easier for me to credit and show reputable writers for my essay Is Genetically Modified Food Safe for Consumption? I used sources from a web based Plos One to credit information from Xin-Gao Chen in my essay about genetically modified foods. I was able to get reliable information from a primary source which strongly validated my support in genetically modified foods.
Another accomplishment that I was able to break through was learning objective five; collaborating in the social aspects of writing gave me good feedback on my essays. For the first draft of the Op-ed draft Momtaz Ahmed, Eduard Valdez and Noelia Alonzo Guzman all commented that my draft “I Kept me [them] intrigued and wanted to read more.” This is one of the most helpful feedback informations because it shows that I was able to model my essay like Jordan as well as keep my audience interested about the topics.
One of my biggest challenges was coming up with an interesting thesis that would form my stance, objective seven. I was able to develop my stance through the feedback I received from Professor Skelly. She was able to give me critical feedback that helped solidify my comment with my Proposal for Genetically Modified Foods. “I would suggest organizing your thoughts a little more around which main points you want to focus on – from what I can tell, it seems like you plan to talk about the health impact, environmental impact, and impact on global food availability.” When she labeled the varying topics into three concrete categories, health impact, environmental impact, and impact on global food I was able to create a better argument.
Another issue I faced in previous writing was only using quotes to explain the author’s point of view. In my writing in high school my teacher would always ask me to expand on my ideas but I never really could understand what he meant. The Conference essay prompt was one of the helpful essays that helped me develop my own voice to speak to my audience. I used to over quote my authors and now I am able to paraphrase what they say and expand their ideas. In the essay Is Genetically modified foods safe for consumption? I discuss the benefits of genetically modified foods as well as some of the potential risks. This is an example of my paraphrasing.“Kouser mentions that since tomatoes are resistant to freezing temperatures they are able to withstand freezing weather so people in colder climates can grow tomatoes in their countries rather than import them.” Paraphrasing is a skill I mastered in this class solely because I understand that the Conference paper is meant to be read outloud to a huge group of people.Therefore, I knew I could not regurgitate all the information to an unexpecting audAssience.
Overall, I feel like I have evolved into a better writer but I still feel as if there is room for improvement. This class has provided a secure foundation for me in writing and the tools learned from the inquiry essay and sourced based essay truly made an impact on my writing. In the future I hope that my theory of writing will be able to develop in my time in college. In the future I know I will be exposed to other theories of writing and they too will have an impact on my writing.
