Letter to an Editor of the Campus Newspaper - Essay Example

Explicitly express and explain your learning and your decision making in your writing. Imagine the self reflective essay as a one on one conversation with me, during which you are explaining your writing and your learning to me. Please address the following questions either in essay or in question/answer format: 1. Describe your writing process for both the argument paper and your genre translation. Look back at the process work you did and trace your thinking about your topic and about your writing.

One of the things that I enjoyed but found challenging is the consistent revision of my own thoughts. It was not so much the revision of my own thoughts but revising my expression of them. Argumentative submissions and genre interpretation is always difficult because my writing is subjective. I can distinctly recall worrying about “coming across” the right way. I think that there is a line between conveying your message and censuring it for the eyes of others so I was always careful to not cross it.

I find that in the argumentative process, I become easily lost which demonstrated my total lack of discipline. Thus my first decision was to make a concerted effort to not inject myself too much into my argument. I had a problem identifying my audience for the genre translation and as a result found myself consistently revising but to what end? Ultimately I would begin again and again because I kept identifying different targets and it took quite some time before I came to the realization that the interpretation could be generally applied. 2. Describe the rhetorical situation as you see it for both your argument paper and your genre translation.

Be sure to discuss both audience and purpose for both documents. A rhetorical situation is far easier to convey when it is applied to an argument because the sense of urgency is raised by the issue being argued. The audience is hopefully automatically compelled by the tone and terms of the issues presented in the argument itself. Moreover, one tends to become personally involved in their arguments which also is revealed in their writing. An argument is an attempt to convince whereas genre translation is equally subjective, but without the force or conviction behind it.

I find that the audience and purpose of genre translation is far harder to convey than that of the argument. Argument is an imperative whereas genre interpretation seems to be an attempt to bridge a gap without conviction. With genre interpretation it is difficult to contemplate whom it is that my writing is attempting to compel. Thus because I cannot visualize my audience, I have trouble writing genre interpretation.3. Describe the revisions you made in your argument paper and your genre translation, and discuss why you made those revisions.

I found that my revisions were based on my desire to maintain the intelligence I attempted to convey without browbeating the reader. I find that in arguing, I become passionate which can lead me to run off course. I believe that if the writer places too much of their own subjective thoughts into an argument, then they lose the reader because the argument is based upon passion and not intelligence which can be the ending of any argument. As to the genre translation, as I have indicated, I could not really place my targeted audience so I found myself trying to figure out what my translation was and next trying to figure out how on earth to convey it.4. What did you learn about research and about writing during this module of assignments?

I learned that excellent writing does not present itself without empirical research. I don’t mean to say that I am speaking about statistics but research that can back up the presentation. People are not inspired by writing that not be quantified.5. Share anything else you’d like me to know about your experience with the final learning module. This module has demonstrated to me that no matter how much I may approve of my drafts, there is always room for revision. The revision process allowed me to refine my thoughts and I think that being open to refining one’s thoughts is what will allow a writer to submit a successful piece.