Assignment #4: Research Essay

Throughout the process of writing my research essay, I learned a couple things about my writing process. The first is that I write better under stress. My ideas seems to flow so much more easily when I can sit down and focus on writing without being distracted by other homework or activities. Another thing I have learned about my writing process is that I can easily extract relevant information quickly from sources. This was especially helpful for this particular assignment because research requires many sources.

Almost all of the sources I've used in this essay have been from the internet or posted on the internet from real newspapers. Therefore, none of my sources really stand out to me in a particular way. However, the information I've gathered from sources over the course of writing this essay can be applied to assignment #5. I plan for the fifth assignment to be a remix of assignment #4, and will have a format similar to a documentary.

Assignment #3: Textual Response

Assignment number three presented many difficulties and new challenges that helped increase my writing skill. In fact, three of the four criteria outlined in the assignment description were very new skills that I had not yet incorporated into my writing.

Out of the four criteria, the ability to develop a structured argumentative response was my strongest skill. I have used this skill on every writing response where I was asked to respond with some sort of argument for one side or another, which I have had several of since the beginning of middle school. I’m quite adept at formulating an argument in my head in a way that makes sense to me, and then being able to translate my thoughts into a cohesive thesis statement.

The first major difficulty I encountered with this assignment was my lacking experience in reading critically and actively. In all of my previous English classes, I could pretty much get away with just reading and taking things word for word. In this assignment, I had to read deeper to understand what the author really meant, so that I could form a question about the text that made sense. Also, most of responding to text previously was in the form of homework assignments and the occasional reading quiz. Suddenly I was being asked to construct a thesis for an argumentative essay based on my ability to interpret what had been conveyed in the text. Admittedly, I was very confused as to what was expected of me when the paper was assigned, but in class discussions greatly helped me expand on other ideas and create my own. The ability to interpret a text from my own reading was one great skill I learned from this assignment.

Another skill set I honed from completing this assignment was the ability to react to a text or discussion conscientiously. Previously, I found it difficult to decipher the meanings of passages in texts, mostly because I was disconnected from the central idea of the text. I solved this issue by making sure I had each reading assignment completed by the due date, so I could effectively participate in group discussions. I found that group discussions helped greatly in forming a thesis, and the discussions were much easier to take part in when I had read the text and knew what I was talking about. Overall, the ability do find meaning in text greatly helped me while forming a thesis.

The most prominent skill that I refined while working on this particular assignment was my ability to carry out research. In previous English classes, research consisted of finding a couple of sources, usually from the Internet, that gave word for word evidence supporting the particular argument you were making. Resources rarely gave a new or different way of viewing the argument, and instead were used to restate your own argument, or even base an entire paper off of the arguments of others. This previous style of citing sources was intended to make the essay more official and compelling; it wasn’t just your argument anymore, it was you and this other guy on the Internet that happened to have the same stance as you on the topic at hand. This type of citation can be very damaging because it often ignores the arguments of the other side. My idea of research changed completely for this assignment because now I not only had to formulate my own argument, I had to find scholarly sources of those who not only agreed with my point of view, but also had interesting and relevant view points of their own that I could incorporate into my argument.

At the beginning of the assignment, I had no idea where I might find scholarly sources that were relevant to my topic. I ended up requesting help from my professor to find my sources which turned out to be really great. If there is one skill that I still need to work on, it is the ability to find scholarly sources on my own, including how to use databases correctly. I have been taught how to use a database since middle school, but that was also for finding the types of sources I had mentioned earlier, where the ideas taken from the sources were used solely to solidify my own argument instead of incorporating new ideas and information. Overall, this assignment has been the most helpful out of the three as it relates to improving my writing skills. I have no doubt that writing this assignment will have aided me in future essays including assignment number four, and other assignments in future English classes. The difficulties that I encountered helped clarify the skills I still needed to learn in order to write a proper argumentative essay. Again, the most helpful of the skills I needed to relearn and remaster was my ability to conduct research that was relevant to my topic while bringing in new information.

Assignment #2: Spoken Word Poetry

October 24, 2011

Dear Andrea Gibson,

I am a college freshman at Wayne State University and I would like to share with you my writing and performance process for my first spoken word poem for my Introduction to College Writing course. Please keep in my mind that I am not a great poetry writer; in fact, writing is the weak point in my academic abilities. I am truly more of a mathematics and science person to be honest.

