To begin class today, I would like you to reflect on your writing (and your writing experiences) from the entire quarter. How would you desribe your experience as writer in this course? What have you learned about writing, rhetoric, revision, persuasiveness, or any other aspect of writing that seems significant to you?
As you conclude this quarter, I also want you to reflect on your strengths as a writer. What are these? In what kind of tasks have you succeeded? Conversely, what issues do you think you still struggle with as a writer? As you look ahead to WRIT 1133, what are your goals as a writer? What do you hope to learn next quarter?
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Found on the premises of Johnson-McFarlane and Centennial Halls are what
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16 years ago
Over the course of the quarter and specifically reflecting on this writing course I have learned a lot. As a writer, I would describe the course as a very productive and helpful tool in persuasive writing. From square one, I’ve learned more about rhetoric (which I have never studied previously to this course). It’s been interesting using the rhetoric tools in my understanding of analysis’s, as well as my own writing. Revisions have also been key in this course. I’ve learned how to take constructive criticism to improve my own writing, as well as using the skill in bettering my own writing. I’ve also gained skills in analyzing and creating constructive criticism for other papers as well. My personal strengths, after taking this course have definitely been applying logos and pathos to my writing. Struggles I am still facing is perhaps my organization and lack of ethos. Next quarter I am hoping to not only better my rhetoric skills, but also learn more about productive research and how to apply that to my writing. I think that could also help improve and better my appeal to ethos.
ReplyDeleteThis quarter challenged me to try and branch out of the comfortable place I have always resided in as a writer, but I cannot say that the class was all the difficult. A lot of the things we covered were topics that I was required to master in high school in AP English. So, I branched out into a few different format realms but writing my persuasive piece as a letter and working to develop an impactful narrative, but beyond that I’m not too sure that my writing improved all that much. Especially as this quarter draws to a close I see my writing skills hit the wall as writers block is coming out with all my stress of finals and the end of the quarter. Beyond this final portfolio which my writers block has turned into quite a struggle that class was pretty much a breeze for me and served mostly as a reminder for the subjects I learned in high school.
ReplyDeleteI feel that my strengths are still the same, that I do better writing in an academic or persuasive format than some of the more “artsy” form of rhetoric and writing. I usually have a very clear voice despite my tendency to be a little wordy it turns out. I believe that I did a pretty good job of tackling the new genres, ill call them, that I do not typically employ to express my ideas. If the future and in the following class, I hope to try and refine my writing, develop a more professional and academic voice and find a way to make writing something that I e joy to a greater degree than I do now. I hope to be able to use the skills I learned in this class and will in the next to make my writing a media that I can use to sort though some rough times but also to be able to lay out some of the things I’m feeling so that my friends and family understand where I am coming from as well as anyone else who cares to listen or if facing some of the same dilemmas.
Writing in Rhetoric brought about a fresh way of thinking about writing, and what kind of writer I am. As a class we wrote blogs, a narrative, and a more analytical paper; from I discovered about my writing styles is that my strong points were in writing about personal experiences and narrating how they occurred. My weakness as a writer was in the area of analytical writing and rhetorical analysis.
ReplyDeleteThe title of the course explains it all for me, I thought I understood what rhetoric was until my first day in this class; I was not only proved wrong but also introduced to a new book full of vocabulary words I never understood.
As for goals for next quarter and ways I can improve, I plan to make my areas of weakness my strength while maintaining and enhancing my current strengths. I still struggle with building a full argument and the correct structue in which a paper should be in. Next quarter I hope to learn the lessons that will help me accomplish my goals by the end of the 2010 spring quarter
This quarter in writing class has been pretty good overall. I learned a lot about writing. I learned about the subtleties of writing that i never even really though about which certainly created an interesting course. I feel as though i learned a lot about the structure of writing and what it is and how it all works together. I think, above all, i learned that writing to a specific audience is what is important and how you can create writing for different types of audiences. I didn't really understand how that all worked before this class. I think that that is the main thing that i can take away from this class. I've also realized that revision is key to creating a good, solid piece of writing. It gives you a chance to really get feedback and think about what you are really trying to say. Persuasion is very difficult and I will definitely need to continue working on that because i have not mastered it at all. My strengths as a writer i believe lie in more traditional analysis papers. I cannot really find my own voice or my own persuasive edge yet. I did best on the paper that analyzed another person's ability to do this instead. I hope that i can further my writing skills and become more persuasive as a writer in the next writing class i take. I need to get more organized and bring more of my own voice into writing because i believe that this is the key to being persuasive. I don't know if i will be able to become a better writer but i want to at least strive for that in the next writing course (1133).
ReplyDeleteOver the course of this term, I have gained much experience as a writer. Throughout the quarter, my brain was constantly being stimulated by writing exercises/posts/narratives/and essays. Because of this, I have grown as a writer and now have the ability to go deeper into my future papers and assignments. Rhetoric has taught me ample amounts of tricks in order to add persuasiveness, intellect, and all around strength to my work. From the peer review workshops, I have gained a better understanding of what to look for when revising my papers, and how to take constructive criticism without taking comments personally.
