Cadet Peter Chew
ERH-102-02
Professor Dupal
December 14, 2022
Paving The Road ahead: A Reflective Essay on my Semester Work of Written Essays.
My time as a student in the course Writing & Rhetoric II (ERH-102) for the fall semester of 2022, has thus far been quite a journey of self-improvement. My writing skills naturally have usually been all over the place, switching back in forth between a simple and concise style of writing to complex, old-fashioned, opinionated pieces comprised of tangents, and run-on sentences along with attempts to write with elegant words to further enhance the validity of my arguments. After indulging in a self-analyze of my performance and of the previous semesters, I have noticed that overall, my writing has steadily enhanced to a higher standard. However, I will touch upon some of the writing problems and significant improvements made this semester.
My writing encountered several problems, lack of proper time management, and an unbalancing of my study schedule made it complicated for me to think and concern properly as a writer when writing the essays. As a result, my unproductivity, made me put them off for days. Such behavior cost me time and ideas, which I have learned to notice, and I have come to grips to suppress such feelings of procrastination. I seem to work at my most productive peak during the early morning before most is awake during this period I was able to catch up on late essays and complete them with confidence.
Writing in an ample time block has been quite a challenge for me, usually, my writing process is categorized by working on my paper during intervals through the afternoon to over a week, it usually depends, and at times even longer if I find myself unable to process any ideas needed to write my paper. Nonetheless, time management has been a troubling issue for me, and further associated with unsettled self-discipline has made it quite unpredictable regarding productivity. Much of my formal education was spent learning how to write in both the English grammar structure and the Portuguese grammatical structure, and because of the differences between the languages along with syntax rules, and so on. Has made my writing not as concise as I would like it to be. The Portuguese language has quite a standard format for writing essays which still is somewhat different from the more direct, simple, and concise style of the English language.
Another issue I encountered was attempting to write essays in the new “delayed thesis” approach which is a centerpiece of ERH-102 to make the students learn how to stop writing the thesis at the top of the page but present it close to the end of the essay. A new style of writing, where writers use “hooks” to draw in the audience and focus their attention at hand leading them towards the thesis. I had quite a challenge with this approach. Not only is the format different, but there is more of an emphasis on the proper usage of rhetorical strategies to further indulge the reader in the contents of the essay, and a convincing argument.
When it came to the quality of my essays. For instance, my second essay for the course to my surprise was not exactly how I expected to be received with a grade of seventy-two out of a hundred –– unaware of the grammatical mistakes, and off-topic tangents that occurred several times throughout the essay, mixing the proposal style paper with the delayed thesis topic of the second essay. The topic that I choose for that paper was “Are tech giants obligated to promote freedom of speech? Are they exempt because they are private companies? (Chew, 2022). I found writing the paper to be quite a challenge, trying to piece it all together into one central theme that begs the question. The research and readings on the subject were also quite interesting, and I learned some important information regarding how the first amendment and other laws of the American legal system work regarding the protection of the civil liberties of freedom of expression.
Writing a delayed thesis for the first time was quite a mess, the unconventional style completely goes against what I have been taught throughout the entirety of my formal schooling, yet I took the task head on. Constructing a claim and bringing in supportive arguments further enhanced by rhetorical strategies of Pathos, Ethos, and Logos are key ingredients to any paper that is intended to convince the reader of something. Writing such strategies and looking for where my thesis would be written made it odd, and consequently too jumbled for the reader.
I have learned and continue to improve each time I am handed a writing assignment, despite the errors I have made in the process of writing, some being quite basic for my level. Has allowed me to catch such mistakes more efficiently, especially when re-reading my essays to myself making it supremely clearer to see mistakes and spot off-topic sprees. As the semester rushes to a dashing end, I can say with confidence that I am more aware and mature as a writer, and with that my writing will be at a higher standard as I continue to practice and write more, as I tackle the endeavors of writing for the next semesters to come and my continued journey as a student with a passion for literature and writing.
Works Cited
Chew, Peter. Essay 2: Delayed Thesis Argument “Are tech giants obligated to promote freedom of speech? Are they exempt because they are private companies?” 3 Nov. 2022. Writing and Rhetoric II, The Virginia Military Institute, Student pap