Final Project 4

Dear Ms. Wolfe and fellow classmates,

Over the course of this class I have obtained new strategies in the processes of my writing. This class has taught me many things including time management and the specific steps needed to be taken to make a solid piece of writing. Some of the major aspects of writing I learned was how to gather sources and information to make a strong public argument and how to revise a paper correctly before turning in the final product. This class has brought my writing to another level which will keep progressing throughout my college career.

At the beginning of this class my writing processes consisted of a detailed plan followed by a certain time in which I would sit down and write the paper all at once. It is how I like to write and it is how I have formed myself as a writer. At the beginning of this class I said, “My writing process involves the "heavy planners" and the procrastination techniques. Even though the two seem contradicting, I tend to plan out my work piece by piece with every little detail, and then I write the whole thing at once near the end.”. These two strategies have stuck with me throughout the course, however, I have included a new strategy into the process of my writing that progressed through this class. This new process was called “heavy revisions”. Before I would always write my papers and not change much between the draft and the final. As the class progressed and we had assignments on revising I realized that so much needs to be changed and added to the draft to make it final. Although I didn’t do much revising for my first paper, as the second paper came along I noticed that I added and changed many aspects to my paper which made it a lot better. By the time the third paper came, I noticed that my draft almost looked nothing like my final. After revising I noticed that, “ From my draft I re organized the paragraphs to make it flow better, Integrated my quotes and gave them deeper analysis, and also added visual effects to my paper. There were also multiple grammar mistakes that I had to fix.” All of,  “These changes make my argument more thorough and easier to read, making my audience see that my writing is organized showing that I know what I'm doing. This gives my paper credibility. A well presented paper makes the writer look like a professional.” This showed the benefits my revisions had on my argument and my audience.  

Even though I thought some of the processes we went through were pointless at the time, I now see how important and vital they were to my writing. For example the cluster maps, gathering of multiple sources, and peer reviews  helped the planning and final product of my writing.  "In this cluster, I separated the information into three parts. The first part contains the main rhetorical strategies that are in the article that have appeals to credibility and logic. The second part shows the main cultural values that portrayed in the article. The final part contains all the rhetorical situations including the audience, context, and purpose of the article." The cluster maps visually organized the controversies in my writing, helping me see what I was going to say for both sides of the issue. The idea of having more sources than needed let me pick and chose from which articles would be good and bad for each writing. I was even able to use sources for multiple projects. Finally the peer reviews were also a huge success in this course. "After reading through my peers drafts, I realized that people make these types of errors all the time.  I realized that you have to read very closely to find some of them, but they are there. The most common error I found was in needed words and variety. A lot of people didn't have a huge variety of sentences. Second people were missing words that could have been used to make their sentences a little bit more clear." They showed me how my other classmates wrote and the common mistakes we were all making in our writings. It also helped me find issues and help my classmates. For example I helped fix a grammar problem in one of my peers drafts after learning new punctuation rules. "Every single person struggles with some aspect of the social game throughout life. Whether the struggle involves making new friends, keeping old ones, or having the courage to go ask out that pretty girl across the room that you know is way out of your league,; robots can help you to gain confidence, make a new friend, and learn how to interact in all of those situations that you never thought you could." The semicolon was not used correctly, therefore, I noted that it should change to a comma. I can confidently say that nothing in the class hurt or did not work in the process of my writing. Each aspect contributed in some way towards my final writings.

The final aspect this class taught me was how to write different forms of writing. Throughout highschool and the first semester of college I was used to writing standard college form essays. But in this class that changed. I learned that, "the conventions of a quick reference guide seem to be a way to organize information to show give the public a quick insight about a certain topic, person, or event.". A QRG was very knew to me. Before this class I had no idea what one was and after I had successfully written my own QRG. I also wrote my one public argument in an article format where I was able to express my own ideas in my paper which was very new to me.

Over the next few years I see my writing progressing exponentially. I believe that the mechanics that I learned in this class and English 101 will stick with me as I go on to writing Astronomy articles along with business papers. This class focused on addressing the audience in the best manner possible. As I carry that aspect with me through my college years it will help me communicate better through my papers ending with a better result. The new strategies of gathering sources, planning, writing in different formats, and revisions will help make my writing grow and mature as I move on through these next few years.

Sincerely

Aaron Jatana

Here I am about to take my victory lap..

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KVuM6I4ZN6AIUeJIaHLzXDqEAXdVMbE6Hevo23HeqaQ/edit