Danielle Silva
Professor M. MacKnight
WRT 104
2 May 2011
Reflective Introduction
Every individual has a different approach to the way they write their papers and their writing styles. Some take more time than others and then some cut to the chase. A lot of people have to think about their topic for a long period of time while others can think of one instantly. No matter what, each of us has our own way of going about writing. For me, writing papers is like trying out a new sport. I get the idea in my head of a fun and interesting sport that I would like to try and then decide when and how I will do it. Just like my writing, I get the idea in my head of what topic I will choose to write my paper on and then settle on how I will go about writing the paper. Sometimes I may try out a sport and then realize it doesn’t work for me, just like sometimes I will try out a topic for my writing and then recognize I really don’t enjoy writing on this topic. I then choose a different sport to try out and a different paper topic to write about. Finally, when I find the sport that I truly enjoy, it becomes fun and can be easy. Sometimes I have to work hard at it, but in the end I am very happy of my progress. This goes the same for my writing, when I finally find a topic I benefit from, writing the paper becomes enjoyable. Even though it takes hard work at times, my papers always come out how I would most want them to.
Choosing from all five of my writing pieces that I have been working on all semester was difficult. Surprisingly, I enjoyed writing all of the projects because I always was able to choose a topic that meant something to me. However, after some thought process I finally chose what three papers I would include in my final portfolio. I chose to analyze, reflect, edit, and discuss project one which was the literacy narrative, project two which was analyzing a text, and project five which was the portfolio. All three of these writings were my favorite pieces and the ones that meant the most to me.
When thinking about each project I have worked on and which three I would choose, project five was the first one that came to mind. Project five was a profile. A profile is a writing piece that “portrays or ‘captures’ someone or something that you find interesting, curious, or unusual”. Writing a profile focuses more on one aspect, like a “snap shot”. Right when my writing professor explained the profile and told the class it could be a person or a place, I knew exactly what I wanted to write my paper on. Immediately, I thought of the beach that is in my town, Narragansett. That weekend, I decided to take my laptop to the beach and write my profile. Since I was so passionate about the paper topic, the writing process came easy to me and it was very pleasurable. After reading my draft and having others read my draft, I felt very proud of my writing piece. Because I was so fervent of my topic and pleased with the final product, I decided this was a great piece to be added to my portfolio. I felt as though the descriptions that I used in my profile were very interesting and made the paper enjoyable to read. This shows how I am as a writer because one can see my writing skills are better when writing about a topic that is relatable, rather than writing a paper on a topic that I have zero interest in. Although I did believe my profile was a very well written piece, revisions can always be made. The minor adjustments had been made after the writing workshop and then for my final portfolio I decided I would change the angle of the paper. At first my angle was that the beach always remains the same no matter what season it is and what activities are going on there. I decided to change the angle to how the beach can get crazy at times, however when not caught up in the craziness, it always remains tranquil. I decided to revise it this way because I felt as though it made the paper mean more to me because the beach is a very calm and mind-easing place to me. This is shown in my favorite passage of project five, my profile: “And still, no matter how much craziness that can be going on at the beach during the summer, serenity still fills the mind and body.”
Thinking about what project I would next want to add to my portfolio I decided I would chose one that needed the most work because it was able to show where I have flaws in my writing. The second writing piece I chose to add to my portfolio was project one, the literacy narrative. This literacy narrative was supposed to be about any experience that involved reading or writing. After making a list of different topics I could write about for this topic and thinking about which topic I would most enjoy writing a paper on, I finally chose one. I decided to write about my senior project paper that I was to write in high school in order to graduate. This writing piece that was written in high school was the most memorable for me and therefore I knew I would be able to convey a decent paper on it. I chose to add this paper to my portfolio because it was a special moment in my life. When writing my senior project I had a lot of trouble with it at first and this made me realize I needed to be more cautious with my writing. Not only did I enjoy reading my piece of writing, I thought it was a good idea to add to my profile because the paper explains how I became the writer that I am today. I also chose to put project one in my portfolio because it shows some weak points I had in my writing skills at the beginning of the semester. For this paper to be the best that it could be there are a few revisions that needed to be made. I tried changing my paper to focus more on how I made the change of becoming a better writer from my senior paper. I also changed project one to center more on the help I had gotten on my senior paper from my school librarian, Mrs. Good and how this also changed my writing. When my writing professor gave me back comments on my paper, those were the suggestions that he made. I agreed with his propositions and truly believed that these remarks could help the strength of my literacy narrative. Although this paper needed the most work, there are many passages in which make me realize how much this paper meant to me. A favorite quote from my paper says, “After discussing topics with Mrs. Good, I felt so confident that my paper was going to be awesome and make my senior year a little less stressful than it already was.”
Choosing the last piece that I would add to my portfolio was the most difficult choice. At first I wanted to put in a piece that was different and one more like project three or project four where research was involved. However, I didn’t feel passionate or excited about either of those papers. I finally then made the final decision of adding project two to my portfolio which was analyzing a text. For this paper the professor told us to read three articles. One article was about Martin Luther King, one about evolution, and one about abortion. After reading these articles, one was to be chosen to analyze and write a paper on. Even before reading the article and simply hearing what each was about, I knew I would write mine on the one to do with abortion. Abortion is a topic I feel very strongly about and I was interested in analyzing the text about it. Besides the fact that I have a strong opinion on abortion, I chose to add this to my portfolio because I was trying to keep going with the theme of papers I had more interest in to keep in my portfolio. This paper interested me a lot and that is why I did so well on it. Again, just like my profile, this writing piece shows that when I am passionate about something I can produce a well written paper. Even though I got a very good grade on this paper, revisions had to be made for my portfolio. This was very difficult because I did not want to change anything. Since it was so complicated to change the paper as drastically as the other two, I tried going back in the paper and simply beefing up the vocabulary and sentence structure. I feel as though my biggest weakness in my writing skills is my vocabulary and wording of sentences. Since I am always trying to work on this I figured it would be a good idea to take one of my papers and show how I can fix these weaknesses. Overall, I truly enjoyed writing, reading, and revising this paper and my favorite passage from project two was, “Rachel Richardson Smith is not trying to make the reader change whether they are pro-life or pro-choice; she is simply trying to get each side to understand the ideas she has brought up that don’t always get explained.”
My experience with this writing class has truly been a helpful one. When looking through all five papers I have written, I can see the progress I have made from the first paper to the last paper. The one thing that sticks out most to me about my writing is that if I have a topic that I am passionate about, it is evident that I feel for the topic and I can produce a writing piece that is enjoyable to read. I can only wish that I would always be able to write about topics that I am fanatical about.
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