Where to Begin?
In High-School, there were always kids that could come into class and knock out an essay in forty-five minutes. One class period, that’s all it took for them. While I wish writing came that easy for me, it doesn’t. Unfortunately, I am the type of person where I’ll sit down and within forty-five minutes, I will only have written three sentences that I dislike and want to re-write. For me, it’s always been difficult to find a starting point. I never knew where to begin, especially the long papers because if the reader isn’t interested from the start then what’s the point. I’m lucky if they will make it to the second page. There is always so much emphasis on cliffhangers and I just couldn’t come up with any good ones. After coming to this class, it has allowed me to not only write about topics I enjoy, but also practice new styles of starting an essay. These circumstances have made it much easier to begin essays without taking forty-five minutes to get there. For my research paper and my pop culture paper, I am proud of my opening paragraphs, both of which tell a story that pulls the reader closer. Also, being interested in the topic I am writing about makes the start so much easier. I have learned a great deal of new and improved writing skills in this class.
Coming into this class, I had no idea what we were going to write about. I suspected and convinced myself it’d be more like High School with outlines and a strict format of what to write in each paragraph about a topic I disliked. To say the least, I was pleasantly surprised when I realized what was included in this class. To begin, I really enjoyed learning about critical thinking skills. I have since made goals to become more of a critical thinker because I have come to the realization that we are surrounded by toxic or fake realities presented in advertisement and other medias. To be a critical thinker, I want to look into these medias more closely, so I can be an active member of society and see through the false realities presented by many companies. For example, in my pop culture paper, I exposed a music video by Pitbull, which dehumanized women and stereotyped men as dominant, strong, and wealthy. In the essay, I analyze the music video and write, “The women have perfect air-brushed bodies, displayed in sexy bathing suits. These women are arranged standing and laying in positions that best show off their long, smooth legs and large breasts” (Fazzini 1). This clearly shows how being a critical thinker allows you to see through the false reality, I know it is unrealistic for these women to look like this. It displays how so many music videos present women in the same way, and many young girls compare themselves to the fake women. It is important to be a critical thinker because there are more examples than we think of media and false reality in today’s society.
This semester I have improved my writing skills in different ways. To keep my writing clear and coherent I realized I need to stay connected and keep my focus on the main argument of my essay throughout my writing. I learned to keep it simple and not get too complicated, or “wordy” when explaining things. At the beginning I struggled to be coherent in my writing when I used a quote and would sometimes I would go off explaining the wrong message presented in the quote, rather than explaining the message that pertains to the topic of my paper. Now, I am much better at explaining quotes. For example, in my research paper about orcas kept in captivity, I write “She explains that SeaWorld’s dangerous policies keep the public and whale trainers in the dark about Orca’s aggressive behaviors” (Fazzini 3). This explanation clearly sums up the message of the quote by keeping it clear and simple. In my writing, a grammar issue I also struggled with is the use of commas. I would find myself being “comma happy” and placing commas all over the place rather than having them where I needed. Since I realized this I have gotten better at placing them only when necessary.
Another issue I continue to come across when writing is changing tenses in my writing. I may start the paper out in present tense but will throughout switch to past tense. This is bad because it confuses the reader and doesn’t help my message get through to the audience. In order to fix these issues, when writing I will keep an eye out for this mistake and try to correct myself. Another technique I learned has helped fixing mistakes is reading my essays out loud. This helps a lot with correcting mistakes especially when I change tense because it is more noticeable when I read it out loud. I learned that the website Purdue Owl is a trustworthy website, it is easy to navigate and helps me cite any source in the correct format. For example, in the research paper I am confident in my works cited page, it even made me more willing to use more sources than necessary because it wasn’t a hassle to cite them. It is important to gain proficiency in this area because I will be writing the rest of my life, whether in emails or for a future job. It is extremely important to have good grammar, so I can stand out in a positive way in the future.
After writing a research paper for this class, I have gained and learned many skills. For example, this research paper has made me realize how important it is to have trustworthy sources to back up your information. Scholarly research is not only trustworthy, but the amount of information provides a different an advanced level of research compared to many online articles or personal blogs. For my research paper I found many sources, one large source was a documentary which was very beneficial. The writing process was very beneficial and improved my writing a lot. I saw a tutor along with re-reading my paper out loud a few times. Having multiple eyes look over your paper is extremely beneficial.
After this class, I feel my writing has improved and I enjoy writing a lot more. I loved the blogs and the less formal homework writing assignments. I believe the blogs were effective and got me more involved and interested in the class. I am now a stronger writer and starting papers is much easier compared to High School. This semester has helped me become a more confident writer.
No comments:
Post a Comment