Michal Jacobs

May 26, 2016

ENG 2150

Professor Dr. Blankenship

Project 4: Portfolio Assessment

 

A Reflection of a Writer’s Workshop

Writing is not simply about presenting factual information; it is a combination of the “three A’s”: analysis, argument, and audience. After this semester, I now have a stronger appreciation for all of the aspects that go into constructing a final piece of writing. Throughout my past experiences, writing was a collaboration of ideas circumventing a thesis statement. I learned throughout this semester, that writing consists of far more that. It takes several different steps that include creating a first rough draft, incorporating the process of rhetorical analysis, and concluding with a great deal of editing. Well-thought out writing, is about coming up with ideas for the basis of creating an argument and how it could be supported and proved. Without an argument, free-style writing is devoid of direction and is not classified as a proper essay.

The writing group consisting of my peers was helpful in discerning strong arguments and receiving constructive criticisms and suggestions on how to improve them. It is always beneficial to have an unbiased pair of eyes and set of different viewpoints when examining a piece of writing, in order to discover other details that might have been overlooked. The main benefit of writing multiple drafts is having the time to revise and enhance a piece of writing and incorporate new ideas upon each revision.

A rhetorical argument is a debate that satisfies the three criteria required to convey a proper argument: the audience’s response to pathos, lagos, and ethos. Pathos is the idea that the targeted audience needs to be thought out prior to the writing. Each individual argument is based on a specific targeted audience that the writer hopes to connect to and persuade. After the audience is established, it is important to organize an essay in a way that would be most appealing and easily understood by that group. This may include using different forms of visual media. In the beginning of the semester, our class watched an Apple Commercial that designed to cater to its audiences’ emotions. It made us think about the argument and questioned moral and ethical rules and guidelines. From that point on, I understood the importance of the writing directly to the target audience.

When contemplating the papers I wrote over the course of this semester, I specifically recall my multiple revisions and edits on my paper about “The Shawshank Redemption”. The first draft was more of a literary analysis; where I discussed more of a summary, character, and theme analysis. However, after the critiques and suggestions from my peers and professor, I heavily revised the paper to focus on a specific rhetorical argument claiming that each person in the movie had a different prison experience with a different outcome and was challenged to rehabilitate themselves in a unique, yet successful way.

My second major project, my narrative argument, was a more personal piece of writing than “The Shawshank Redemption” essay. My narrative was an in depth look about my family’s immigration story, and how their influence made an impact on my present immediate family several generations later. I supported my thesis by giving a historical background about my family’s involvement with different religious practices and communal organizations, practices which we continue to do today. This paper taught me how to validate the importance of the argument and give supportive evidence to my reasoning. This was supplemented by using different historical sources and statistics that proved my objective. Although I was slightly doubtful in the beginning in my ability to trace my family’s traditions as far back as the turn of the century, my long hours of research eventually proved my argument, as they led me to the same cultural traditions held by Jewish immigrants over the last several generations.

My third major project, the media remix of project two, gave a visual explanation and interpretation of the progression of my family’s immigration. Unlike the previous two major projects, rather than a piece of writing, I created a shadowbox which contained a collage of pictures. The goal of this project was to prove my argument could be made in a different light, especially one that had specific meaning to the targeted audience of my family. Each picture was evident of my family’s involvement with religious and cultural Jewish practices. One may claim that this creates an even stronger argument as a collage, rather than a paper, because the shadowbox provides a visual and more personal depiction of my family’s connection to their religious practices which would not be possible to capture in an essay.

Throughout this semester, I was fortunate to learn all of the essential details needed to form a rhetorical analysis, as well as its importance in writing. Organization and forethought is key to establishing a strong argument. Knowing your targeted audience is vital to establishing an argument. In addition, one must always be aware of the various processes used to promote, project, and prove an argument.

This writer’s workshop taught me necessary skills on how to implement my future writing pieces. It helped me to discern how to set up the argument and use different visual media to enhance the effect of the argument. The pier critiques were important to remove the unimportant details that do not prove an argument, while engaging with better and stronger arguments, which better relate to other’s viewpoints. I also learned a great deal about seeking out appropriate resources and giving statistical information that reinforces my argument. When using outside sources, I learned how to offer credibility to the author and reference them properly in the writing’s bibliography. It is also important to give the readers information about the author, so they know the sources are credible, and therefore offer a valid opinion.

I feel that my capability as a writer was greatly enhanced with all of these useful course tips. I am now more confident in asserting myself as a writer in any capacity. My biggest revelation from this course is how I can be a more thought-out, planned, and structured writer when I truly apply myself. It was only a few months ago that I was more of a free-style writer that wrote without a clear message and argument to an audience, that I did not even keep in mind as I wrote. I wrote simply without a cause trying to have an effect. Now that I understand the importance of these ideas, my writing will always be more coherent and know how to deliver its arguments in the most effective way possible.