Initially, my writing was plagued by a series of fundamental issues that compromised my ability to effectively organize ideas and emphasize the primary purpose of a piece of writing. These issues included extensive grammar errors, primarily comma splices, as well as excessive use of language that distorted from the message or explanation I was aiming to convey. I would have described my early writing to be as dull as dishwater. My writing was convoluted, lacking adequate structure and sophisticated word choice. The first facet of my poor writing that I attempted to revise was my mediocre structure. In my American Dream argumentative essay, I aimed to conform to a particular structure that being an introduction followed by a number of body paragraphs
However, though John Warner’s argument is strong, Kerri smith’s argument is stronger. In Kerri Smith’s article “In Defense of the Five-Paragraph Essay,” She claims that the five-paragraph essay should stay taught in schools as a guideline for a well-structured essay. She explains the five-paragraph essay as an “introduce-develop-conclude structure” that even great expository writing follows this structure (Smith 16). She purposefully communicates to her audience this idea to show that this structure gives students the knowledge and capability to write a professional essay. The five-paragraph essay includes the three key points to have a well-structured and organized essay. By mentioning that other great writers use this form of structure, she creates a stronger argument as to why the five-paragraph essay is important to education. She continues her article by explaining her early stages of writing and how she was taught; over time, her teachers would show her new ways to improve her writing which, in the end, she was told to think “of those five paragraphs simply as a mode of organization” (Smith
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James has been the cause of many debates about whether or not the ghosts are real, or if this is a case of a woman with psychological disturbances causing her to fabricate the ghosts. The story is told in the first person narrative by the governess and is told only through her thoughts and perceptions, which makes it difficult to be certain that anything she says or sees is reliable. It starts out to be a simple ghost story, but as the story unfolds it becomes obvious that the governess has jumps to conclusions and makes wild assumptions without proof and that the supposed ghosts are products of her mental instability which was brought on by her love of her employer
On May 5, 2008, Dominique M. Wright was arrested and charged with (count 1) attempted first degree murder with a firearm, and (count 2) aggravated battery with a firearm. At the time of the commission of the crimes, Dominique Wright was 15 years old. On January 11th, 2012, Dominique Wright was convicted as a charge in the information, On March 2, 2012 the court sentenced him to 30 years in the department of corrections with a 25 year mandatory minimum on count 1 and a 20 year mandatory minimum on count 2. According to the Criminal Punishment Code Scoresheet, which was prepared by the Assistant State Attorney, the minimum sentenced allowable by law was 10.9 years in the Department of Corrections. During a brief sentencing hearing, the court noted that Dominique's mother had been murdered by his father when he was two years old, and that he had been raised by his grandmother.
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe”( Douglass). This famous quote epitomizes the philosophies of Frederick Douglass, in which he wanted everyone to be treated with dignity; if everyone was not treated with equality, no one person or property would be safe harm. His experience as a house slave, field slave and ship builder gave him the knowledge to develop into a persuasive speaker and abolitionist. In his narrative, he makes key arguments to white abolitionist and Christians on why slavery should be abolished. The key arguments that Frederick Douglass tries to vindicate are that slavery denies slaves of their identity, slavery is also detrimental for the slave owner, and slavery is ungodly.
In the introduction, the author has done a good job engaging the audience with emotions, and painting a vivid scene of the seals being slaughtered. This essay does a good job of acknowledging the other point of views. This essay also has a good, clear sense of structure. The author has a strong thesis statement, that gave a clear indication of what the following paragraphs are about.
While learning more about the five-paragraph essay and exploring my own personal writing style, I learned a great deal about my own thought process and how it ultimately transmits onto paper. I have discovered that having structure in the writing process ultimately leads to a more solid composition. This structure is not necessary to create ideas, but it certainly is accommodating in the actual writing processes. I have discovered that although I incorporate the components of the five-paragraph essay into my own writing formation, I do deviate from it ever so slightly. This deviation is the result of my inability to efficiently generate ideas (brainstorm) using common conventions. I do, however, plan on implementing a more structured approach in my writing style in the future and strongly believe it will help my writing become more concrete.
