Tasks
First, describe how your thinking about the writing process and rhetorical knowledge has changed throughout the course of English 101. Do you feel that your approach to writing has become richer? More complex? What stands out as the biggest change in your thinking about writing?
Second, describe any changes to the way you approach writing tasks that you think will continue after the conclusion of our course. Do you think you will approach all writing tasks with new perspective or only certain kinds of writing tasks?
My thinking surrounding rhetorical knowledge and the writing process has tremendously heightened since taking this course, whereas before, I lacked the resources to help me succeed in writing assignments. Prior to this course, It was like I was waiting for some grand idea or topic to magically come to me, without any planning, I’d hurry and cram it all in an essay as competently as I could. Now, I have finally come to the realization that writing in this way could never work to achieve my intention of a ”good” peice of writing, and was the culprit of my writing-induced anxiety. I completely undervalued the power of the writing process. I never used the tools I had learned about because I thought it would create additional work, when actually, I was doing just that— creating more work for myself— by not doing the precursory planning. This course urged me to do the planning work, which was to my benifit, and to say my work has become richer is an understatement, I am no James Patterson, but I definitely have seen a considerable growth in myself as a writer.
The biggest change in my composition, alongside planning, is you can tell I enjoyed writing it, even from reading it. I have said this before, and I will say it again…if your work doesn't have some sort of underlying tone to it, it will sound cripplingly boring to your audience, and even worse, you won't enjoy it either. Emphasizing your personality in your writing is important, it makes everything a bit more spicy and interesting, which brings about better and more intellectual writing projects, essays, and other communications. The common theme here is that now, I am not just writing to finish the assignment, I am writing to gain personal satisfaction of sorts. I am talking to myself, through writing. I have included my emphatic personality in my writing because ultimately, this is my writing, and I’d like it to be an extension of my personality in communication, not just a boring thing I had to do once for school.
I can’t say I will approach ALL emails, texts, and other, more casual communications with the writing process, because that seems a bit excessive. However, I will without-a-doubt continue using the strategies I have learned, apply rhetorical knowledge, and follow a writing process, whenever I have to write something in a professional or educational setting. In accordance with writing tasks, whether it be discussions, peer reviews, essays, journals or what have you, I will proceed with these literacies I have learned because they have proven to be helpful to me. I believe I will continue freewriting as a drafting method in assignments, as this is something that helped me weed out the good and the bad parts, and move on to the next step of the writing process, instead of jumping straight into editing.
For the most part, I have actually enjoyed my experience working through this course, and I feel better equipped with the knowledge and practice I have been introduced to. Not to mention, having a place where all of my work is saved and presented with artistic modalities on my personal website was a great way to motivate me during this course.
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