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The importance of rhetoric
Importance of the writing process
The importance of rhetoric
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I don't particularly like to write. Unless we're talking poetry, I have no innate talent in written expression. While I deeply enjoy the consumption and sharing of knowledge, its conveyance is not my strong suit. When pen is put to paper or fingers to keyboard, coherence is of the utmost importance. There is no way to clarify mistakes made or intentions left unclear and what we say in writing is more or less final. The effort, or lack thereof, that a reader is required to expend in order to comprehend information is key to that reader's acceptance of the ideas that an author presents. Few enjoy the ramblings of a person unskilled in communication, no matter how profound their ideas. It is for this reason that the development of writing ability is essential. My own quest to improve the quality and coherence of my writing throughout the course of my academic career has been marked by changes in style and in strategy. Every class that has ever required me to express myself on paper has seen at least some change in my writing. In this course, five primary areas of improvement were emphasized: the development of research tactics, understanding of rhetoric, grammar and syntax, strategies for refinement of writing ability and the development of critical reading skills. During the course of this semester I have tried my best to apply these goals to my writing.
All throughout high school, I was a fan of free-writing and my work reeked of it. “Write now, reorganize later” was my strategy. The problem was that by the time I was actually done writing, I had grown tired of the process and devoted little energy towards ensuring that it made any logical sense. As a high schooler, my pages were riddled with word-vomit and general verbal insani...
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...ersity of Colorado's Program for Writing and Rhetoric's “Course Learning Goals:” The refinement of writing ability. All of the others are simply methods of doing so. Reflection on past writing is key to future improvement. A development of rhetorical awareness is a vital part of understanding the objectives and techniques employed by writers. The ability to read critically is essential in that it allows for the application of lessons learned from other writers to one's own work. The possession of good strategies for research ensures that an argument made is as sound as possible. Knowledge of grammatical and syntactical convention is an imperative for the shaping of a piece of writing to a target audience. These goals are all necessary tactics and strategies for the creation of refined and eloquent writing. And that my friends, is exactly why I do not like to write.
The art of writing is a complex and difficult process. Proper writing requires careful planning, revision, and proofreading. Throughout the past semester, the quality of my writing has evolved significantly. At first, I struggled with the separation of different types of paragraphs, and I found writing them laborious. Constant practice, however, has eliminated many of my original difficulties, and helped to inspire confidence in my skills.
Several people have trouble writing college level essays and believe that they are unable to improve their writing skills. In “the Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer,” Sarah Allen argues how no one is born naturally good at writing. Sarah Allen also states how even professional writers have trouble with the task of writing. Others, such as Lennie Irvin, agree. In Irvin’s article “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?” states how there are misconceptions about writing. Furthermore, Mike Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer” shows ways on how one can improve their writing skills. Allen, Bunn, and Irvin are correct to say how no one is born naturally good writers. Now that we know this, we should find ways to help improve our writing skills, and
If the student desires to grow in knowledge, they must be willing to adopt a new style of writing as they prepare for higher education. The purpose of a college is not to just feed facts to a student, but rather use the professor to teach the students to develop critical thinking habits so that new knowledge flourishes in the student. These habits are necessary for the new writer if they desire to further improve their writing potential. This requires the writer to focus on writing to communicate ideas that engage and persuade the reader. Clear, precise, and factual writing will assist in this process by teaching the student methods to avoid developing weak or unclear arguments through the elimination of opinions from the essay. It is to be noted that one should be aware not to create excessive claims. These draw away from the culture of the academy and may result in errors that take away from the argument of the
My development as a writer has flourished throughout this semester. The first week of this fall semester started out with writing responses from our readings in the textbook. Looking back through and analyzing my reading responses at the semester to now; I noticed a substantial improvement in not only my grammar skills, but also my summarizing, and in-depth studying of writing adeptness. Another way I have progressed this semester is the vocabulary of my writing has significantly improved and become more scholarly. Another advancement I noticed was that the content of my work has matured, along with my organizational adeptness.
I started the semester not knowing how I would adjust going from a high school writing class to a college level writing class. I felt my writing was above average, but writing was never one of my strong suits. I had no way of knowing if my writing competency could hold up to college academic standards. I took expository writing with Professor James Brady. Over the course of the semester, multiple learning objectives were learned through my essays. These learning objectives were subject matter knowledge, writing process knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, genre knowledge, and meta-cognition.
In Donald M. Murrays’s essay “What is Practical Education” he explains his reasoning behind why he allowed his students to write badly. He shares his own experience with police-like teachers who drove him to hate writing. In hopes of helping his students find their voice he allows his students to write the words down as they come, no matter how awkward they sound. Often times they find out that they have more to say then they thought. Rhetorical devices are used to help the readers relate to his point of view on writing.
Throughout the semester i only learned few new things but i did improve and solidify my skill of writing. Before my first year of college my skills have always undermined by other high school english teachers and with that came disappointing grades. I am writing this paper as a reflection of the semester and the progress i have made as a writer. I now understand many things that my high school teachers have done a poor job demonstrating and i am grateful that i decided to take my own route in my education instead of their syllabus. I entered the semester with anxiety that i would perform as i did before but i clearly outdid my own expectations by receiving top grades on my essays.