ReplyDeleteAfter this term, I am able to identify my strengths as a writer. I feel I can succeed in tasks where I am given more creativity than, say, an analytical paper. When I am given a more artistic, creative license, I can thrive and produce much better work than a thesis-driven 5 paragraph essay.
As I head into Writ 1133, I strive to improve on these tedious analytical papers. My goal is to strongly improve on them and become a much more well-rounded writer. I hope to learn more on how to structure formal essays, and how to build a power thesis statement.
Writing classes used to worry me all the time since English is my second language, but this class in particular was amazingly fun, and educational. This class taught many skills that I didn’t have in the past that enforced my persuasiveness and rhetorical analysis skills. Persuasiveness to me is quite hard because most of the time the audiences are quite harsh and don’t normally welcome the argument that the writer make with an open arms, throughout this class I learned that the argument would be more persuasive by starting the argument with common ground and similarities between my argument the audiences belief. My strength as a writer would be centered on logical thinking, facts, and pathetic approach. My greatest struggle is how to approach very radical audiences that believe in the opposite side of my argument in an effective and friendly way. i look forward in my next writing class to improve my use of grammar and hopefully study rhetorical analysis in depth and the art of persuasion.
ReplyDeleteI have seen my style of writing change since the beginning of this course quite dramatically. Coming into this class I did not enjoy writing whatsoever, but certain steps I took in during this class help me to find ways which made writing less “painful.” This class helped also helped me to become a better writing, by leading me into discovering ways to become more persuasive. The persuasiveness in a piece of writing is one of its most important aspects, and by strengthening this skill I am able to better connect with my audience and have found new more useful ways to lead them to my point of view. Along with persuasiveness another aspect of writing that has become more significant to me is my use of ethos. I have developed ways of my own to create a stronger ethos, this aspect I find most important because your readers will listen if they respect you, and with a stronger ethos I find it easier to be respected and listened too. Another aspect of my writing which has developed throughout this course is my ability to write to a specific audience. I have learned ways to make my writing less broad, focusing more on appealing to a smaller group of people; this style has made my writing more affective. Organization is something that I still struggle with, many of my paragraphs are messy and do not directly link to the previous one etc. I feel that this is because I tend to find myself writing things down as they pop into my head, rather that deciding what would be the best place to insert this new information. In WRIT-1133 I hope to develop more organized pieces of writing so that they can be easier followed by the reader, this is something that I feel will tremendously improve my writing.
ReplyDeleteI just find that I fall in love with writing. Actually, the English writing is totally different chinese, that's why it is interesting for me. I need to train myself a different logical way of thinking as well as some skills on writing. One could be writing about the introduction part, American style like to explain everything clearly ( statement, purpose), while in chinses, we want the first paragraph to be implicative, not directly. Therefore, I would say learning American writing style helps me to be very well-organized, very clear with everything I am going to write.
ReplyDeleteMany skilles are very useful for me to write about an issue as well as showing some personal opinions. Most significiant, I figure out that it is very important to be detailed on whatever I wrote about. Keeping ask myself more questions like " why? and how? Do you have any evidence?" Step by step, I am able to make my opinion more clearer and convincibel. Think about my audience at the same time.
I still need to improve a lot both on skills and language, but I really find my interests in it, and feel confident to write down my opinions. Moreover, I happend to find out that everytime I revise my eassy, I could make some changes.
Through this course, I learned to be more confident in my writing. Previously, I was very much “rule-associated” when it came to writing—high school rules like never using past tense in writing—but now I see that the rules can be bent for the sake of creativity. This course also taught me how to recognize when bending the rules is appropriate—such as in a narrative piece—and when a more formal approach is best, such as in an analysis.
ReplyDeleteI learned that revision is essential to exceptional writing technique. Before this class I would write a paper, turn it in for a grade and forget about it. I now appreciate being able to care enough about your writing to revise it and make it the best it can be.
My strengths as a writer lie in my ability to be descriptive, as in a narrative essay, and being able to see an argument from different angles, as in an analytical piece. I also have a keen attention to detail when it comes to being persuasive: I aspire to incorporate logos, pathos, and ethos in my writing. Conversely, I struggle with further revising my writing since I am not used to doing.Next quarter I want to learn how to tighten and clarify my writing.