The first thing that came to mind when composing my poem was how it would sound during the presentation, an obvious concern in the subject of spoken word poetry. I tried to keep a decent rhyming scheme so it didn’t sound like endless babbling, but I also varied the amount of syllables from line to line so my poem did not sound completed structured and locked into a particular amount of words per line. Without having to worry if each line had the exact same number of syllables and a perfect rhyme scheme, I was able do improve my diction and use more meaningful words to express my thoughts.

If I had to compare this type of writing to academic writing, I would say that I enjoy writing spoken word poetry much more than a formal essay. When I was writing my poem, I felt that I wasn’t bounded by particular rules and structure, and that I was free to express myself in any way I saw fit. Another thing I dislike about academic writing is that I seem to run out of things to say, especially when I need to fulfill a certain word or page number requirement. While I was writing my poem, I felt that I had even more to say than just the thirty to fifty line minimum, although much of it was not included because I was not very confident about what I was writing about. The hardest part for me for this assignment was deciding on a topic to write about, and I will now admit that I was not particularly “into” my topic, but it seemed like I had a lot of things to say on it.

One thing that really seemed to work for me was to go first and be confident that my poetry would be respected by my peers. In fact, the most helpful thing during my presentation was the knowledge that my classmates were mature and understanding of my topic, and gave their full attention and interest to my presentation.

One thing that I would like to improve on the most would be my actual spoken word performance. One part of it was that I don’t really enjoy public speaking, although I felt that my class was extremely supportive of one another, and that helped me a lot. Another aspect that would have helped me in this area is having a topic that I felt very strongly about. This would have helped me put more emphasis and passion into my presentation, an area that I was critically lacking in. An alternative topic to abortion, which was my topic, would most likely be something along the lines of defense of gay rights and protesting anti-gay bullying, as these are things I feel very strongly about. In fact, this is why I chose you as my admired spoken word artist, because you have the courage to stand up for people that others won’t stand up for. Others are self-conscious that they will be labeled as gay if they are pro-gay, but that idea is completely ridiculous. I am glad to be alive in a time where I can witness homosexuality going from oppressed (as it still is in many parts of America) to hopefully one day completely accepted without any question or second thought.

I’m not sure what my audience took away from my presentation, only because I’m not sure exactly what I wanted them to take from it. I had trouble figuring out myself what I was trying to convey. I guess the main idea is that abortion is never okay, but hearing it stated that way makes me reconsider if I took the right stance. Perhaps I should have given a little leeway, as my opinions on such matters can often change day to day, depending on my mood.

This particular poem is not very similar to any of your poems in that I did not have a strong belief in what I was writing about, whereas in your writing and presentation, the audience can feel that you are serious just by the way you speak and move. You mean everything you say, and are honest, and I admire that deeply. A similarity of our poems would be that they both involve the mistreatment of a certain group of people, although your writing and performances are much more compelling.

Thanks very much for taking time to read my thoughts on my poetry, I definitely hope to write more in the future!

Your fan,

Zachary Freeman

Assignment #1: Cultural Analysis

My writing process for this assignment was very straightforward. I did not do any outlining for the initial draft, but I brainstormed ideas during class with my peers. I then wrote a short rough draft that was then peer edited by a classmate. In this case, the peer editing did not help very much because our class was confused with the idea of peer editing and was not being critical enough.
This assignment actually taught me a lot about how to write this type of essay, and other types of essays. I had not done this kind of writing since Junior year of high school so it was a little difficult to get back into the habit of writing. A lot of what I learned was actually re-learning material I had already known, such as staying in the correct tense and restricting the use of phrases like "I think" and "I believe".
One of the more difficult aspects of this assignment was finding sources that were relevant to my topic. I was very used to relying solely on the internet for sources, and found it hard to get out of that habit. This will be helpful though because I am not allowed to use internet sources at all for the essays in my Honors 1000 course. I dealt with this problem by using sources that I could find on the internet, but originated from newspaper or television. The sources I used in my paper were mostly for emphasizing an example with authentic information, therefore strengthening that example.
Some knowledge that I can use on future writing assignments is to find sources and cite them as I write the paper, rather than write a draft without citing, and try to squeeze quotes in at the end due to lack of sources. I also learned more about staying on the correct topic that is stated in the thesis, which will help in future papers.