Reflection on Open Letter Draft

Nam Nguyen "GC8 WRX" January 17, 2008 via Flickr
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I commented on both Hallye and Evan's drafts which are linked to here but as far as I can tell, they both resolved all of my comments so they're no longer visible.

Now I will continue my reflection on my feedback using the Student's Guide as a guideline.

Did you demonstrate an ability to think about your writing and yourself as a writer?
I think I did demonstrate this though of course based on comments, I made improvements to this.

Did you provide analysis of your experiences, writing assignments, or concepts you have learned?
I think I did do this. I did not analyse specific writing assignments however I think I covered concepts and experiences fairly well. I think specific writing assignments are not terribly illustrative in comparison to overall trends and large scale learning.

Did you provide concrete examples from your own writing?
No I didn't and I'm about to go correct that right now.

Did you explain why you made certain choices and whether those choices were effective?
I'm unsure of what this question means but I'm going to assume I didn't do it. Speed revising here I come.

Draft of Open Letter

Robert Couse-Baker "Chevelle in the Fog" November 15, 2014 via Flickr
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I'm not really sure what I have to say about my draft other than be as critical as you like! I need good criticism.

Here is a link to my draft.

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

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In this blog post, I will consider my writing process in light of a number of questions provided by Professor Bottai.

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?
I know this question is probably supposed to be about challenges I faced in this  course but I can't think of any particular challenge I faced. Yes, the course overall was challenging but I think I got a pretty good handle on the workload fairly quickly. My biggest challenge this semester was adapting to becoming self-reliant enough in my education that I can solve my own problems when they come up as your professors are not as immediately available to help you as teachers are in high school.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?
I think I had to overall takeaways in this regard from this semester. First off, I work very well under pressure and unless I behave unreasonably stupidly, will usually come up with the required work by the deadline. The second takeaway is that when I am writing, I will do a lot better if I simply take the time to consider the rhetorical situation of the piece that I am trying to write.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.
A genre is the constraints of a piece of writing. Genre have conventions which help readers better understand what you are writing. As a writer, your primary goal is to communicate effectively to your readers so you have to be aware of the conventions and styles of the genre you intend to write in in order to more easily communicate with your writers.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?
I don't think this course did a great deal to educate me more in the mechanics of writing. However, I think that's okay. As I see it, writing is not something you get good at by watching; you have to practice. I believe the major part of what I gained from this course was good writing practice in interesting topics that we each (hopefully!) care about.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H? 
I think undoubtedly my most successful moment this semester in writing was writing my own public opinion piece. This is because I actually published it on a car blog and the article generated a lively discussion and a number of comments. The published piece on OppositeLock (part of Kinja) can be found here.

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?
I think my least effective moment was writing my literary analysis. I know this is not really a satisfactory explanation of why I don't like it and I got an 88% so my score was not even that bad. Somehow I am just not satisfied with that piece of writing.

Revisiting my Writing Process

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I thins blog post I intend to reflect on how well I predicted my writing process as well as my time management skills at the beginning of this course.

Let's start with time management. I think college was really eye opening for me and that in a lot of ways, what I predicted at the beginning of the year was true. I have been more organized and more self-motivated than I have ever been in my life. I did not stick precisely to the schedule that I created for myself at the beginning of the year but nevertheless, I have developed a strong routine that takes care of all of my needs both academic, personal, and extracurricular very well.

My writing process, on the other hand, is very different. At the beginning of the year, I considered myself to be a heavy reviser with the desire to mix in more planning into my writing style. Essentially, I found myself to be someone who can take a load of b.s. and turn it into something presentable by revising it enough. I found very quickly this year that that is in fact not true. I don't have enough time to do that. I am much more of a sequential composer. Unless it is very explicitly required, I am fairly resistant to making a lot of drafts of my work. I think I am fairly good at writing so I simply write my initial draft more slowly and then revise it as I go.

Frankly, moving forward I see myself doing much of the same. In regard to my time management skills, I think this is a good thing. In regard to my writing process, however, I think my writing process is not necessarily bad if it works for me. To make it truly work, I should probably work to better incorporate revisions and feedback. Then I should be set.

