There are numerous ways in which I have developed as a writer and thinker this semester. What I value the most is my newfound ability to adapt to criticism. Through peer review and teacher critique I’ve been able to acknowledge and change aspects of my writings that needed improvement. When critiqued, I found the ability to incorporate my improvement on the specific conflict into my next essay.
In my first essay, I attempted to find a deep meaning in a literary memory of mine by relating a specific struggle of mine to an internalized societal ill of misogyny. Though I had good intentions, I was confronted with an insightful peer critique regarding my execution.
Excerpt From Language & Literacy Narrative
“As a woman, in a society that perpetuates male dominance in various categories, maybe I felt the need to prove my knowledge in any way I could. I thought my intelligence would grow with each letter I tagged onto a word.”
Though my writing does establishes the argument I am making, In this excerpt, I failed to strongly support that point. The word “maybe” casts a doubtful and unsure shadow within the claim that takes away from its meaning. I was meant to acclimate my experience within a more large-scale societal scope but instead focused too much on a specific feeling I had which had previously been brought up in the essay.
In my next essay we can see where I was able to improve on this problem.
Excerpt from Rhetorical Analysis Essay
“Appealing to his audience’s empathy, He explains how he spent his childhood “feeling that if [he] spoke, it would become obvious that there was something wrong with [him], that [he] was not normal (4:18).” Urging individuals to break away from their preconceived notions of normality, Saleem explains his background and personal experience with this societal issue. His struggles can similarly highlight an overlooked outcasting of certain groups within education systems”
In this excerpt I am able to rhetorically analyze an author and his work in a way that seamlessly relates to a larger societal meaning.
In my third piece, I was able to create an even stronger arguments than in my pervious essays. As I learned to better express specific situations in ways that clearly connected to wider scale issues, My writing became easier to decipher as well as relate to.
excerpt from Researched-Argument Based Essay
“Immoral attitudes, within an artwork, prescribe its audience to have an immorally related or tainted reaction. When an audience is aware, for example, that their favorite singer sexually assaulted someone, they can attempt to ignore the unethical and prescribed response, but that was not the intention or true meaning of the art, and creates “aesthetic flaw[s] (3).” Further exploring philosophical frameworks, Matthes reflects on the common practice in art criticism to “consider features related to the artist’s biography in determining that socio-historical context (4).”
I was able to grow as a writer in a way that not only makes me sound more confident in myself but that better supports my relevant claims.
