I got to admit, for this particular paper, I felt like the writers that Elbow talks about in his “The Process of Writing” paper. “Most people’s relationship to the process of writing is one of helplessness” (Elbow) and believe me helplessness was exactly what I was feeling at the moment. We were supposed to write about our writing transition throughout the semester which sounds easy enough; I mean you just have to write about... well… your writing. Being the over-analyzer I am, I managed to overcomplicate that somehow. I had a million different scenarios in my head but I mostly worried that something in this very writing may not resonate with what I’m claiming I learned through the semester. Here goes nothing, how has my writing transitioned through the semester?
Let’s just start off by getting it out there that free-writing is the best. My first day of college was basically made because of English 120. I liked it so much, I did a couple of free-writes on my own time, got inspired and for winter break, I’m going to write a mini-series I have been dying to write and post it online so a big thank you to you Professor Molloy. Back to what I was talking about, prior to this English class, I hadn’t really done legit free-writing. I had done a couple of journal entries here and there that were basically the same but I felt this free-write was different. I never knew just how liberating free-writing could really be and that’s what basically got me through all my papers. I would just write whatever came to mind and by the end, I would end up killing more than half of my “babies” but that was okay because when I do this I still haven’t formed a legitimate idea and I’m usually still in that beginning thinking stage. Because of this, my writing has become more liberated and I think I’ve had more good ideas than what I used to when I didn’t free-write. For me, capturing the reader’s attention is always something I’ve struggled with. I would stress the information too much and worry over losing the reader but I ultimately lose them by not “setting a hook”. I think these two tie together for me and my writing because I free-write a lot and most of it would be a good hook for my paper. By just writing out whatever I’m thinking and later coming back and “cutting and pasting” (Elbow) it together, most of the time I end up writing my introduction or just a great hook for the reader.
Something I’m not proud of is just how much I hate erasing my work. No one understands just how much I hate it. I think it’s such a waste and I get so upset after putting in so much time and effort on my writing. I think that’s the number 1 thing that has definitely changed prior to the semester. Although I still don’t like it and it takes forever for me to finally be like “Okay I should probably get rid of this”, I know when I just have to stop, delete or start all over. Granted, I don’t usually write myself into a corner but with my Cosmopolitan paper, I was in quite the pickle. I put so much effort and time into that paper and I was determined to keep that baby alive! I didn’t want to let go and that’s what pushed me back behind everyone. But eventually, I had to kill that baby and do a completely different idea paper about Cosmo. Being the stubborn and proud person I am, I find it hard to admit this but this time around, the Cosmo writing came out much easier. “Cutting the fat” ties into this because not only do some ideas literally write you into a corner but so does the “fat”. The “fat” disguises the bad ideas or sometime cover up the good ideas and you can’t move on. My writing is starting to resemble this more and more because I don’t have as much useless filler “fat” sections in my writing. I feel like my writing now has what is essential but also a little bit of filler to even it out.
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos were both my favorite and the most frustrating. I liked the idea of using all three in my writing because you appeal to all these different aspects and since it has multiple aspects, your writing appeals to a broader amount of people. My senior year of High School is when we learned these three but I didn’t fully understand it until this semester. I was able to use it properly in the Lincoln Movie Scene Analysis and now sometimes I’m able to appeal to the three without even noticing. I feel as if this gives my writing more credibility while staying in sync with the way I am. I’m normally not that great at expressing myself verbally but this makes it easier along with the other rhetorical devices. When we had to go over Sean’s Tactics of Rhetorical Writing, I was really overwhelmed because there are so many but I managed to grasp the topic. Not only do I know how to use them, I also know how to identify them. Rhetorical devices in general just bettered my writing because before I felt that I had a lot of trouble connecting my writing and getting my point across while proving it but now I can do that with ease or at least with better knowledge about it than before. I think my writing has grown overall in quality but because I’ve learned to use these elements in my writing, it has also grown in quantity even if by a little.
English has always been one of those love/hate subjects for me. Whenever I think that there isn’t more to learn, something new is taught and I try to learn to incorporate that in my writing. I never considered majoring in writing and I doubt I ever would but coming from such a cool and lenient English class, it definitely made me interesting in writing my own little short stories. I’ve gone from mediocre writing to a little better than decent. What I learned in this class was to brainstorm all I can and then cut out the “fat” and all that holds my writing back. My writing is now better, I feel, because I can form connections with people through things like ethos, pathos and rhetorical devices along with actually getting people interested in my writing by “setting the hook” and not boring them with all the “fat”.
