Assignment #15- Final Reflection

At the beginning of the semester, I aspired to improve my abilities as a writer. When I compare myself now with how I was as a writer at the start of the semester, I can safely say that I have accomplished this goal. I have increased my rhetorical knowledge, improved on both my writing style and my writing process, and increased my love of writing. However, seeing as how I was expecting all of these improvements on my abilities since I am taking a college level English class for the first time, I was not too worried about accomplishing them. The one thing I did achieve even though I did not originally set it as a goal, is obtaining valuable personal experience. I have learned that in order to succeed, one must take every assignment seriously, and not procrastinate. By making the mistake of not giving English 101 my all, I have not received the grade I know I could have gotten. But I walk away from this knowing that in college, there is no such thing as slacking around. If you don't take anything serious, then you will not get the results you hope for. So as I continue my college career, I will always remember how I spent every night before a big due date writing my papers into the wee hours of the morning, and even now I am racing to beat the deadline for these blog posts. I will NEVER make the same mistakes I made this first semester.

Thanks for putting up with me Miss Spencer, you are an awesome teacher.
-Darien

Assignment #14- Planning for Revisions

The paper which I plan to revise will be the Arguing a Position essay. My strengths for this essay were that I supported my main points with good, viable information and that my thesis was well written. My weak points are that there is too much repetitiveness in some of the paper, and I sound too biased which lowers my credibility.

The opening paragraph is very wordy, and contains some run-on sentences that need separating and rewording in order to make it easier to read. This will also give the reader a better idea on what precisely the paper is about. I need to not refer to the assignments given in high school as “pointless” because this weakens my argument, and instead provide information as to how some assignments do not necessarily pertain to the lesson, and could be replaced by more productive work. Information regarding the unfair grading process in high school is needed in order to back my argument up. One of my body paragraphs is very wordy and repetitive, so I need to do extensive rewording, and provide more information that supports the thesis instead of repeating the idea. There are also many abrupt transitions between paragraphs which need transition sentences in order to make it flow smoother.

Assignment #13- Your Favorite Paper

The essay I have enjoyed writing most in Writing I would have to be the Ad Analysis paper, however the Proving an Argument paper comes in a close second. The main reason why I enjoyed writing the Ad Analysis paper so much is because it is something that I strongly believe in, and I can also relate to it at an emotional and physical level. The ad that I choose to write about was an anti-smoking ad, which is pretty ironic since I myself am a smoker. However, being a smoker does not mean that I think there is nothing wrong with smoking. On the contrary, I am very against smoking. I wish I had never begun smoking in the first place, and my main goal is to quit the stupid addiction once and for all. This is why this paper only took me an hour to write, while the rest of my papers took much longer. All of the ideas about the ad were already in my head, and writing the paper was as easy as just switching my thoughts into actual words.

Since I have a personal experience with the topic, I believe I have the best credentials for writing this paper. Even though I smoke, I agree with everything that anti-smoking ads stand for. I am aware that smoking causes all sorts of problems from bronchitis to wrinkly skin. I am also well aware of how damaging it is to other people (whenever I smoke in public, I always move as far as possible from bystanders). But I am fighting this addiction with hopes of finally throwing that last cigarette away and not being held prisoner by the "need" (want) to smoke. This is why this paper was really enjoyable to write. I felt as though I was helping myself quit just by writing it.

Assignment #12- Thinking Critically about Evidence

My thesis for the 4th paper is: 
By having teachers cut out unnecessary assignments, base grades on high-importance tests and papers, and make the high school experience more like college, students will benefit from more accurate grades, greater knowledge, and a college-like mindset that will better prepare them for the future.

• My most compelling evidence is that by basing grades on only high-importance assignments such as tests and papers, students will receive grades that they deserve based on their knowledge and skill level. This is strong evidence because it is directly relating that high school should be just like college. By improving the grading system, students who study hard and learn the material will receive the grades that they deserve, which will help them in college. This is improving on the current system of grading where grades are based largely on the amount of busy work that a student does, and this busy work does not help in furthering his knowledge in the course.
• My weakest argument is that unnecessary assignments, referred to as "busy work", should be completely cut out as they waste a student's time and energy without returning any gain. It is my weakest because eliminating a majority of homework from a students workload seems like an extreme idea that is far from the normal view of high school.

