Ramiz Choudhry
Professor Martin
ENG 2150
21 May 2017
Portfolio Reflection
Out of every writing class I have taken in the past, this last semester’s writing class has taught me the most valuable knowledge when it comes to essay writing. This includes several factors to essay writing such as pre-planning the essay, ensuring fluidity throughout the essay with cohesion and coherence, directing my writing towards a certain audience, and even simple writing techniques such as adding strong action verbs to make the essay more engaging.
When comparing my final projects, there is an apparent difference in the use of the skills that I mentioned. In my Critical Analysis Essay, I focused on making it easier for the reader to understand what I was writing. Compared to the rough draft of the essay, I did a better job of introducing each paragraph with a good topic sentence. This gives the essay more cohesion since each idea links together and provides continuous flow between paragraphs. Also, ending each paragraph with a closing sentence that helps lead to the next thought adds both cohesion and coherence. Cohesion and coherence are great things to keep in mind while writing as it causes writers to view their essay from the reader’s perspective.
Viewing your own writing from a different perspective causes writers to think twice about what they should and shouldn’t include in essays. Reader-based prose and writer based prose allowed me to consider which details might be important for the reader. Giving an appropriate amount of context before writing about an analysis helps the audience follow along with the topics I am analyzing in my writing. For example, if the audience I am writing towards is a group of students at Baruch about affirmative action, it is important to explain the current status of it in America along with who would benefit from it. However, if the audience was the Department of Education, this information is unnecessary since the department is already aware of the basics of affirmative action.
The Creative Remix Project also expanded my ability in considering the perspective of the audience. Adding rhetorical strategies such as logos and pathos help immensely when it comes to properly persuading viewers. Having an English assignment other than a writing assignment was an important experience because it allowed me to express my creativity with media besides text. Nikole Hannah Jones’ audio podcast inspired me to record my own audio podcast. Expressing emotion through music and tone of voice also teaches a great amount about keeping the audience in mind with different types of media. There are many possibilities that media alternatives to writing can persuade an audience. When comparing Zadie Smith’s audio podcast Speaking in Tongues with the text version, both my levels of interest and emotions are tremendously effected by the audio version.
Different sources of texts can provide many aspects to a paper, depending on the type of source. One type of source that I was not aware of before this course is the argument source. My Research-Based Argument Essay required many argument sources, so it was critical to be able to identify the difference between an argument source and a background source. Using argument sources also requires a different approach to the source’s analysis. Analyzing an argument source usually consists of a persuasive tone while background sources consists of an informative tone.
In my previous years of writing, my main objectives in essay writing were topic sentences, the thesis statement, and closing sentences. This course introduced me to main claims and intellectual problems. At first, I found it very difficult to come up with an intellectual problem. Focusing on the intellectual problem made me analyze the text with a different mindset and caused me to question the text I was reading. A deep analyzation of a text leads to a better understanding of the plot and characters. This lets me identify problems with the text that I would otherwise not consider scrutinizing. Establishing a main claim causes me to come up with a solution to the problems of the text. Supporting the main claim with argument sources requires even more analysis. Getting more involved with your sources of texts definitely gives the text more detail for the audience to follow along with.
My writing used to involve mindless thoughts without any use of pre-planning. The three assignments that I created for this class all started with brainstorming ideas before beginning the rough draft of the assignment. Not only does this improve the overall quality of my writing, but it also prevents me from having writer’s block after finishing a paragraph. Creating objectives for the assignment along with a plan helps me organize ideas for the essay in a more cohesive and coherent manner. Prior to this brainstorming, it is very obvious that my previous assignments did not start with any type of pre-planning. This is because the ideas did not flow as fluidly as my work for this course. My previous essays’ paragraphs often had unorganized ideas without a clear plan on how they should be ordered in terms of relation. Pre-planning not only makes the essay better for the audience, but it also makes the whole writing experience easier on myself.
Overall, this course taught me more than any other English course that I have taken in the past. The only important thing that I learned from my English 2100 professor was how to self-evaluate my essays, peer review other student essays, and how to actively read passages and books. My new skills with analyzation, viewing my writing through multiple perspectives, and rhetorical strategies caused my writing to have a huge leap of improvement. Having a constant thought of these techniques while writing will lead to an immense improvement in my future essays. Since these strategies, I have not been faced with writer’s block as often as I used to. This is something that I have always struggled with as a writer. The increase in efficiency has undeniably improved my quality of writing and I will definitely keep these strategies in check as I continue to grow as a writer.