Portfolio: Reflective Letter
Vincent Coppola
12/9/07
Reflective Letter
My goal during Writing 101 this quarter was to effectively deliver my thoughts in written form. Sure, I’ve got a great mind and intellectual thoughts to go with it; but if I cannot effectively communicate my views to other people, then nobody will benefit from them. I’ve struggled numerous times in many areas of writing, but my greatest obstacle has always been communicating my beliefs in writing with a clear and decisive voice. That’s why I have accepted all of my instructor’s criticism and applied the knowledge I’ve gained to each of my academic papers. In this letter, I will express in detail my strengths and weaknesses throughout three assignments I’ve written this quarter, while also demonstrating how drastically my approach to the writing process has progressed and how severely my writing philosophy has changed.
In my first essay of the year, a persuasive essay regarding Bacon's Rebellion, I had numerous pitfalls along with way and even more flaws in the finished product. The biggest problems I had with the final draft were things like incorporating smooth transitions, explicating a clear thesis, and sticking close to the themes of that thesis throughout the whole paper. Initially, I wanted to fix the beginning of my intro paragraph which lacked a clear explanation of the image that I began the essay with. I started with a very vague reference: “The scene depicted above is nearly a perfect representation of what was happening in Virginia in the 17th century: the higher class citizens were taking all of the freedom, money and benefits and using them to help themselves while neglecting the lower class citizens.” I then added more detail to create a direct correlation between the “robin hood” image and the unjust acts of the government: “In the comic above, a poor man is confronting “Robin Hood and his Merry Men” who are laughing at the fact that they should be distributing what they’ve stolen back to the poor people in society. This situation relates very closely to what was happening in the economical and political realm of the colonies in the 17th century: the “elite” in society were living happily on the benefits that should have been used to help the less fortunate in society.” After I revised that portion, I decided to add some clarity to the thesis, which was actually wandering curiously in the introduction of my first body paragraph. Finally, I touched up the other paragraphs to make sure that I was actually maintaining the argument that I started the essay out with.
The second piece I wrote was a collection of blog posts. In this assignment, I was supposed to assume the identity of an 18th century merchant and argue (or rather, “Debate”) issues pertaining to the great conflict between loyalists and patriots. My struggles in this assignment were different than in my first essay. I no longer had problems creating a clear thesis or making clean transitions, but I still lacked an individual voice that needed to address an audience that was ignorant on the subject I was writing about. Although my progress was substantial, it was still clear that my greatest objective, my personal voice, still needed to be developed. In the beginning of the blog posts, I began by ranting about some sort of unheard of independence that was orbiting around. I needed to alter the introduction and implicate some details so the reader could understand what I was talking about. In addition, I needed to incorporate some of my own voice to fix the “corny” part. In the end, this is what I ended up with for an introduction:
“How could those patriots make a move for all out independence from Britain?! Not only is it foolish for our established economy and political system, they are putting our entire country in jeopardy! They finally made the provisions for a declaration to announce their claims for independence. Also, word is that Thomas Jefferson even wrote the draft while accepting revisions by Ben Franklin and the like. This WILL NOT turn out good..” Revising this specific project helped me to understand how my word choice affects the type of voice I use in my essay. Since I was attempting to adopt a different personality, I ended up choosing words that I ordinarily wouldn’t have added.
Lastly, I wrote my final for the whole quarter of writing. It was tough to compile all of my ideas and utilize the knowledge I’ve gained throughout the entire quarter in one paper, but I feel as if I was eventually successful. In my final, I know that I have finally developed my own personal voice that demonstrates my thoughts and opinions clearly. I know that I explicated a thesis and I stuck close to that thesis throughout the paper. Overall, I feel very good about the work I did. The only weakness I noticed was that near the end, my argument started to lose strength and become very bland. I knew this as I was writing, but I was sure that the rest of the paper would make up for it. I was very satisfied with my finished project and felt that it was a wonderful representation of my growth throughout the quarter. I strengthened many of my past weaknesses, gained experience, and also achieved my initial goal of developing a clear and decisive written voice.
