If you had asked me before taking the ERH 101 and 102 courses what aspect of my writing that I thought needed the most work was I probably would have given you a stereotypical answer. Something along the lines of “my grammar” or “organizing my paragraphs.” While both of those aspects could always be improved upon, neither is the main issue within my writing.

Before now, I never truly put any thought into what the issue has been. Because of this I was unable to provide an accurate and thought out answer. Whenever I was asked this question, whether it is in conferences or peer reviews I always gave the same response of edit grammar or focus on my five-paragraph structure. I didn’t think deeper. This coincidentally is my exact issue. I fail to elaborate and go further with my thoughts.

Before my freshman year of college I had always thought that I had been clear and elaborated thoroughly. I never had any reason to believe differently. Based off of the feedback I have received from teachers in the past I was under the impression that the way in which I was writing was clear and acceptable, with only minor details to correct. Imagine if you were sitting in a theatre watching a movie, and right as the climax begins to form and you are at the edge of your seat the director abruptly cuts the scene and the movie ended. This is how you can imagine reading one of my earlier papers would be like. Sitting there and typing wasn’t nearly enough to get my thought process flowing in the direction that I needed it to go. It was clear that I needed a new strategy, but had no idea as to what that new strategy would be.

“If the United States implemented a system similar to this I believe it would help raise not only the generally education of the population, but change the lives of many in ways that could benefit us all.” (The price you pay) In that statement I mention changing our American School system to one that is similar to the Europeans, but I make no mention as to how specifically or how this change would affect people’s lives. Looking back as I re read this now even I question myself. What ways should the system be similar and how would this benefit people of the population in the long run? I continued reading and waiting for answers to my questions, answers that never came. Instead I continued my writing onto the next paragraph leaving all of those questions un answered. The paper was then concluded.

Something that has always been beneficial to me are the one on one conferences that are held before each paper is due. The purpose is to review my progress and answer any questions that I had about the assignment. I usually understood the assignment but still struggled to identify what exactly the paper was asking or expecting. To help jump start the process my professor would ask me a few basic questions; what audience was I trying to reach, what was my goal, and how did I plan on achieving this goal. This spurred instant conversation as thoughts began to flow out. During all of this he pointed out that I was physically able to tell him what I intended to write and it made sense. The issue was being able to translate my thoughts onto paper as smoothly as I spoke about them. By just talking about it I was able to get my thoughts across fully

Another break through in my writing process occurred at an appointment at VMI’S s writing center. I showed up with a printed copy of my second paper of the Spring 2015 semester, Annotated Bibliography and synthesis, ready to be altered and edited. When I showed up to my appointment the first thing Ms. Affronti had me do was begin reading what I had written thus far out loud. She sat there quietly as I critiqued myself paragraph by paragraph. We only stopped for short moments during the reading to edit sentence structure and wording. It was not until the completion of my paper that she asked me to clarify what she found unclear. Ms. Affronti would ask what exactly I meant and for further elaboration on points that I thought were already solid. Once again leading me to explaining out loud, and bettering my writing information. This is when I knew that in order to better my writing I was going to need to start reading everything I write out loud.

In a perfect world this correction would have showed itself right away. The improvement has gone through a variety of stages. In my second essay of the spring 2015 semester we wrote an Annotated Bibliography and synthesis. After re reading this essay multiple times I realized some progress in my current issue of elaboration. “The National Research Council held a workshop for students with different stations that covered various skills to prepare you for life, such as adaptability and basic communication skills. This workshop proved that while there are still some issues to be worked out, for the most part the scientific proficiency in students has increased. These types of social and business skills are essential in any work place. They are life skills” (European traditional education system) That elaboration on the workshop held by the NRC shows the progress beginning to come along. In my writing before I would have stated that they held stations demonstrating various skills to prepare you for life and it was successful. That would have left many unanswered questions.

In my last essays submitted, The Research essay, it seemed like I was beginning to overcompensate for lacking explanations in the first essay. This can be just as dangerous as under explaining. Multiple times through out this paper I use the same term “ As I stated before” on multiple occasions. (The epitome) That statement alone tells me that I repeated the same information more often than I should have. It was like I was caught in a vicious repetitive circle. This did not prove to be an issue throughout the entire essay. It was only in certain areas throughout.

This year of ERH has shown me not only what I needed to improve, but helped me develop methods to do this. This class was very significant in my process as a writer but was by no means a miracle worker. It has guided me on the path to success and it is my responsibility to continue developing and using the tools I learned. As demonstrated with my examples, the progress is there, I just need to continue working and bettering it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

“The European traditional education system versus the Modernized 21st century United States system.” VMI. March 12,2015

“The Epitome of a first world problem.” VMI. April 23, 2015.

“The price you pay for a college degree.” VMI. January 22,2015