Semester 1: Personal Writing Goals
After conferencing with Ashley on my literary analysis essay, I have established the following personal writing goals to work on this semester:
1. I shall streamline my writing so that my ideas are clear and concisely-stated. An example of a wordy and convoluted sentence from my Thoreau essay is: “In The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Henry David Thoreau is always challenging the status quo and questioning the mainstream through not conforming to mainstream society's standards of justice and desire to be self-reliant”. Here is how I would rephrase that to be more clear and concise: In The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Henry David Thoreau challenges the status quo as he embodies an ethic of self-reliance and non-conformity.
2. I shall ensure that my thesis is focused and that my essay is cohesive so that all of my main ideas clearly connect back to my thesis. In my first draft, my essay was way too broad and lacked specificity as I wrote, "Thoreau teaches us all valuable lessons on how to live a life of justice". I then did not do a super stellar job of making sure each body paragraph tied back to exactly how Thoreau teaches us to live a just life. Instead, I should state the 3 ways he teaches us to live a just life in the thesis and then those three ways can be the topic for each body paragraph. For example: "Thoreau serves as a positive example for how an individual can life a just life in his refusal to obey unjust laws, his insistence on individualism, ability to transcend physical and social barriers". My first body paragraph would be about his refusal to obey unjust laws, the second paragraph would be about his insistence on individualism and the third paragraph would be about his transcendence.
3. I shall try to develop my arguments to be more persuasive by including a more developed and sophisticated analysis of evidence from the text. [As done in #1 and #2 above, I would include examples].
After conferencing with Ashley on my literary analysis essay, I have established the following personal writing goals to work on this semester:
1. I shall streamline my writing so that my ideas are clear and concisely-stated. An example of a wordy and convoluted sentence from my Thoreau essay is: “In The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Henry David Thoreau is always challenging the status quo and questioning the mainstream through not conforming to mainstream society's standards of justice and desire to be self-reliant”. Here is how I would rephrase that to be more clear and concise: In The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Henry David Thoreau challenges the status quo as he embodies an ethic of self-reliance and non-conformity.
2. I shall ensure that my thesis is focused and that my essay is cohesive so that all of my main ideas clearly connect back to my thesis. In my first draft, my essay was way too broad and lacked specificity as I wrote, "Thoreau teaches us all valuable lessons on how to live a life of justice". I then did not do a super stellar job of making sure each body paragraph tied back to exactly how Thoreau teaches us to live a just life. Instead, I should state the 3 ways he teaches us to live a just life in the thesis and then those three ways can be the topic for each body paragraph. For example: "Thoreau serves as a positive example for how an individual can life a just life in his refusal to obey unjust laws, his insistence on individualism, ability to transcend physical and social barriers". My first body paragraph would be about his refusal to obey unjust laws, the second paragraph would be about his insistence on individualism and the third paragraph would be about his transcendence.
3. I shall try to develop my arguments to be more persuasive by including a more developed and sophisticated analysis of evidence from the text. [As done in #1 and #2 above, I would include examples].
Morality and Politics of Justice Op-Ed: Writing Goals Reflection
Our 2nd major writing assignment of the year is the Morality and Politics of op-ed article. In this essay, I made sure to work on my writing goals and here are examples for each goal:
Writing Goal #1: Streamlining
[Example of an excellently streamlined sentence from my op-ed]
Writing Goal #2: Focused thesis
[My thesis and a description of how you supported it clearly throughout the op-ed]
Writing Goal #3: Sophisticated and in-depth analysis of evidence
[Excerpt from my op-ed that shows this skill]
Reflection on my op-ed's growth between the first and final drafts
In addition to the above examples, the major refinements I made between drafts on my op-ed were vast. In my first draft, I struggled with developing a nuanced stance on my issue. I leaned too heavily on the major talking points of the Libertarian party for why we should have a flat tax policy rather than do my own critical thinking. Between drafts, I did a ton more research and applied the moral philosophies we studied in class to produce a complex argument that is more authentic to my own values. For instance, I initially wrote that we should have a flat tax because everyone is entitled to their money and work equally hard for it and shouldn't be taxed at higher rates just because they might earn more money. However, upon further reflection, this is not true to my core values. Rather, I think that our economic system may unfairly prioritize certain jobs over others and that work ethic and income are not directly correlated.
As one of my peer critiquers pointed out, my first op-ed draft was pretty shaky on the logos side of rhetoric. I had plenty of pathos (emotional appeals) but did not have the hard facts to sway my more rational-thinking readers. So, as you can see in my final draft, I added evidence on...(explain the specific evidence, etc...)
Our 2nd major writing assignment of the year is the Morality and Politics of op-ed article. In this essay, I made sure to work on my writing goals and here are examples for each goal:
Writing Goal #1: Streamlining
[Example of an excellently streamlined sentence from my op-ed]
Writing Goal #2: Focused thesis
[My thesis and a description of how you supported it clearly throughout the op-ed]
Writing Goal #3: Sophisticated and in-depth analysis of evidence
[Excerpt from my op-ed that shows this skill]
Reflection on my op-ed's growth between the first and final drafts
In addition to the above examples, the major refinements I made between drafts on my op-ed were vast. In my first draft, I struggled with developing a nuanced stance on my issue. I leaned too heavily on the major talking points of the Libertarian party for why we should have a flat tax policy rather than do my own critical thinking. Between drafts, I did a ton more research and applied the moral philosophies we studied in class to produce a complex argument that is more authentic to my own values. For instance, I initially wrote that we should have a flat tax because everyone is entitled to their money and work equally hard for it and shouldn't be taxed at higher rates just because they might earn more money. However, upon further reflection, this is not true to my core values. Rather, I think that our economic system may unfairly prioritize certain jobs over others and that work ethic and income are not directly correlated.
As one of my peer critiquers pointed out, my first op-ed draft was pretty shaky on the logos side of rhetoric. I had plenty of pathos (emotional appeals) but did not have the hard facts to sway my more rational-thinking readers. So, as you can see in my final draft, I added evidence on...(explain the specific evidence, etc...)