I have included three articles in my portfolio that I believe really grasp my writing abilities at this time. Through these articles, I show how I have learned to write rhetorically for a discourse community or audience that will be read my article. As learning to write rhetorically and understanding discourse communities are major concepts that you wanted us to take from this course, I believe that my effort and improvement in understanding these concepts, should bring about the raising of my grade from a B to an A.
In my fourth paper, "The Importance of Grammar", I argue that there is a specific time of when to teach grammar and a certain way that it should be taught. I argue that there has not been much change since the importance of grammar was first really questioned in the 60’s. I supported my claims with 8 great articles about how grammar should be used or taught. I think that there is a diversity of conversation and argument. I believe I used my sources well to keep the conversation going. Using your comments and Alex’s, I re-edited my paper and fixed both little things and big. I didn’t see fit to re arrange my entire paper into a different pattern. If I had been able to meet with you to see how to better do that, I definitely would have. I tried to put better transitions in between my major points so that the article flowed better. I saw that as one of the main points that you brought up into my fourth paper. I think that was a big thing that needed work, but I tried to bring about a more gradual flow.
I think that this paper showed my ability to write for a particular discourse community. I think I improved on writing as a conversation which was something completely new for me that I have been trying to improve on throughout the course. The link to the paper is below.
For my Major re write, I chose my first paper, “Who Says We Need Grammar”. I chose this article because I felt that I had a better understanding of the conversation of grammar after writing my fourth paper. In this paper, I feel I showed my ability to write more informally to the average citizen who doesn’t really know what’s going on in the conversation of grammar, and explain it in a way that they can understand. I feel that I persuade the people to see that grammar shouldn’t be taught until the later years of schooling because they cant grasp the concept of it.
Many people can relate to my feelings toward grammar because they too experienced them.
I have changed this paper by adding in Warner to talk more about how students may not have any chance of understanding grammar. I think that this brings a great point to add to my argument that students shouldn’t be taught grammar until later years. I also think this is a cool point because it is research that many people don’t know about. I explained a few concepts better to help smoothen the paper. The link is below.
I also added paper two because I think that it showed my ability to write casually and persuasively. In "I just can't focus", I was trying to make the point that it is very important to write in a place where you are able to write efficiently. My main claim was my example of how I couldn't write efficiently when in my room and in my dorm but could write well in a place where I was comfortable and focused. This is persuasive because I think many people, especially college students can think of how often they write in their dorms but don't think of how much more they would get done if they went somewhere else. It is possible that some people may be able to write better in their dorm compared to the library but the main point is just finding that place and it is different for everyone. I think that the parts that went well are the conversation between me and the reader went well.
I think that from your comments, that I did well writing this paper, although sometimes my wording was off. I think that I need to learn how to make my sentences sound less choppy. But, in all, I think that the content and style of this paper was good.
The last thing that I wanted to add to the portfolio to show that my writing is sufficient enough to receive an A, is a song that I wrote this quarter after attending stations of the Cross. In this song, I had to think rhetorically about who would be hearing it while putting my own emotions and truth from scripture into it. I had to think of the discourse community that I was writing to. Sometimes in my music, it is difficult because there are a couple types of discourses that I want to reach. All of my music is Christian music although I usually am not writing for true Christians to hear it. This song, I was writing for both. I wanted to write about the suffering of Jesus because I think that many times we see him as a friend or a distant God, or someone who condemns or judges. We see this perfect man who we think because he is divine, didn’t experience the suffering that the cross endures. We have so many false views of who Jesus is, and because of it, we turn to the world to satisfy us. If we really knew who Jesus was and is, and what He sacrificed to save us from eternal death, then we would be compelled by his love to follow Him. In this song I write about the Suffering of Jesus, so that we cannot forget that it was because of His perfect, adoring love for us, that He came, and paid the debt that should have been ours. This truth is for all Christians, and also all who do not believe or follow Jesus. He came for all. That is who I am writing to, and why I am writing. The song is listed below.
I think that my work in and out of the class is sufficient to raise my grade. I always did the readings which I think showed in my papers and my responses in class. I gave my answers a lot of thought when responding to the questions on the blog. I tried my best to grasp the concepts that you wanted us to understand. I think that I participated In class often which showed my interest and desire to do well and improve in my writing. I learned to write rhetorically and have a much better understanding of intertext, framing, the conversation, claims, discourse communities and such. I think that I took advantage of the homework by really trying to understand how to reach my audience for future writing outside of this class. I think for the most part, I came to class with a good attitude, paid attention, and abstained from my computer. I wanted to succeed in my papers and write to my best ability using the readings that we had been taught. I think that my effort and desire to succeed in this class, which dramatically improved my writing, should raise my grade from a B to an A.
I really enjoyed this class. I think that sometimes I was overwhelmed by the readings because I read really slow and many times they were long and complicated, but they were very useful and I couldn’t have improved my writing with out having read the articles. I really liked getting to learn about writing instead of just writing about a book or something we wanted to research. I Liked staying in the discourse community of writing. I enjoyed the class so I am not sure of what things I think could have been better except for maybe having more discussion time with our peers in class so that people would be more encouraged to speak up when you are leading a discussion. Other than that, I really learned a lot in your class and believe that I will take what I have learned to help me in more ways than just in writing through out college and my career. THANK YOU!
