Samantha Liz

Professor Hunter

 

When I heard of “the theory of writing”, the first thing that came to mind was, what is even the theory of writing. After thinking about it I still don’t have an answer but after looking through the peeks and holes in my brain I finally found an answer. It’s the progress and process of writing.

Writing has always been a struggle for me because I am not the best writer. Sometimes I am told to write and who even knows if I know what I am supposed to write about. When it comes to writing I have to look deep into my brain to try and get an answer. Stuff doesn’t come right at me when I’m told to do an assignment especially when I start early. Am I the only one that starts early on an essay but then never gets it done until the very last day? Well I am and yes, I’m doing the same with this essay as well. It’s just my process of writing.

In my senior year in high school I got into a class known as AP Language and to be completely honest I thought I got mixed up with another Samantha in the school because if I’m not good at a regular level English language class why would I be good in an AP English language class? Even though I was shocked I rolled with it but then came the essays. I remember my first essay being a rhetorical essay and to be very honest with you I didn’t even know what the word rhetorical meant. After my teacher explained that a rhetorical essay is analyzing the techniques the author used and discussing how the techniques contribute to the authors purpose, I finally understood what I had to do. The rhetorical essay I wrote about was based on Hilary Clinton’s concession speech. A technique I always found in readings was either ethos, pathos and logos and for the majority of the readings in my AP class I mainly saw pathos being used. If you don’t know pathos is the author appealing to the audience emotion, ethos is

At the end of Clinton speech, we are able to see a use of pathos. We see that Clinton wants to draw us in because she respects what she has gone through and everyone listening. She ends off her speech by saying “I am incredibly honored and grateful to have had this chance to represent all of you in this consequential election. May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America” (para. 31-32). H ere she is ending off her speech and she is showing that even though she lost she’s happy for even having a chance to even run for president She thanks everyone that was a part of it and she wants us all to know that America will always have God in there side and that she appreciates that.

In this part of my essay I was very lazy. I made sure that when I wrote, I attempted using techniques but because I had to write about 7 paragraphs in total with 5 or more sentences in each, I made sure I got it done with paragraphs mainly being evidence. I believed it didn’t go as well as I thought it would because when it came to issues regarding politics, I just had so many ideas but I was being lazy that I didn’t put my thought like how I should of. I still ended up getting a B which is not bad but maybe if I put more analysis into it, I could have probably gotten an A.

Going into college I was worried about taking an English class. As I mentioned writing isn’t my strength, it’s actually my weakness but I am able to do it because this is my future and one class can change my future goals. In my college English class, I was told I had to write different essays one being a research assignment and another being a sourced based essay with in addition to a two-genre typed assignment in which I decided to do a political cartoon and an ad. Going back to the writing I struggled a lot with the research assignment. Yes, I know a research assignment can be easy because you are doing research on a topic but because I didn’t have a plan on how I was going to present my research to my audience, I was stuck. I realized, I wasn’t doing my routine I normally do which is get my laptop, lay in bed and think for about an hour and begin to write. When I was coming up with the idea of picking a topic I made sure to pick a topic I knew information about and that I have my own personal view on it because I would be using this topic for the rest of the semester so I decided to pick abortion.

As I was writing my research assignment, I was doing it as fast as I could because I was running out of time but also making sure that I said things appropriately and relatable to my topic. One thing I noticed is that for my research essay I tend to give a lot of hints or tend to explain the evidence before I even present the evidence. An example is:
While in the 1900s people believed that abortion is bad because of the
low knowledge that doctors had people still are starting to believe that the facts that was shown in the late 1900s was wrong due to studies that was made in the 2000s. Even though a major key factor for abortion being illegal which is murder of a baby in a wombstudies have created more of a reason for people to make abortion legal. According to NBC news, Maggie Fox states in“ Abortion in the U.S.:Five key facts”, Fox states “ studies have also debunked the argument that abortions raise the risk of depression or breast cancer.” Fox is explaining that while many people believe that abortion causes depression it in fact does not cause depression or breast cancer which is more of a reason for a woman to receive abortion.

Writing this portion out and looking back I see that I start to speak on what I am about to introduce the audience with. I am looking back I see that as a positive aspect in my writing because before I would just say my claim find an evidence state an analysis and then conclusion. I saw a major change because first I am writing more but I am giving more information which sometimes too much information can be too much but in this case it wasn’t. Looking back, I do think I could have elaborated more by explaining what made people think about how women get depression and breast cancer or even more.

The one essay that I feel that brought me out of my comfort zone and made me write was the sourced based essay. Writing this essay, I knew for sure I needed help with it and my so my tutor assisted me by explaining ways of approaching this paper. I knew I had to find evidence and then explain it by using the rhetorical techniques we learned in class, which is the genre, author, audience, purpose, tone, medium, stance and language. An example from the sourced based essay is:

The genre of this piece is an article informing the audience on the effects of abortion. In the article by Jennifer Kat, Kat keeps a very informative tone. Kat presents this article online for her audience to view and specifically addresses the female population. She is specifically addressing the female population because females are the ones getting abortion and they need to know about what is happening to woman who receive an abortion. Kat conveys her message by stating the problematic issue of abortion, to persuade her audience that abortion is detrimental, it causes emotional disorders after the fact. I believe she explains to everyone that women who have an abortion should reach out for services in order to avoid more serious disorders. She recommends that one should seek assistance from a counselor or therapist. It is clear that Jennifer Kat is taking the pro-life side and supporting the fact that abortion should be illegal in the United States.

Looking at this made me proud because I wasn’t being lazy. I was actually thinking outside of the box and not laying down in my bed doing it literally the day it was due. I was also focused on giving the rhetorical techniques because it was a part of my work. I had to mention the author, genre, audience, tone, purpose, medium and language. The easiest part to analyze was the author and audience because it would be so obvious for me but when it came to the language and stance, I struggled with it. I tried very hard because I have to reread readings about five times in order to even understand what the author was saying and since I’m not a fan of reading that was a struggle. Finding the language was also hard because even though the language depended on the audience sometimes certain words or phrases may change my opinion on what type of language the author used. Even though I do tend to get good grades when I do my work last minute this essay I knew had to take time because I struggle with staying focus on writing and using rhetorical techniques and even though my tutor just reviewed my work and gave me tips he helped me a lot.

I never enjoyed writing but when I graduated high school especially from my AP language class, I was proud of myself. I remembered my teacher being with me since 8th grade and she told me that she has seen many improvements in me with my writing skills. I was never confident back then and even though I’m not as confident as I should be, when I received an award from her which was the most improved in AP Language, I was proud of myself. I told myself that even though Writing is not the best for me and math is, it’s something I’m going to be using in my everyday life.