This semester has taught me a great deal about how to develop my rhetorical, persuasive, and reflective writing skills. In the rhetorical essay, I believe my skills revolving around analyzing evidence to support my claims were improved drastically. My rhetorical analysis introduced me to that a direct correlation between tone and what a writer is trying to prove must be present if an argument is going to be strong and effective. My persuasive essay forced me to focus on my tone and diction, as I chose to discuss a very controversial topic that is currently a major social issue within the United States as of today. Prior to writing this essay, I have never thoroughly considered how my audience might respond to my opinions and the evidence used …show more content…
However, that being said, I feel especially proud of my reflection essay because of how personal the essay is to me. Although my reflective analysis is the essay I take the most pride in, it doesn’t mean I gained the most knowledge from it. I most certainly learned the most from the persuasive essay assignment, mainly because of what I did in preparation of writing this essay (i.e. audience analysis, and strong focus on tone and voice). The persuasive essay was very interesting due to the topic I got to choose and thus taught me more. I was very passionate about said topic so it was extremely easy for me to write about. Furthermore, it was also a controversial topic, and as a result, I learned the challenges of addressing the audience I chose to write …show more content…
This is essential in convincing multiple audiences with different backgrounds to believe the same ideals as I do. For example, I had a clear understanding of the fact that addressing the black community with my persuasive essay would have to be much different than how I addressed the white, veteran population within America. The two groups have different backgrounds and beliefs, so I learned to bridge the gap between them by establishing common ground through my voice and tone. This is just a small example of something I took away from the persuasive essay.
As stated earlier, there has been a number of things I have learned this semester from this course, which was honestly unexpected considering I have technically already taken a college level writing class in high school. However, I was surprised to find out how little I actually knew about writing, my approach on persuasion especially. The approaches I have been forced to take on writing my essays in this course have taught the importance of consistency in voice and tone, as well as ensuring that there is a direct correlation between the two and what I am attempting to support in my
Writing essays was never my forte, it just never came easy to me like it would to others. Since other subjects came easy to me and I had to focus more than others on writing, I had a negative attitude toward the process as a whole. During this summer semester, I was able to grow as a writer, and gain a more positive attitude toward how I write and a better feel for writing in college. Writing a paper is a process in which there are many different stages. In high school I would never write outlines or any sort of pre planning work. Other struggles I encountered in my writing were my theses, and framing quotes.
Before the start of this school year, I was not clueless as to how to craft an argument, but, to say the least, I was unexperienced. I thought that “argumentative” was simply a fancy name for “persuasive”—needless to say, I was mistaken. Blinded by this fallacy, I avoided acknowledging any opposing views in my essays (such as in my TV argumentative impromptu), which only made it seem as if I did not have sufficient information to defend my arguments. I thought I had to induce my audience to agree with me and that if I mentioned any alternatives, I would lose them.
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
As a student, I have learned many different skills that I will take with me throughout my journey from this course. We have traversed many different types of writing styles, which any college student, or any person for that
Throughout the semester I have learned an astounding amount of information. The English 101 curriculum has not only taught me how to write in general, but also taught me a variety of ways to get my point across to the reader. Before I took English 101 I was an average writer at best, but now that I am taking a class that focuses on writing strategies I feel that I have been able to improve as a writer. During the course we were taught how to write an informative essay as well as how to write a persuasive essay. The type of writing that this class has taught me will most definitely help me with future classes as well as my future in the real world. Throughout the English 101 course I have been able to improve as a writer by composing essays
My portfolio absolutely reflects my understanding of persuasive writing. Persuasive writing focuses on the ability to formulate an essay that takes an argumentative stance, but takes the opposition into consideration as well. My portfolio also represents the goals and objectives of persuasive writing. The essays I have written for this course demonstrate that I have certainly developed my critical thinking skills, and developed, or better yet, mastered my communication and personal responsibility skills; but, because of my occasional lack of analysis and issues with word choice, my writing process is not perfected.
Unit 1 taught me to focus on each step in the writing process. Approaching the task
As we worked our way through the semester we moved from the Change Project to the Public Argument. I was able to look back at how one essay was developed into multiple essays. The type of paper I was writing determined how I was able to persuade my audience. The audience of the papers changed throughout the semester making the way I developed my paper also changed. In one essay I used the sources to persuade the readers towards agreeing with me. In the other essay I used my own words and thoughts to grab the reader’s attention and have them agree with my point of view on the issue. While one essay was a more formal audience and another was more informal the both required persuasion and attention grabbers. One audience was grasped by the use of facts while the other was grasped by talking about experiences and explaining how the topic related to the audience. While the paper was different each paper required some type of persuasion.
this area but I’m going to improve on it. The process of using multiple drafts has
The documented researched essay allows you to understand the fundamentals of an academic conversation. In many respects, this essay is your entry into the conventions, methods, and rhetoric of an academic dialog. Participating in this conversation means that you will have to look carefully at the various positions academics and other experts take on a particular subject matter—especially when they differ from your own. You will need to negotiate and analyze the various arguments and eventually formulate your own stance. However, this must be a critically and ethically informed position—one that is substantiated by credible evidence. In order to successfully determine what a credible position is, you will need to rely on your rhetorical analysis skills. Not only will you analyze your sources ethos, pathos, and logos, but you will also analyze the persuasive nature of your own paper. You will need to make logically sound arguments—one that speaks to others who are in the same academic conversation and that seeks to persuade them responsibly.
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.
In this week's material , we discuss the process and strategies for writing negative and persuasive messages thoroughly. The 3-step writing process was a highly significant factor in creating both negative and persuasive messages. As stated in the chapters, it is important to be clear and honest and provide evidence to build credibility whether one is giving bad news or persuading someone. The material also touches on ethics and etiquette and proper ways of handling situations such as rejections, negative information, faulty logic, and credibility.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for all the efforts that you have invested in helping me improve my writing throughout this course. The exertions which you devoted in me did not go in vain. Throughout this semester, I have become more insightful in regard to the process of writing as a whole. Who knew that writing can be challenging yet rewarding simultaneously? Through many challenges encountered in this class and many exercises comprised in this course, I was exposed to new writing process, audiences, and I became more inclined to taking risks in the art of writing. As the semester took form, I came to find myself careworn by certain elements of the writing process. Unlike many writers, beginning to write,
I have learned many things throughout the course of the term, including such things as: how to write an essay and how to improve on essays that I have already written, how to locate and composite better research through the use of numerous resources found at the campus library, the internet, and the “Common Sense” textbook, how to cite research, examples, and quotations properly within the contents of my research paper as well as document it accurately according to MLA standards. Through the exploration of the “Subjects and Strategies” textbook, I have learned nine different methods used when writing an effective essay and how the different writing styles affect the overall theme and tone of the essay when used properly. This past semester, I have encountered many difficulties when trying to write these essays, but through the use of the textbooks, the aide of the instructor, and once I was able to classify the different types of essays and styles, I found them possible to overcome.
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...