Assignment #15- Final Reflection

It's always hard saying goodbye but my journey has finally come to end for Writing 101-11. As I look back to my first blog post I noticed that I did achieve certain goals that I wanted to accomplish during this semester. I still wouldn't change my goals that I had now as a writer even though I'm familiar with college writing because in order to become a better writer you must start from scratch.
In my first blog post I said that I wanted to learn to communicate with my audience and paper, and I learned how to do that by including the purpose, genre, tone and audience. This helps me organized my whole paper so it can be aimed at my certain target. I also stated that I wanted to learn from others and I did by learning their techniques that helped me.
Some strengths I still have to develop is to try to elaborate my ideas without stumbling over sentences or just by not repeating things over and over again. Another strength I have to develop is making sure my purpose fits everything that is needed for it without adding certain things I don't need. Some weaknesses that I have to develop on is building a strong thesis. This has always been a struggle without a good thesis your paper doesn't have good structure.
Overall I achieved some goals but I still have more to learn.

Assignment #14- Planning for Revisions

For my portfolio I chose to revise is my arguing position essay. The strengths of this essay is that it has a strong clear thesis that's focused on what I'm trying to argue about. It's also a thesis were it can be argued by other people if they disagreed with me. Another strength is that I use a lot of evidence to support my claims and my whole paper is very well organized. Its focused on the point I'm trying to make across.

Two weaknesses are that my evidence might not be efficient and it may be very weak. My statements may not be strong enough. Also my purpose might not be focused on my audience if I tend to go off topic. I might need help making my sentences stronger. Another weakness might be is that my introduction may be weak so it's going to make my paper have a bad start.

In order for me to revise my essay, I am going to make sure that everything can be backed up with strong evidence so the audience can understand why I chose to say that and can see what's behind it. When I write the body of my paper I will make sure that everything is in-order. I will make sure my audience fits my purpose and tone. As for my introduction I will start off using some evidence so it can lead to my thesis smoothly. Overall I have to stay on topic and argue my position well.

Assignment #13- Your My Favorite Paper..

My favorite essay that I had to write for this class was the arguing a position assignment. I enjoyed writing this essay because I got to inform people about an issue that people are still debating and dealing with. Writing is not a problem for me but when I'm assigned to write about something that requires my opinion on a topic it's the best feeling ever. It's as if I can put all my angry and opinion on how I feel about the subject. I got to explain what the law is doing is wrong. Come on a teen can get married to an adult by parent permission but if a teen dates an adult its against the law? Seriously?! Its a joke. 

Although the ad analysis was going to be my first choice because I got to study what was the whole purpose behind the ad was. But then I changed my mind because the arguing a position assignment felt like it was something important for me. It was important because the issue about the the law allowing teens to get married with parent permission should be banned. A teen has their whole life in front of them to discover and marriage isn't always the best choice for them. Live life and enjoy it as your young. So I got to express my opinions on how I feel about it and it made me feel good letting it all out. It was a topic I was passionate about. Also it went great with my writing style because informing people about an issue that's not talked about much helps bring the issue to light.

P.S: Thanks for the easy blog post! :)) 

Assignment #12- Thinking Critically about Evidence

Thesis: The law should not allow teens to get married to people who are 18 and older because they are considered to be minors,  they have their life in front of them and if it's illegal for an adult to date a minor then why can they marry one.

• My most compelling argument is my claim that it is against the law for an 18 year old to date a person younger than them. But yet they may get married if the teen's parents agree with it. This is strong evidence because many people had went to jail because of this issue. There is proof of people who are spending time in prison for child molestation just because of the age difference. It is only logical that this problem can be proved with evidence of these cases. Since this is my strongest claim, I am going to make sure I focus my introduction on it and provide enough evidence to support my claim throughout the paper.

• My weakest evidence is my rebuttal to that claim is that teens may run away from home with their older lover if they can't get married to them. I argue that parents need to make sure teens get their education first so they can go the right path. This is my weakest evidence because although parents may try to get their children to do good the teen might not listen. To strengthen this part of my argument, I will try to convince my audience that there's more to life then just marriage.

