Reflection on Open Letter Draft

In this blog post, I will be answering some questions from A Student's Guide To First-Year Writing about the open letter draft I just wrote.

"Kittens Wallpaper". Via Fanpop. Public Domain License.

I peer reviewed Stef's open letter draft.

1. I feel like I demonstrated my ability to reflect and think about my writing doing this draft. I went over past blog posts and thought about how I have or have not changed in my opinion.

2. Yes I did provide analysis of my writing experiences by talking about my high school english classes and comparing them to this english course.

3. Concrete examples that I put in were in the form of quotations when I was discussing how my writing process changed over the semester. I could definitely put some more quotes in to add more examples though.

4. I didn't directly say "this is why I did X, Y, and Z", however my analysis of the course included what I was thinking and how I felt about certain assignments and the course layout in general. So, I'd say that counts as an explanation.

5. I used a lot of concepts related to organization and the conventions of writing a letter when making this draft. After I wrote down all of my main thoughts and ideas, I went back and read what I wrote and moved a lot of full paragraphs around to make it an easier read. Also, I kept in mind what sort of language I should be using in this genre.

6. Doing this writing assignment engaged habits like avoiding procrastination which I learned how to do during this course actually.

7. Challenges I face while writing this assignment included sitting down and taking the time to look back over all of the blog posts we've done this semester because it was kind of tedious, especially when I knew that I wasn't going to be talking about even half of them.

8. I can use my time management skills and brainstorming to help me with future writing assignments. They will allow me to work more efficiently and manage my stress level and work load as well.

Draft of Open Letter

In this blog post, I will be sharing my rough draft of the open letter for our final. In addition, I'll be telling what my peers should look for when peer reviewing this.

I would really like my classmates to look at the length of my letter and see if it's appropriate or not. Also, the introduction sounds a little confusing to me because I feel like I'm jumping from thought to thought with no clear focus, so help with that would be much appreciated!!

Here is the link to my draft.

Reflecting More On My Writing Process

In this blog post, I will be answering questions in order to reflect on my writing process even further.

"Golden Retriever Puppies". 12/26/09 via Flickr. CC Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

1. Towards the beginning of the semester, I really just struggled getting the motivation to do all of the blog posts; at times they felt really tedious and unnecessary. Making the first draft of the projects was also hard because I actually had to put all of my brainstorming in the blog posts to use.
2. I learned that I can actually manage my time better than I ever have before and that my writing skills always have room for improvement and I feel like they definitely have improved this semester.
3. Genre refers to the style of writing to use (tone, sentence structure, etc.) as well as keeping in mind the audience and purpose of the piece being written. Understanding what a genre is will help you better communicate with your specific audience which is what essentially makes your writing leave an impact on people.
4. Because I'm an engineering major, writing isn't going to be a huge part of my major. However, the writing skills I developed will help when writing up reports as well as researching topics.
5. My most effective writing moment was when I was revising my final draft for project 2. I was just really focused and I ended up doing really good on it so that made me happy:)
6. My least effective moment was the entire week of deadline 2 because I barely did any of the work in a timely fashion and I also didn't follow the conventions of blogging so I got bad grades on those.

Revisiting My Writing Process

In this blog post, I will be reflecting on my writing process and how it has or has not changed over the course of the semester.


I feel as though overall, I am the same kind of writer in the sense that I still write how I speak which makes it pretty easy for me to get my point across (most of the time). However, my actual writing process has definitely changed a bit. In my blog post entitled "My Writing Process" from the beginning of the year, I wrote that "I am definitely a heavy reviser" with components from "procrastination and heavy planning". But looking back, I did the bulk of the work for the 3 projects in the very first draft so heavy revising wasn't really necessary. The first project definitely included a lot of procrastination and not so much heavy planning. As the semester progressed, the procrastination isn't a super big component of my writing process anymore (thank god!!).

"Cutest Little Cub". 7/13/15 via Flickr. CC Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

It took me a while to get into the swing of things after looking back at my blog post entitled "Calendar Reflection" which is why the procrastination was so prominent with project 1. About half way through the semester, I definitely started following the calendar I planned on at the beginning of the year. My time management has improved because I really had no choice, there's always something to do so it was easy to keep myself busy. This really made my stress level decrease because I always felt better after getting things done little by little. I'm hoping to improve my self motivation skills (it's still a struggle sometimes), but in the next 2-3 years I think I'm going to be really good at it.

Reflection on Project 3

In this blog post I will be answering questions from Writing Public Lives in order to reflect on project 3.

Daniel, Brandon. "Baby Elephant Running". 6/19/09 via Flickr. CC Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

1. From the first draft to my final draft, I addressed the "how" and "so what" questions much more in depth  based on the feedback I got from Stef in her peer review of my draft.

2. I didn't really have to reconsider either my thesis nor the order my paragraphs and ideas went.

3. I did reconsider my audience and their background knowledge a bit when revising my rough draft and felt that adding more statistics would help them to better understand the greater issue at hand than just hydraulic fracking.

4. I think the changes I made made me more credible because it forced me to add more evidence to back up my argument.

5. The changes will help them understand the world energy issue I was mainly discussing.

6. I split a lot of sentences up to better convey the point I was trying to make.

7. To me, I feel like short sentences are straight and to the point so the readers don't get lost in the words or phrasing, so that helps make my points more efficiently.

