Michaela Go
English 11000
Prof. Creaney
12/09/19
Benefits from Writing
Enrolling into a college composition class was very intimidating. The closest thing I took to a college level class was an advanced placement class. I didn’t know what to expect to take away from English Composition. Stuck in what seemed like an intimidating situation I knew what I had to do. Many know the saying “dress to impress”, and I will admit in this class my initial plan was to “write and delight”. Pretty corny but I’m sure you get the point.
I told myself that as long as I fulfilled every bullet on the rubric my essays would be satisfactory. If I just include all the sources, quotes, and elements I needed I would get a good grade on all my work. For example, for the very first assignment we were given we had to analyse the elements of rhetoric in five sources. For each source we had to identify the author, the audience, the purpose of the source, the tone, and the authors use of language. You can see that my main goal was to identify these elements in my essay. Every paragraph in my source based essay was formatted very similar to each other. Each began with me introducing the source and then giving the reader a brief background of the author. This is clear in my second paragraph, right after the introduction, I wrote “In a website article titled Cars or Livestock: Which can contribute more to climate change? … Mottet is a Livestock Development Officer”. Then, in the fourth paragraph I wrote “James and Suzy Amis Cameron published a newspaper in The Guardian called Animal Agriculture is Choking the Earth and Making us Sick. We Must Act Now. James Cameron is a filmmaker …” . Looking back at it now, the only difference in each paragraph as the order in which I mentioned the elements of rhetoric. Not much of my own opinion went into this essay, just straight facts. I thought that as long as I wrote what I had to, I would be okay. I was proven wrong when I received my essay back and saw I had gotten a B for a grade. I was very disappointed and knew I had to change how I approached writing.
As we draw closer to the end of the semester, I still believe that I write to delight the one reading my essay. I admit there’s not much change in that mentality. I still want to wow and impress the one giving me a grade because I want a grade I’d be satisfied with. However, I have become more open to including my own opinion. I was always afraid to say “I” in case my essays sound informal, but I found a benefit from writing “I”. When I expressed my thoughts into my writing, I was able to share my thoughts. I could see more of myself in my writing which definitely helped my arguments. In my most recent assignment, Composition of Two Genres I wrote about how students can avoid debt by taking their time to research. The topic I chose to write about was something that I could relate to and apply to my own life. Because of this my opinion was able to show through much more than it did in my source based essay.Whilst writing my academic essay I realized that I neglected doing the research that I was now telling my audience to do. Writing the academic essay required me to do some research of my own. I was learning about predatory providers, and as mentioned in my essay “different types of financial aid like grants, scholarships, tax benefits, and work-study opportunities”. I allowed myself my share my thoughts and by doing so I was learning in the process.
Although I still aim to write a good essay for a passing grade, I embraced the fact that writing isn’t just about presenting your ideas. Writing can allow you to learn as well, to educate yourself on information that you may not have known before. I stepped away from thinking that including as much evidence as I can will get me that A+, and began to let my own voice to show through in my writing. A clear difference can be seen from my source based essay to my academic essay. My english composition class led me to include myself in my audience so that I may benefit from it as well.
Works Cited:
Go, Michaela Q. “Animal Agriculture: Its Great Impact on Our Lives.” Michaela Writes, 23 Sept. 2019, michaelago.commons.gc.cuny.edu/publications/.
Go, Michaela Q. “Student Debt: Avoiding It and Learning More.” Michaela Writes, 20 Nov. 2019, michaelago.commons.gc.cuny.edu/teaching/.
