I expected for ERH-102 to be a step above in difficulty from ERH-101, but I also expected that I was much more prepared for ERH-102 than ERH-101. I knew ERH-102 would focus on civic issues and argument. The class definitely required me to think more objectively about current social issues in society. I think that is what caused the most improvement in my writing this past semester.
The main thing I struggled with was making sure to fully elaborate on why the arguments for my point of view were valid. As I found it easy to feel like my reasons were quite obviously right as opposed to when I was writing against my own point of view where it was easy to see the flaws in my arguments.
The primary critique I received on my first paper was that my topic sentences, although functional a majority of the time, were not very specific and left the paragraph weaker than they could have been. Also, there were some instances where I made claims that either weren’t quite clear, or needed more detail and/or explanation in their support.
The primary challenge I faced with writing this semester was trying to produce an objective and unbiased argument for the issue I was writing about. Working through this challenge helped me grow as a writer because it required me to think through opposing arguments and recognize the validity of evidence and explanations they presented in order to effectively refute them.
In the draft of my second paper I wrote a paragraph with statistics of the effect of the affordable care act on the population. There were multiple instances in my first paper where I didn’t provide enough detail for my explanations leaving a weak argument.
In both of the instances above, I assumed too much of my audience. I shouldn’t expect them to understand why I make a certain point or for them to agree with me.