As a writer, I would consider myself to be an average writer in need of improvement. My experience with writing has not always been the best because I was exposed to only certain types of papers like self-narratives, book reports, reflective essays and simple one to two-page research on a person’s bibliography assigned to me. Writing has never been my strength because I had to learn the English language at 8 years of age. I had to learn a new language without the help of my parents because they also did not speak English. I was able to overcome this obstacle but till this day, I still have some grammatical struggles. It is hard for me to write and to be able to distinguish my grammatical errors. The English 180 course was challenging and easy at times because it all depended on the assignments. I learned several new techniques of writing that I was never before exposed
Becoming a good “writer” at its core value is a simple process that includes redundant sessions of failure. Every time one writes, failure allows them to learn the skills that are required to reach the inner voice that is being expressed. Even though the pain of failure seems to take control in the moment, it will always subside, and this simple process of, failing until success comes, is what pushes me to become a stronger writer. Coupling this with personal goals, my writing is always under a constant review by myself, and while it may take courage to pursue these goals, it is necessary to do. For in my personal pursuit to combine both processes, I review my overall writing skills as lacking in developing a strong structure for my arguments to fill into; yet the ability to create an argument with a deeper connection and “unique” thoughts has always been a strong suit of mine.
I have a knack for creating a series of run-on sentences and calling them an essay. I have a knack for beginning sentences with And or But. I also have a writing degree. I still have not mastered the use of the comma and somehow the Academy granted me that little piece of paper anyway. You, reader, may be wondering my point. My point is this: that despite my ill-formed paragraphs and run-on sentences I have existed and prospered within the formal writing environment. And so, I was elated to read Patrick Hartwell’s essay that contests that teaching grammar has a negligible effect on the development of a student writer (183).
There are many different ways of writing, and many different processes one could take to create the perfect piece of writing. Over my many years of writing essays and attempting to find my voice I have discovered and tested many different processes. Throughout this quarter I have been exposed to a new writing process, and in exploring this process I have managed to find my own voice and style of writing. Traditionally, I would spit something out on my paper and beat it until it appeared perfect, this process would typically result in a late assignment and a low grade. Using my old writing styles I had a overwhelming and unclear tone, due to the fact that my processes provided no structure to my essays. After discovering the writing process
My main problem with writing is punctuation. This is emphasized by the corrections made on the first paper I wrote. The majority of the problems focused around fragments and comma...
This self analysis of me as a writer was not only informative but also prescriptive in offering a viable solution to overcoming my literary follies. My ultimate goal as a writer is to effectively convey my message to my audience. To be successful at achieving my goal, I must develop an organized outline for prewriting and then I must objectively and rigorously proofread my essay from the point of view of my reader. As a Wiseman once said the pen is mightier than the sword but without support or organization the pen will surely fall.
Writing has become a major method of my expressing beliefs and thoughts. I have had the greatest of writing and English role models. The success of my predecessors has shown in magnitudes through me. They subjected the coal known as my writing to heat and pressure. Eventually, my writing became an uncut diamond; rough around the edges, but a diamond no less. While environmental factors affect a student’s writing, constant review and practice polishes the diamond that lies in every writers mind.
Throughout the years, my writing has been pinpointed to be structured with a small amount of creativity. Each paragraph of my analysis essays was obligated to include a transitional topic sentence, a claim, two sentence stems, and a piece of evidence from
I 'd like to say that my style as a writer has come a long way. However I would not argue I still may have much farther to go as well. My Sophomore year of high school was the golden year for five paragraph essays, what I mean is I was constantly writing essays in a five paragraph format, and looking back on I see that as a blessing as well as a curse. It was a gift because to write a five paragraph essay became extremely easy for me. Yet, it was a cure because to write in any other form became much more difficult. So, it comes as no surprise that my two rhetorical analysis papers were originally written in five paragraph essay form. Also, I was never a fan of revising, so when it came to making changes I either did the bare minimum or made no changes at all. However, this time around I made very drastic changes to both Paper one and Paper two. Within this reflection I would like to discuss how this literary condition limited my writing for both my first and second papers. I would also like to discuss the changes I made to both papers to break free from the chains of 5 paragraphs.