My relationship with writing had not been the best prior to college. I did not really consider myself a writer mainly because I did not use to write a lot and the papers I would write were most of the time rushed, making it difficult to further develop them. My writing has significantly improved over the last few months thanks to my English 2150H class. The writing assignments and exercises I did in this class both challenged my writing and exposed me to different methods of writing. The three main projects I worked on during this semester were an analysis paper on metaphors in a cultural artifact, a research-based argument paper over the concept of a single story and a remediation project. The three of these were challenging in their own way and each one of them helped me further develop my writing. One of the most significant improvements to my writing was the use of first person point of view when necessary. I learned that it is okay to use “I” in my papers and that in some cases it can improve my writing by making it more clear and concise. Overall, I am pleased by my improvement in writing this semester, but I am also aware that there are still many ways to keep improving.
My analysis paper on metaphors in a cultural artifact was my first major paper for this class and it immediately showed me what I needed to improve on. I wrote about the film Edge of Tomorrow and discussed the metaphor of life as a game present in the film. This analysis paper served as a guideline and allowed me to focus on certain specific aspects of my writing that could be improved. One of these aspects was my habit of constantly avoiding using first person. This habit would lead me to write extremely redundant sentences that could have been simple and shorter if I would have used first person point of view. I would exploit the “to be” verb in order to get my point across without using first point of view. For example, I wrote:
These strategies and this specific approach to becoming successful, however, prove not to be completely accurate when it is taken into consideration the way in which others (who did not follow these strategies) become successful, which might make a person lose sight of what constitutes success to other subcultures. (Pg. 4)
This shows the intentional avoidance of first person. I had become accustomed to writing this way because I had been taught to write like this throughout my high school years. This topic came up during a class discussion and my argument was that even though high school had—in a way—forced me to get rid of first person point of view, it was still a crucial part for the development of my writing since it made me find ways around it. I argued that there were stages to my writing and that getting rid of first point of view in high school was just one of those stages. The stage I underwent this semester was strategically integrating first point of view in my papers again, which would cut down my word count but would also allow me to say more with less words. This is an essential skill not only in writing, but in corporate settings as well. I later utilized the issues my first paper had revealed and address them on my second major paper.
The second major paper was my research-based paper over the concept of a single story. This was a longer paper that required more in-depth discussion and a lot more outside source. I based my paper over the portrayal of Native Americans in contemporary popular culture focusing on a film, TV shows and even YouTube. Out of the three major papers/projects this semester, this is the one I am the most proud of. I believe that using first point of view once again in my paper significantly improved my writing in this paper. The challenging aspects of this paper were finding the outside sources I would need to make a stronger argument for my case, and knowing the appropriate times in which to integrate first person point of view. In terms of organization I was able to make my paper flow in a logical and clear manner providing my audience with clear guidelines of my topics. I did an exercise on my first draft that required me to get rid of “to be” verbs. This exercise allowed me to cut down ten percent of my writing and it forced me to find ways to make my writing more straightforward and concise often by integrating first person into my writing. The following sentence shows my integration of first person point of view into my writing—something I would not have done before—and it also shows how by doing so I am able to take ownership of my argument, “I argue that Native Americans, just as the Mexicans Adichie discussed, are being victimized by the single story that is constantly portrayed in movies, sports and TV shows” (Pg. 2). This simple change in my writing helped me further develop my research paper and make a stronger paper overall. The third and final major project was intended to be easier and more approachable but it would also prove to pose a lot of challenges for me.
The third major project was a remediation of my research paper. The point of this project was to portray my research paper in a different medium; a web-text, video, audio or any other creative form. My initial intent was to do a web text that would include alphabetical text alongside images and a few videos depicting Native Americans in popular culture. Even though this was what was in a way expected from my project, I was not completely satisfied with the initial outcome. I decided to include a montage of the film and TV shows clips I discussed on my research paper. This would allow me to make an overall stronger project. The challenge here was learning how to use and operate iMovie—something I had never done before—to make my montage, actually creating my first web text and knowing how to integrate each image, text, and video into the web text to make it organized and easy to navigate. Overall I am pleased with the outcome of this remediation project and I honestly believe I was able to integrate the essence of my research paper into the web text and video montage. If I could do something different, it would be to practice more with iMovie in order to make a better video with possibly no need for a web text. The remediation project was definitely one of the most challenging projects this semester because of my unfamiliarity with web texts and creating videos.
My experience this semester in English 2150H was not only academically, but also personally enriching. I was able to develop my writing into more concise and flexible writing while learning about culture, social issues and different perspectives from fellow classmates. The use of metaphors in everyday language alongside the single story concept will stay with me for the rest of my academic years and beyond that. I will utilize these concepts in future classes and even at work. The progress my writing made this year, however, will be my greatest takeaway from this course. I will make use of small exercises like annotated bibliographies and getting rid of “to be” verbs in future written pieces, but the biggest improvement on my writing will be the inclusion of my own voice in my writing. I am extremely satisfied with the progress I made this semester and I just hope to find more professors that will challenge me intellectually and further challenge my writing.