Assignment #11- Analyzing and Writing Arguments

• After analyzing the Gary Taubes' essay "What If It's All Been A Big Fat Lie?" I have learned that quoting valid sources is key to providing a successful argument. In his essay, Taubes quotes a fairly large amount of people who have experience in the topic of health and diets. This provides the audience with information from educated people, not just statements that the author deems to be facts. By being able to quote legit sources that can support your argument, your arguments is much more effective.
• In the essay, "Organ Sales Will Save Lives" by Joanna MacKay, she seems incredibly biased in her argument that third world countries should be allowed to sell their organs for money. She barely tries to provide and solutions to counter arguments that exist against this idea, and only seems to care about having more organs for the rest of the world to by by taking advantage of poorer countries, instead of their well being. This greatly weakens her argument as someone who comes off as biased does not care about both sides. I have learned that in order to provide a successful argument, you must include both sides.
• I analyzed "Some Like It Hot" by Lawrence Lessig. In this essay, Lessig speaks in a very self-assuring tone that allows the readers to build a sense of trust towards him and his argument. By citing facts, and being upfront about his position all while staying honest, the reader will trust him more, and in turn agree with the point that he is making. I learned from this that if you take care in building a sense of trust with your readers, they will have a higher chance in believing your argument and siding with you.

Assignment #10- Thinking About Peer Review

The peer reviews that we do in class work very well in my opinion. Getting into smaller groups to discuss the ideas of your paper and even work on the thesis is a great way to get a strong foothold on beginning your paper. If you are still not sure about what topic you want your paper to be about, your group members can lend you ideas in order to help your decision. Brain storming like this is a great way to develop the basis of what your paper will be about and how it will work. When in the larger groups, reading the essays might be a little redundant. I find that giving each member of your group a separate copy of your essay so that they may more thoroughly read through it works much better. By doing this, each person can give the author their own interpretation and separate ideas on how to improve his/her paper. Having more then one person peer review your paper is extremely beneficial because there is a much greater chance that any errors will be spotted.

As a peer reviewer, I believe that a do a pretty good job at helping classmates. I am not afraid to tell them about any mistakes, be it grammatical or just something that makes no sense. I do this because I expect the same from them. No one should be offended by their peer reviewers as it is just constructive criticism. I also consider myself a decent writer, so if I find anything that I find that just doesn't make sense I can help them to the best of my abilities to make it work. I'm also always eager to help someone in need of peer reviewing, and I always do my best in order to make their paper better since they are putting their faith in me. My only vice is that I often get distracted while peer reviewing in class and engage in conversations. Other then that, I believe I am a strong peer reviewer.

 Peer review at an early stage in the writing process is a lot more helpful then in later stages because by then the author has already cemented his ideas on paper, and my not wish to change his/her paper. By peer reviewing at an early stage, you my help someone completely outline their paper using every bit of information that you and the reviewer can come up with in order to make the paper as good as it can be. As groups go, I believe that both small and large groups are necessary. Smaller groups in the preliminary stages of writing a paper can help the author come up with all of his main points and supporting information. Large groups can help after a draft has been written. By having more people read it, you can get more constructive criticism on how to further better your paper. The amount of time we get for peer review is very generous, as we usually get a few days. This is more then enough time to go through everyone's papers thoroughly so that everyone gets a chance for their paper to be reviewed.

Assignment #9 - Patterns Of Error

• In my Arguing a Position essay, I did a poor job at completely explaining my points so that readers could better understand it. When arguing about how the current grading system  in high schools is a poor representation of a students actual intelligence and skill in the subject, I failed to explain exactly why I believed this. Instead I merely stated it as a fact, which did not provide the audience with enough information to understand why the grading system should be changed, and also ruined my credibility in providing a strong argument. Sometimes when writing papers, I fail to include small but important supporting information that is crucial to providing a clear understanding of the subject. To correct this mistake, I need to let others peer review my paper to check for any lack of supporting information, since I might not notice it. This way, I can get a second look at my paper form a different perspective other then my own, and prevent this error from occurring.
• My biggest reoccurring error would probably be that I have a tendency to make sentences overly wordy. Sentences that are too wordy begin to lose meaning and only confuse readers. In my Arguing a Position, my thesis was way too long and included many ideas that could have been completely separate sentences. I fixed this error by separating the ideas into their own sentences to make the introductory paragraph much easier to read. However, this is a constant problem in my writing which I have spent all semester working on fixing. There is nothing wrong with sentences that show a prowess in vocabulary, but sometimes it just sounds too cluttered. I realize I need to slow down on all of the unnecessary words and phrases that I throw into papers by rereading them out loud and finding them, or by having someone peer review my paper for me.
• Another error I sometimes have trouble with is repetitiveness. If I have no idea about what to write about, I will sometimes (accidentally) repeat the same idea in a different part of the paper. Reiterating a point is acceptable but sometimes it can lead to a paper becoming extremely repetitive and very annoying to read. This type of error is easily avoidable but is usually due to laziness. To fix this problem, I simply need to plan out my paper more efficiently from the start to make sure I have enough ideas to talk about in the paper.