Let’s just start off by getting it out there that free-writing is the best. My first day of college was basically made because of English 120. I liked it so much, I did a couple of free-writes on my own time, got inspired and for winter break, I’m going to write a mini-series I have been dying to write and post it online so a big thank you to you Professor Molloy. Back to what I was talking about, prior to this English class, I hadn’t really done legit free-writing. I had done a couple of journal entries here and there that were basically the same but I felt this free-write was different. I never knew just how liberating free-writing could really be and that’s what basically got me through all my papers. I would just write whatever came to mind and by the end, I would end up killing more than half of my “babies” but that was okay because when I do this I still haven’t formed a legitimate idea and I’m usually still in that beginning thinking stage. Because of this, my writing has become more liberated and I think I’ve had more good ideas than what I used to when I didn’t free-write. For me, capturing the reader’s attention is always something I’ve struggled with. I would stress the information too much and worry over losing the reader but I ultimately lose them by not “setting a hook”. I think these two tie together for me and my writing because I free-write a lot and most of it would be a good hook for my paper. By just writing out whatever I’m thinking and later coming back and “cutting and pasting” (Elbow) it together, most of the time I end up writing my introduction or just a great hook for the reader.
Something I’m not proud of is just how much I hate erasing my work. No one understands just how much I hate it. I think it’s such a waste and I get so upset after putting in so much time and effort on my writing. I think that’s the number 1 thing that has definitely changed prior to the semester. Although I still don’t like it and it takes forever for me to finally be like “Okay I should probably get rid of this”, I know when I just have to stop, delete or start all over. Granted, I don’t usually write myself into a corner but with my Cosmopolitan paper, I was in quite the pickle. I put so much effort and time into that paper and I was determined to keep that baby alive! I didn’t want to let go and that’s what pushed me back behind everyone. But eventually, I had to kill that baby and do a completely different idea paper about Cosmo. Being the stubborn and proud person I am, I find it hard to admit this but this time around, the Cosmo writing came out much easier. “Cutting the fat” ties into this because not only do some ideas literally write you into a corner but so does the “fat”. The “fat” disguises the bad ideas or sometime cover up the good ideas and you can’t move on. My writing is starting to resemble this more and more because I don’t have as much useless filler “fat” sections in my writing. I feel like my writing now has what is essential but also a little bit of filler to even it out.
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos were both my favorite and the most frustrating. I liked the idea of using all three in my writing because you appeal to all these different aspects and since it has multiple aspects, your writing appeals to a broader amount of people. My senior year of High School is when we learned these three but I didn’t fully understand it until this semester. I was able to use it properly in the Lincoln Movie Scene Analysis and now sometimes I’m able to appeal to the three without even noticing. I feel as if this gives my writing more credibility while staying in sync with the way I am. I’m normally not that great at expressing myself verbally but this makes it easier along with the other rhetorical devices. When we had to go over Sean’s Tactics of Rhetorical Writing, I was really overwhelmed because there are so many but I managed to grasp the topic. Not only do I know how to use them, I also know how to identify them. Rhetorical devices in general just bettered my writing because before I felt that I had a lot of trouble connecting my writing and getting my point across while proving it but now I can do that with ease or at least with better knowledge about it than before. I think my writing has grown overall in quality but because I’ve learned to use these elements in my writing, it has also grown in quantity even if by a little.
English has always been one of those love/hate subjects for me. Whenever I think that there isn’t more to learn, something new is taught and I try to learn to incorporate that in my writing. I never considered majoring in writing and I doubt I ever would but coming from such a cool and lenient English class, it definitely made me interesting in writing my own little short stories. I’ve gone from mediocre writing to a little better than decent. What I learned in this class was to brainstorm all I can and then cut out the “fat” and all that holds my writing back. My writing is now better, I feel, because I can form connections with people through things like ethos, pathos and rhetorical devices along with actually getting people interested in my writing by “setting the hook” and not boring them with all the “fat”.