Throughout this semester I have written four separate essays that have all forced me to change my way of thinking to satisfy each topic. Specifically, I have had to reject the traditionalist formula of essays that my high school English teachers so eagerly bashed into my head. One common trend tends to stick when I look back at all my papers and try to determine what challenged me the most. The words, analysis in thought, reverberated around my brain as I was trying to think of a clever title. As I asked myself what this truly meant, I came to a revelation. What truly challenged me this semester was not the requirements of the essay themselves, although my professor may disagree on the terms of my challenge to meet due dates, but what they required of me. I had to take a step back and analyze the thought process of not only the writer but myself as well.
This was most prominent in Essay 1. Through the analysis of Rebecca Mead’s essay, I was faced with a form of writing I had never experienced before, a delayed thesis argument. In traditional writing, the author tells you exactly what they want you to hear, especially when they are trying to argue for or against someone. To the untrained eye the idea of a delayed thesis argument may be seemingly counterintuitive. They may think that it does not get to the point and devalues the writer’s persuasion. This is exactly how I felt on my first read of Rebecca Mead’s work. I realized that I had to look deeper than the writing itself. I had to analyze the thought process behind Mead’s methods. Only then was I able to see how impactful her writing became. It gave me the chance to see what her reasoning behind providing all the information was.
In my other essays I was able to use this new thought process to it fullest extent. Especially in essay two, where we were tasked to write a delayed thesis argument of our own. I had to write as if I was the reader. When the essay was said and done, I read through as if I was just someone who stumbled upon it. I was able to analyze my own thought process behind where I put information and use that to my advantage. I was able to write an introduction and body that gave the writer all they needed to agree with my thesis and argument at the end of the paper, just as Mead did in her essay. Although it may not seem like this thought process would help in my other essays, as they were not delayed thesis arguments, this is not the case at all. Through essay three I was able to analyze my argument in a way I would not have been able to before. I could pick apart the different ideas I had just through rereading my paper. I could tell who the audience was, why I was putting information in certain places, and where I was appealing to the reader’s emotion.
Overall, using and overcoming this new thought process was my largest challenge in class this semester. Where before I could not tell where even my own argument was strong or weak, I can now analyze my own thoughts to show proof in my essays. The work in this portfolio is direct evidence of how I have improved as a writer using this exact process. It shows how I have improved over the semester, and how I will improve in the future.