Derek Tremblay Help Received: Writing
Major Garriott Center with Major Garriott
ERH 101-03
5 December 2016
A Rags to Riches Story: My Progressions in Writing
This semester, in taking ERH 101-03 at VMI, I have made many progressions in my writing from high school. My writing in high school, and when I first came to college, was often unorganized and uninspired. I didn’t know the correct way to organize and write a paper, I would just try and follow the questions that I was expected to answer and I could not write about my own ideas. My thesis statement was always in a random place or not even in the paper at all. The teachers never actually taught me how to write and it would always result in a grade on papers that I was not happy with. I was confused and I learned to hate writing. I would always have trouble coming up with ideas and I thought writing was useless, because I didn’t understand how I would have to use my writing skills at a real job or life in general. This semester I have learned more about writing and the way I write than I ever have. I started off knowing nothing about writing, and now I know enough to write an acceptable college-level essay. A rags to riches story if you will. From assignments, like readings in the Writing About Writing book, and conferences with Major Garriott, my literacy has grown and my writing has improved tremendously. This semester I have better attacked writing by writing more often, reading various texts related to writing, being more engaged in class, and planning out my writing more effectively. By stating my arguments better and writing toward my audience, my writing has improved significantly.
Writing papers in high school had always been a point of anxiety for me the whole year. I wrote very few papers before college, but the ones that I did write would be announced at the beginning of the year, and at that moment I immediately started dreading writing that paper, even though it was due months down the road. I didn’t know how to write and get a good grade, and I didn’t know how to plan out my essay in a helpful way that I could use. The anticipation of cramming in all of my brainstorming, research, and writing into a few days (like I knew I would end up doing) would stress me out and make have a negative attitude toward that class. This was also true for ERH 101 at VMI, but I realized there was no way I could avoid writing in college, so I decided to keep an open mind and to do my best. Keeping an open mind allowed me to absorb the information faster and to become a better writer.
When I began writing papers for this class my papers were often unclear, and I had weak topic sentences. Weak topic sentences cause the reader to be unsure of what argument the paragraph is making. It allows for the reader to make their own assumptions about the paper that the writer might not agree with. In one of the first papers I wrote a really weak topic sentence stating, “Dr. Bednar fits very well into Gee’s definition of a Discourse” (Rhetorical Analysis of Professor Bednar’s “Economics 301: Business Economics”, 3). I didn’t explain how, and the topic sentence didn’t really fit the rest of the paragraph. However, in my revision, I made “Dr. Bednar has credibility in the econ and business discourse community. Technical terms used in the syllabus set the tone for the class and the expectation to act like a professional” (Acting as a Professional: Professor Bednar’s “Economics 301: Business Economics, 4) the topic sentence. This topic sentence better explains what the paragraph is about and gives more information about Dr. Bednar to the reader. Learning the skill of strong topic sentences is important to get my message across to my audience.
In the papers I wrote, I would have good sources that fit into my paragraphs, but I wouldn’t explain the quotes and what they meant to the rest of the paper. In my paper, “Core values, which are scholarship, discipleship”: Religious and Academic Aspects of Southern Virginia University, I have a lengthy quote about how Southern Virginia University (SVU) ranks nationally in their business program. Then, all of the analyzing of the quote I do is, “These stats are impressive” (“Core values, which are scholarship, discipleship”: Religious and Academic Aspects of Southern Virginia University, 3). In my revisions, I went more in depth of the statistics and what they meant for SVU. I stated why in might attract potential students and why the data is important. Sources are a big part of my papers and I’ve learned, this semester, how to properly integrate them into my papers. Sources strengthen the argument for a paper and integration of them helped my writing become stronger.
This semester I have learned the importance of organization in my papers, which is to have the ability to get my message across to the reader in a convincing manner. I have learned that in order to have an effective paper that relays my message and thoughts toward the audience I need to have a strong thesis in my introductory paragraph, and I need to connect my body paragraphs to my thesis. I need to have a strong topic sentence at the beginning of my paragraphs, and my paragraphs need to adequately describe my topic sentence. I also need to have a summary at the end of the paper that ties everything in and restates my thesis. Organization in my papers is important because without it my writing would be not credible by the reader and they would have trouble following along with my argument in the paper.
My writing techniques have improved visibly from the first paper at the beginning of the semester up until the psychology paper I turned in last week. Previously my writing had been boring and uninspired, I found it difficult to come up with ideas because I found the topics boring and uninteresting. The readings that I have done in class have made writing more interesting and fun. Alexie was an interesting read for me, I found it very relatable to me and the paper I wrote about my literacy journey. He learned to read with Superman comics (Alexie, 129), and I learned to read with children’s books. This excited me to find a situation so relatable to mine and I enjoyed writing about it in my last ERH paper. The last paper I turned in for psychology we were allowed to pick our topic and make the paper about whatever we wanted it to be. I choose relative deprivation, because after reading it in class I found it very interesting and I thought I would be able to write well for that topic. I used the writing techniques that I learned in ERH to form this paper into a way to get my message across to the reader, and maybe even get a good grade. I made a strong thesis statement that stated an argument, I formed three strong body paragraphs that related to my thesis, I integrated sources that helped get my message to the reader, and I formed a good summary that tied together the entire paper. I ended up getting a 98 on the paper, which is the best grade I’ve ever gotten on a paper. My writing has greatly improved over the span of this semester and I look for it to constantly improve over my cadetship.
My writing has strengthened greatly this semester. I have become more interested in writing and I’ve enjoyed writing more than I ever have. Writing is a way of talking to an audience, and the skills I’ve learned make me more effective in communicating my message to the reader. I have learned an organization template for writing, and I have how to use quotes and my sources to reach my audience with my ideas and thoughts.
Works Cited:
Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” Writing about Writing, edited by Elizabeth Wardle, Doug Downs, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2014, 129
Tremblay, Derek. “Core values, which are scholarship, discipleship”: Religious and Academic Aspects of Southern Virginia University
Word Count: 1399