12/9/07
Reflective Letter
My goal during Writing 101 this quarter was to effectively deliver my thoughts in written form. Sure, I’ve got a great mind and intellectual thoughts to go with it; but if I cannot effectively communicate my views to other people, then nobody will benefit from them. I’ve struggled numerous times in many areas of writing, but my greatest obstacle has always been communicating my beliefs in writing with a clear and decisive voice. That’s why I have accepted all of my instructor’s criticism and applied the knowledge I’ve gained to each of my academic papers. In this letter, I will express in detail my strengths and weaknesses throughout three assignments I’ve written this quarter, while also demonstrating how drastically my approach to the writing process has progressed and how severely my writing philosophy has changed.
In my first essay of the year, a persuasive essay regarding Bacon's Rebellion, I had numerous pitfalls along with way and even more flaws in the finished product. The biggest problems I had with the final draft were things like incorporating smooth transitions, explicating a clear thesis, and sticking close to the themes of that thesis throughout the whole paper. Initially, I wanted to fix the beginning of my intro paragraph which lacked a clear explanation of the image that I began the essay with. I started with a very vague reference: “The scene depicted above is nearly a perfect representation of what was happening in Virginia in the 17th century: the higher class citizens were taking all of the freedom, money and benefits and using them to help themselves while neglecting the lower class citizens.” I then added more detail to create a direct correlation between the “robin hood” image and the unjust acts of the government: “In the comic above, a poor man is confronting “Robin Hood and his Merry Men” who are laughing at the fact that they should be distributing what they’ve stolen back to the poor people in society. This situation relates very closely to what was happening in the economical and political realm of the colonies in the 17th century: the “elite” in society were living happily on the benefits that should have been used to help the less fortunate in society.” After I revised that portion, I decided to add some clarity to the thesis, which was actually wandering curiously in the introduction of my first body paragraph. Finally, I touched up the other paragraphs to make sure that I was actually maintaining the argument that I started the essay out with.
The second piece I wrote was a collection of blog posts. In this assignment, I was supposed to assume the identity of an 18th century merchant and argue (or rather, “Debate”) issues pertaining to the great conflict between loyalists and patriots. My struggles in this assignment were different than in my first essay. I no longer had problems creating a clear thesis or making clean transitions, but I still lacked an individual voice that needed to address an audience that was ignorant on the subject I was writing about. Although my progress was substantial, it was still clear that my greatest objective, my personal voice, still needed to be developed. In the beginning of the blog posts, I began by ranting about some sort of unheard of independence that was orbiting around. I needed to alter the introduction and implicate some details so the reader could understand what I was talking about. In addition, I needed to incorporate some of my own voice to fix the “corny” part. In the end, this is what I ended up with for an introduction:
“How could those patriots make a move for all out independence from Britain?! Not only is it foolish for our established economy and political system, they are putting our entire country in jeopardy! They finally made the provisions for a declaration to announce their claims for independence. Also, word is that Thomas Jefferson even wrote the draft while accepting revisions by Ben Franklin and the like. This WILL NOT turn out good..” Revising this specific project helped me to understand how my word choice affects the type of voice I use in my essay. Since I was attempting to adopt a different personality, I ended up choosing words that I ordinarily wouldn’t have added.
Lastly, I wrote my final for the whole quarter of writing. It was tough to compile all of my ideas and utilize the knowledge I’ve gained throughout the entire quarter in one paper, but I feel as if I was eventually successful. In my final, I know that I have finally developed my own personal voice that demonstrates my thoughts and opinions clearly. I know that I explicated a thesis and I stuck close to that thesis throughout the paper. Overall, I feel very good about the work I did. The only weakness I noticed was that near the end, my argument started to lose strength and become very bland. I knew this as I was writing, but I was sure that the rest of the paper would make up for it. I was very satisfied with my finished project and felt that it was a wonderful representation of my growth throughout the quarter. I strengthened many of my past weaknesses, gained experience, and also achieved my initial goal of developing a clear and decisive written voice.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007.
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