Reflection on a 15-week journey

Before college, writing was never a fun experience for me, as it seemed such meaningless a task. Most of the assignments were writings to reflect about the literature work we had studied before then. To actually get good grades for those assignments, students must follow the same pattern of writing, praise the author, how well he expressed his ideas, what a genius he was to use certain rhetorical methods. As a writer, there was no freedom to express my own opinions, nor was I able to pinpoint my writing skills as the writings followed a repetitive pattern. This changed considerably in university.

I walked into English 109 thinking I knew what was coming, and I was dead wrong. The concept of “rhetoric” here was no different from what I had know in the past, but the way I use it changed. The first writing assignment we had was to tell a story of when we successfully persuaded someone. Given such a broad topic to begin with, I was in awe. With no correct pattern to follow, I was at a lost as to how I should be approaching the topic. However, it struck me then that I got to use rhetoric to express my own ideas. I was free from the same old boring pattern. Thus, this made my writing journey as a rhetorician much more exciting. I’m particularly proud of the paper about my stand on a debatable topic, as I had to use rhetorical methods to carefully approach the topic. As my topic was about the porn industry, which was quite a sensitive matter, I think I did a good job in accessing the problem using rhetorical methods.

Through out the course, I came closer to recognizing my abilities as a writer. When looking into a topic, I can generate many ideas about that topic based on different views. I try to look at the matter from both sides, hence I can come up with many significant points. However, as there are many things that can be written, I generally get lost in my thoughts and my writing starts to stray from the main point. What is more, as I feel like I need to get every idea down in paper, the essay as a whole tends to be disorganized. However, English 109 has taught me how to fix my own writing my doing first drafts early. Then I can re-read my essays later to find a better way to express my ideas. What is more, I have learnt how to be more active in asking for other people’s help and opinions on my work. It is always nice to have a second or even third opinion on your own work, and English 109 has taught me to be more willing to open up and ask others for help. These are the very little but important things that I can apply to in my everyday life.

I have grown a lot as a writer during the past fifteen weeks in English 109. Learning how rhetoric is present in my everyday life and the fact that I can freely use rhetorical methods to express myself is truly life-changing. I believe that I am ready to tackle many future tasks using the skills I have acquired from this writing journey in English 109.