I improved on many aspects of my writing throughout the duration of this class, but there are still some things I need to refine. Over the course my writing skills have gotten better due to the instructor’s feedback, peer reviews, and just me learning. I enjoyed peer reviews because sometimes it is easier to relate to someone my own age. The overall structure and flow of my essays have improved, as well as the use of word choice and quotations. Throughout this course, I was able to apply critical thinking and reading skills to different texts, compose essays with appropriate content development and organization, use correct style by practicing the steps of the writing process, and reflect on my own development as a writer. However, I still need to work on demonstrating correctness, including punctuation, mechanics, and
Over the years of my schooling, I have gradually developed my writing preparation to help me become a better writer. I continue to find ways to improve my writing abilities by working on my weaknesses and by incorporating the feedback I receive from my peers and my instructors into my essays. At times, I still struggle when preparing to start my essay, but with precise and organized planning and obtaining the help of others, I am certain that I will become more proficient in my writing
As I shoved my notebook into my backpack, I heard my writing fellow murmur something about an essay. I wasn’t worried. After taking every Advanced Placement English class my high school offered, I felt equipped to handle a simple essay until received Dr. Carver’s email with the prompt and instructions. I blinked at the screen and rubbed my eyes; thinking I had misread the message, I read it again. I was supposed to have the essay finished in approximately 42 hours, but I had never written a decent essay in less than four days. I was in a state of panic; all of my ideas had evacuated my imagination leaving me with a painful case of writer’s block. To me, most of good writing is good editing and proper editing requires having a window to forget your writing before returning to it: a window that 42 hours just couldn’t provide.
As a second language learner I have never expected myself to be a perfect writer throughout the semester. Even If English was my first language still, I would not be a perfect writer. It is not about first or second language, it is about how well I understand the learning objectives. Then organizing and writing with my own ideas and putting them in my paper. I am going to be honest, I am not good at English subject and English subject is my strongest weakness than the other subjects. In this paper I will discuss and analyze my own writing, reflecting on the ways that my writing has improved throughout the semester.
Erik Erikson composed a theory of psychological development that was composed of eight stages. Erikson’s theory focuses on how personalities evolve throughout life as a result of the interaction between biologically based maturation and the demands of society. According to Erikson, “Each stage of human development presents its characteristic crises. Coping well with each crisis makes an individual better prepared to cope with the next.” (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2013, p. 314) According to Erikson’s eight stages of development, I have only been through six of the eight stages.
Over the past semester, I have found the most challenging part of this course to simply be the transition from high school composition classes to college. Because writing expectations are so different in college than in high school, even with AP and Dual Enrollment “college level” classes, I first found myself being overwhelmed with the pressure to write the perfect first draft. The pressure came from knowing how much a final draft of a paper contributed to my grade. This left me sitting in front of my computer for hours at a time with thoughts of what I wanted to say racing through my head, but unable to deliver these thoughts into organized, structured sentences. I learned, through writing my persuasive essay, that instead of trying to write the paper start to finish and already in its perfect form, it is easier for me to look at the paper through its different components and focus on them individually, then work to best organize my ideas fluently.
Writing is an important part of everyone’s life, whether we use it in school, in the workplace, as a hobby or in personal communication. It is important to have this skill because it helps us as writers to express feelings and thoughts to other people in a reasonably permanent form. Formal writing forms like essays, research papers, and articles stimulates critically thinking. This helps the writer to learn how to interpret the world around him/her in a meaningful way. In college, professors motivate students to write in a formal, coherent manner, without losing their own voice in the process. Improving your writing skills is important, in every English class that’s the main teaching point; to help students improve their writing skills. Throughout my college experience I have acknowledge that
During the course of this semester; the variety of writing styles and essays assigned to me in my communication skills class encouraged the development of my writing skills, as well as provided me with more self-assurance in my abilities. My writing, research, and presentation abilities enhanced through practice, determination, and the understanding I gained during this course. With every single writing assignment, I learned new innovative approaches and skills, which enhanced my abilities to improve my thoughts logically, enabling me to write more clearly, and to organize my papers more effectively. At the beginning of this semester; despite the fact that I already knew the terminology MAP: message, audience, purpose; I never really understood the significance of MAP. For this reason, my writing lacked clarity, organization, and my writings appeared less focused on the topics. As a result my research papers and essays did not flow as smoothly from one passage to the next. Furthermore, I was unaccustomed with the precise procedures used when writing an essay. For instance, my previous classes before college, although requiring a reference page, did not require me to include proper citations in my writings. After evaluating the quality of my writing toward the end of the semester, I recognized vast improvements in several areas of my writing. By concentrating on the beginning stages of my writings, I could distinguish ahead of time my audience and my message. As a result, my essays are clear, and I remain on topic. In addition to that using transition phrases efficiently also helps my writing to flow smoothly. The proper use of transitions makes my writings easy to follow from one topic to the next. I also learned that pre-writing...