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.