Assignment #11- Analyzing and Writing Arguments

I analyzed the essay "The $78 Million Bag". In this essay, the writer had a good argument and knew what his purpose was. He made sure his point was made across. However, they had a good argument but didn't back up their claims with enough evidence. They would use numbers and "facts" but didn't cite their sources so it made it harder for the audience to trust them. This taught me that I should always make sure I support my claims with evidence and make sure I cite it because if I don't it doesn't give the reader my trust also it doesn't seem reliable.

Also as I was analyzing "The $78 Million Bag" I noticed that the essay seemed to use a informal tone where they were trying to relate to the audience. However, they should have been formal because it lacks to the audience that they can't presentation their purpose professionally because legalizing marijuana is a serious issue. It was as if the writer was talking to a friend instead of the people of Chicago.This taught me that I should always first debate on if my topic is a serious or non serious problem so I know that I can get my point across that way I want readers to respect me or take me seriously.

Lastly after analyzing this essay, I came to conclusion that the writers used more of their opinion on the issue instead of facts. This is where it went downhill for them because you won't convince an audience what should be done if you don't state facts and support all evidence. It just explains to the audience what you want to be done instead of what should be done. This showed me that I should always make sure I have facts in my paper that have evidence behind it if I want to state an issue that I feel should be fixed.

Assignment #10- Thinking About Peer Review

The new peer review process we recently tried was something interesting. I enjoyed it because its always good to get different peoples opinions on your paper instead of one. This process was very effective because when we read our papers out loud we can catch our own mistakes such as spelling errors. Also the people in our group can comment on what they feel should be improved and how they feel about the paper. The way it can be improved is that we should do peer reviews on more than one person's paper in the group, by doing two peer reviews instead of one it helps us get more feedback. 

My specific strengths in peer reviewing is finding misspelled words and pointing out where the writer should elaborate their ideas more. My specific weakness while doing peer review is that I'm too nice when it comes down to commenting on what they are doing wrong. This is bad for me and the writer because I can't help him/her improve their weaknesses. I can't be mean on pointing out mistakes if the writer is my friend especially because come on...thats my buddy haha I don't want to be tough on their paper.

Peer review is always helpful. It's the most effective and best process when it comes down to fixing your papers. It is helpful to do peer review for earlier stages of the writing process. I feel that doing peer review in larger groups are better and more helpful because you get more opinion from other people. Everyone has different point of views. I feel that we don't have enough time to complete our peer review if we do it one day because it makes us rush through the questions and therefore we can't take our time to finish it. But I feel that we should take two days to finish our reviews so we can focus and make sure we can help improve the writer's paper. 

Overall, peer review is very useful regardless if we do it in a small group or large! :)

Assignment #9- Patterns of Writing

Errors are something every human being makes. Especially when it comes to writing papers. Its a common mistake everyone makes. Unless your a robot who writes non-error stories their first time! But sadly your not, your only a human being. As I look through my first two graded essays I have wrote for this class, I caught a couple of mistakes I make often.

1. In my writing I tend to repeat certain words over and over and OVER AGAIN! As I read them out loud and notice this error it just makes my paper sound soooo STUPID. I repeat the key terms often and this causes my writing so sound dull. It also causes my writing to fall downhill because it shows that I cant get my point across. The way I plan to avoid this error in the future is that I'm going to use different words that are similar to what the point is about because when you repeat the same word over it just makes you want to stop reading the paper.

2. The second error I caught why writing and revising my two papers is that I have a comma problem. Unfortunately this is a big problem when it comes down to my papers. I have trouble with putting the comma where it should. This causes my writing to have no pause in it for the reader. Also it crumbles my sentences all together. The way I plan to avoid this error is make sure that I use commas in a series for example when you list certain things you need to break it up with a comma. I'm going to use commas after certain words like: and, but, or, for, so yer and nor. Also I'm going to make sure to uses commas after introductory phrases.

3. The third error I notice that I tend to make in my writing is by not having an arguable thesis. This causes my writing to not have reason why I'm writing the paper in the first place. At times my thesis is not strong and it causes my paper to have nothing for a person to argue about. In the future I plan to avoid this problem by making sure I have a purpose of writing my paper and I have to make sure that my thesis can be arguable. I plan to make sure I get much of peer review as possible so I can have somebody help me improve it.

There you have it I make mistakes but I always try to fix it because that's how your writing will improve. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes but it's normal. You can't become a better writer until you learn and improve your mistakes.