It was a good experience, coming into the class I had already taken a similar writing class so some of the material was already familiar. What I learned the most however was the various rhetorical terms, kairos, logos, ethos, and pathos. I greatly enjoyed analyzing articles from the New York Times and the Denver Post, it was very informative learning the various ways editorials influence your views on certain issues. My strengths are the amount of time I spend reading editorials and articles from a variety of sites on the topic of politics. I succeed most in tasks regarding any piece that involves politics and historical fact. I still struggle with narrative writing as I greatly enjoyed the analysis paper of the narrative, I find it a rather boring type of writing. My goals for next quarter is to be able to further my analytical prowess as a writer and reader. I hope to learn more about how to do such a thing next quarter and any surprise styles of writing that may crop up along the way.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of this quarter, I hardly knew anything about rhetoric. After sitting through many classes discussing different aspects of persuasive writing, I found that there was more information to retain that I thought. The first essay that we wrote was the Literacy Event Narrative. This paper helped me understand what it is like to really tell a story and how descriptive you have to be in order to help your readers flow with your writing. The second paper that we had to write was the Rhetorical Analysis, this paper was focused on reviewing a columnist's editorials. The Rhetorical Analysis consisted of depicting an authors situated and invented ethos as well as pathos. All of these were crucial to persuasive writing which is used commonly amongst columnists. I felt that these two papers were essential in contributing to our learning in this writing course. I felt that these two were the most important because the first paper helps you understand how persuasive you need to be in order to guide the readers through your story and make it seem like they were there as well. The second paper helps a writer strengthen their skills of persuasion because when trying to persuade readers there is a difficulty in connecting with them in order to help guide them over to your side on an issue. Overall I have viewed this quarter of Writing 1122 as very insightful of the ways in how to produce a strong piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteTo start off with, coming into this quarter I had only recently found an interest in writing. Before coming to college, papers were always a struggle and I always had to fight my way through them. Recently, I learned to enjoy writing and it is now one of my favorite subjects. Coming into this class I did not know too much about writing, only what I had learned in my seminar class. The word rhetoric meant nothing to me before I came to this class for the first time. Even at first, it was still a little foggy to me what pathos and ethos and rhetorical situations were, but now I understand these terms. I also learned how to achieve a strong ethos by using sources that make you credible. Before this class I would never revise papers. I had no idea what to look for or what to change, but the peer evaluation days helped me learn what to look for when editing. I think my strengths as a writer is being persuasive by using rhetoric and i really grasped a firm understanding of this section of the course. As a writer, I think I still struggle with developing my ideas and explaining and analyzing further. As I look ahead this is what I hope to learn for the next quarter. I hope to be able to take a general idea and analyze with my ideas and inputs.
ReplyDeleteOver the course of this quarter, I have learned a lot about writing which I did not know when first enrolling in this course. There were a lot of ideas that I knew, but was not completely sure about. For example, when using ethos logos and pathos, I was not completely sure as to what they really meant or even how to use them correctly. But since being in this class, I have gained the knowledge about many things. I understand those terms, as well as others, better than before. I am also more comfortable with the way that I write persuasive essays. Not only having the confidence to write these types of essays, but also knowing that the way I am doing it is correct is very helpful. I have also learned that revision is a key part to getting a good paper. There have been many times that I would submit a paper but I would never think about revising it thoroughly before resubmitted it for a better grade. I believe that writing persuasive papers has become one of my strengths as a writer. I believe one issue that I have always struggled with and I am still struggling with is the idea of what exactly a rhetorical analysis is. It is not that I cannot get the idea down but I do not know exactly how to write a rhetorical analysis. My goal is to become a much stronger writer as well as to be able to write better papers with more relevant ideas within them. I hope to learn a lot more about research next quarter and easier ways to research certain topics.
ReplyDeleteThe end of the quarter is finally here and I am happy to have stepped out of the class with so much in my bag. At the beginning i was confused on the whole rhetoric thing but i feel like i got a good grasp of it by the end. I learned a great deal about what contributes into an effective piece of writing and how to shape it towards what my main goal is. I always knew about ethos, pathos, and logos but i never really knew how far i could take them into my writing effectively and smoothly. I would even say that i have learned more about myself through my writing, especially the narrative at the beginning of the quarter. after taking the class i feel more comfortable writing persuasive essays and making them effective and fun to read. I think one of the strengths i developed over the course was to develop a stronger sense of ethos and implying that into my paper or arguments. some issues that i still struggle with as a writer would defiantly be organization! i often tend to just ramble what comes to mind and have thoughts going all over the place! my goals as a writer would be to obviously become more organized and to maybe to find the style of writing that interest me more, so learn more about myself as a writer.
ReplyDeleteVictor Valle
Developing through ten weeks of Writ 1122, at first I have trouble seeing the effects on my writing. I still find writing a cumbersome process, a labor of considerable effort and devotion all too often with an end in meager results. But the more I think about my time learning and growing in Sturm 311, I have indeed improved as a writer. The effects however, are not in my words but in my argument. Whereas before I somewhat understood the art of ‘persuasive writing’ and writing to convince an audience, I now can name and employ the tools and techniques of rhetoric. Through this course, I have honed my ability of persuasion and practiced organizing arguments in formats that support my purpose. Although I still need to work on the thoroughly explaining my thoughts, I feel that the foundation for successful academic and persuasive writing is there. Looking to next quarter, I hope to refine my skills as a rhetor and writer, and learn more about research.
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