Reflection on Project 3

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In this blog post, I will reflect on my project 3 based on the questions from page 520 of Writing for Public Lives.

1. What was specifically revised from one draft to another?
• I changed the goal of my argument to be more truly causal and to make my argument overall much stronger.
2. Point to global: how did you reconsider your thesis or organization?
• Initially, I ineffectively mixed several different types. I think I subconsciously thought this would work well but it didn't. By realizing this and combining it with some hard facts and figures that adjusted my previous opinions a bit, I was able to come up with a more convincing and well rounded argument. 
3. What led you to these changes? A reconsideration of Audience? A shift in purpose?
• As I already mentioned, a shift in purpose drove the majority of these changes as well as substantive changes in how I approached my argument.
4. How do these changes affect your credibility as an author?
• Overall, I think these changes have improved my credibility as an author as I was able to come up with a more nuanced and developed view and created better devices to convince my readers of my view.
5. How will these changes better address the audience or venue?
• The changes have not really effected the audience or the venue besides working to be more convincing as I already mentioned. Otherwise, these aspects are pretty much unchanged.
6. Point to local changes: how did you reconsider sentence structure and style?
• I revised several sentences to flow better throughout the piece. It is hard to point to particular things in this regard as I did this in a sort of gradual incremental way by reading and re-reading the entire piece a number of times and making little changes each time.
7. How will these changes better address the audience in understanding your purpose?
• I think these changes did not so much make my purpose easier to understand but rather easier to accept and agree with.
8. Did you have to reconsider the conventions of the particular genre in which you are writing?
• I did not have to reconsider any conventions but in my final draft I did add appropriate (and cited!) images as well as hyperlinks. 
9. Finally, how does the process of reflection help you reconsider your identity as a writer?
• I think the process of reflection lets you examine what you actually did when you write something so you can identify strengths and weaknesses and hopefully build on them. 

Publishing Public Argument

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This is a link to my published public argument on Kinja.


Here is a link to my project 3 on Google Docs if that is better.

What follows is my evaluation of my project three according to the guidelines that were given.

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 etablishes an original pro position on an issue of debate.

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

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

         _______ My public argument prooposes 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:

This is actually quite simple for me because I had a lot of prior knowledge about this topic so I had to do little research expect for looking up a couple of hard numbers as evidence and I also already had a strong opinion so I simply wrote an argument in favor of my opinion without consulting outside sources much (thereby ensuring what I write will be pretty original).

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

Ethical or credibility-establishing appeals

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

                    __X__ 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.)

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

                    __X__ 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

                    __X__ 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

                    __X__ Using expert opinions that help affirm your stance or position

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

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

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

                    __X__ 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: 

6. Below, provide us with working hyperlinks to THREE good examples of the genre you've chosen to write in. These examples can come from Blog Post 11.3 or they can be new examples. But they should all come from the same specific website/platformand should demonstrate the conventions for your piece:

Example 1
Example 2
Example 3

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

Dave Adams "Johannes Van Nierop & Frank Wrathall - 1989 Audi 80 Quattro at the 2015 Silverstone Classic" July 25, 2015 via Flickr
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In this blog post I will answer the provided questions about my Project 3 draft.

To begin with, I reviewed Evan and Hallye's drafts.
Now on to the questions about my draft:

1. Who reviewed your Project 3 rough draft?

As of now (Saturday night), no one has reviewed my draft. I will do my best to remember to check again on Sunday as the deadline was extended.

2. What did you think and/or feel about the feedback you received? Be explicit and clear. Tell me what helped or what confused you about the feedback you got.

See above. I hope to be able to get some good editing help and hopefully come to Professor Bottai's office hours.

3. What aspects of Project 3 need to most work going forward [Audience, Purpose, Argumentation, or Genre]? How do you plan on addressing these areas? 

I think I just need to polish up my project overall and publish it as best I can (perhaps on Kinja!).

4. How are you feeling overall about the direction of your project after peer review and/or instructor conferences this week?

Don't have any peer review as of now but I hope to be able to still have a brief discussion about my article with Professor Bottai.