8. I reconsidered some conventions of a letter and had to remind myself to keep things casual and don't act like I'm writing a paper because an essay and a letter are two very different things.

9. Reflecting on what I did to get to my final draft for project 3 forced me to go over what I was thinking when making the changes I had to make. It helped me understand how I process and fix things for writing assignments.

Publishing Public Argument

In this blog post, I will be publishing my public argument for project 3 as well as filling out the following information regarding it.

Suzor, Nicolas. "Kittens". 5/22/08 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Here is the link to my final draft.

1. Mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience currently stands on the issue (before reading/watching/hearing your argument) below:

←------------------------------------x----------------|--------------------------------------------------------->

Strongly                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly

agree                                                                                                                          disagree

2. Now mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience should be (after they've read/watched/heard your argument) below:

←--------x--------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------->

Strongly                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly

agree                                                                                                                          disagree

3. Check one (and only one) of the argument types below for your public argument:

         _______ My public argument establishes an original pro position on an issue of debate.

         _______ My public argument establishes an original con position on an issue of debate.

         _______ My public argument clarifies the causes for a problem that is being debated.

         ____x___ My public argument proposes a solution for a problem that is being debated.

         _______ My public argument positively evaluate a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm supporting).

         _______ My public argument openly refutes a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm refuting).

4. Briefly explain how your public argument doesn’t simply restate information from other sources, but provides original context and insight into the situation:

The debate on hydrofracking never brought up the fact that this wouldn't be an issue if people were more environmentally conscious and conservative of the energy and water they used. My argument is original because it gets down to the root of the problem which is in fact us.

5. Identify the specific rhetorical appeals you believe you've employedi n your public argument below:

Ethical or credibility-establishing appeals

                    _____ Telling personal stories that establish a credible point-of-view

                    _____ Referring to credible sources (established journalism, credentialed experts, etc.)

                    __x___ Employing carefully chosen key words or phrases that demonstrate you are credible (proper terminology, strong but clear vocabulary, etc.)

                    _____ Adopting a tone that is inviting and trustworthy rather than distancing or alienating

                    _____ Arranging visual elements properly (not employing watermarked images, cropping images carefully, avoiding sloppy presentation)

                    _____ Establishing your own public image in an inviting way (using an appropriate images of yourself, if you appear on camera dressing in a warm or friendly or professional manner, appearing against a background that’s welcoming or credibility-establishing)

                    _____ Sharing any personal expertise you may possess about the subject (your identity as a student in your discipline affords you some authority here)

                    __x___ Openly acknowledging counterarguments and refuting them intelligently

                    ___x__ Appealing openly to the values and beliefs shared by the audience (remember that the website/platform/YouTube channel your argument is designed for helps determine the kind of audience who will encounter your piece)

                    _____ Other: 

Emotional appeals

                    _____ Telling personal stories that create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    _____ Telling emotionally compelling narratives drawn from history and/or the current culture

                    ___x__ Employing the repetition of key words or phrases that create an appropriate emotional impact

                    __x___ Employing an appropriate level of formality for the subject matter (through appearance, formatting, style of language, etc.)

                    _____ Appropriate use of humor for subject matter, platform/website, audience

                    ___x__ Use of “shocking” statistics in order to underline a specific point

                    _____ Use of imagery to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    _____ Employing an attractive color palette that sets an appropriate emotional tone (no clashing or ‘ugly’ colors, no overuse of too many variant colors, etc.)

                    _____ Use of music to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    _____ Use of sound effects to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    __x__ Employing an engaging and appropriate tone of voice for the debate

                    _____ Other: 

Logical or rational appeals

                    _____ Using historical records from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns

                    __x___ Using statistics from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns

                    _____ Using interviews from stakeholders that help affirm your stance or position

                    _____ Using expert opinions that help affirm your stance or position

                    _____ Effective organization of elements, images, text, etc.

                    __x___ Clear transitions between different sections of the argument (by using title cards, interstitial music, voiceover, etc.)

                    _____ Crafted sequencing of images/text/content in order to make linear arguments

                    _____ Intentional emphasis on specific images/text/content in order to strengthen argument

                    _____ Careful design of size/color relationships between objects to effectively direct the viewer’s attention/gaze (for visual arguments)

                    _____ Other: 

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

In this blog post, I will be discussing not only my own draft but the drafts that I peer reviewed as well.

I peer reviewed Stef's and Joy's drafts. The links will take you to the peer review worksheet I had completed for each of them.

"Examination Homework Correction Red Pencil Marks". 2013 via Pixabay. Creative Commons Public Domain License.

1. Stef reviewed my rough draft for project 3.

2. She gave me pretty good advice as to when I should expand on some ideas I had towards the end of my letter. Also, she answered the question I was looking for which was regarding the length of my letter and her feedback about that was helpful. Other common things like confusing sentences were also recognized that I wouldn't have notice on my own.

3. I think argumentation will need the most work for me because I didn't expand on all the ideas I had and they all just kind of ended up mentioned but nothing more than that.

4. I feel a lot better after Stef peer reviewed my draft, it's always nice getting feedback on something I wasn't too sure about. I know what I need to do to improve and that was the whole point.