Nathan Bruce Alford
Major Garriot
ERH-101-18
12 December 2016
Help Received:
12/06/16 – counseling with Major Garriot; discussed themes and topics
Microsoft Word “Thesaurus” Feature
My Evolution as a Writer During my First Semester at VMI
I like to write. There’s no doubt about it; but sometimes I like to write too much. It might be confusing for me to include this statement in my final English paper of the semester but it’s true: I simply write too much. When I sit down to complete a writing assignment, I am far too concerned about the flow of the essay that I oftentimes fill my writing with a bunch of needless fluff and transitions to make it “pleasant” to read. While this is an important quality to have in writing, it has one serious drawback in my case: it tends to overshadow the actual point of my essay. During this last semester in ERH-101, I have developed more credibility as an author by tailoring my writing to my audience to be more concise and effective.
The first major lesson I learned is to pay attention to my audience and to not include information they already know. This was never taught in high school; writing was all about the “story.” Great emphasis was placed on word count, fueling the misconceived notion that the longer a piece of writing is, the more professional and credible it is. In order to live up to this standard, much of my writing contained useless summarization, which has no place in a college-level essay. I learned in ERH-101 that the golden rule is “Quality over Quantity.” No one wants to read page upon page of useless information that they already know. The best way to keep an audience interested and engaged is to be concise.
This lesson manifested itself when I received the comments for my first paper. For my primary source, I used John Swales’ definition of a discourse community to give credibility to my argument. In the paragraphs that followed, I spent way too many words explaining Swales’ criteria to my audience. Considering my audience were my peers who had also read Swales, this information was unnecessary, producing a boring effect. To revise this essay, I omitted all information on Swales which did not directly support my argument. This new emphasis on my audience eliminated the amateurism in my writing, bolstering my credibility as a mature writer.
The next “Eureka!” moment I experienced this year came about when I was writing Paper Two. In keeping with the writing style I learned in high school, I had adopted the habit of straying off topic in order to increase the overall wordcount of my essay. Specifically, I would add entire paragraphs of useless “fluff” that barely related to my thesis statement and only served to confuse my reader. However, when writing paper two, a rhetorical analysis on the syllabus of one of my major-specific courses, I maintained strict focus on my thesis statement ensured that each and every paragraph was relatable. It was the shortest of the three papers I have written this year, but it received the best score as Major Garriot was really impressed by the straightforwardness of my argument and tight focus. She explained in the comments that this made for a much stronger paper than Paper 1, about which I was pleasantly surprised. However, when I reviewed the paper, I did notice that my argument seemed much more academic and concise. I realized that maintaining a tight focus leads the audience to perceive the writer as much more mature and credible because a writer who knows what he/she is talking about makes every word count.
My journey through ERH-101 this semester increased my credibility as a writer by setting me apart from the amateurish style of writing I learned in high school. By paying more attention to the needs of my audience, established myself as a mature college-level reader.
Works Cited
Alford, Nathan. “An Analysis of Col. Hodges’ ‘CAD Applications and Solid Modeling’ Syllabus.” ERH-101 Fall 2016. Print
Alford, Nathan. “Engineering as a Discourse Community: An Analysis of Virginia Tech’s Role in Shaping our World.” ERH-101 Fall 2016. Print.