Chapter 5: Writing an Arguementitive Essay

Sometimes it seems all anybody does is argue. Arguing whether or not an opinion, political issue, picture, paper means one thing or another, is right or wrong. Although this can get very tiring there are some instances whether arguing is good. In our education if we just accept everything we are taught we are not forming own our opinions, and if everyone didn't have their own opinion we would all do the same things, wear the same clothes and have the same jobs. Arguing a point can help us see why we have that point and even understand what other people's opinions are and be more accepting of them even if we don't feel the same. When we argue something we have to know a lot about it in order to back it up, this can lead to us finding out new things and to understand where we're going and what we want to do. For instance this Career Research Project will be good in helping us determine whether or not we really want to be in our majors and what we want to do with our majors after we graduate. Our readings this week and assignments in class helped to know how we need to write our paper and which tools we can use to find research on our topic. In the book we also read explains of argumentative essays and it summarized what they did well and why. There were also examples of annotated bibliographies which helped me see how I need to do it. Even though it was explained well in class it all seemed a little overwhelming to me because I had never even heard of a prospectus and annotated bibliography, but with the readings and the more we talked about it in class I realized that it won't be so bad. I am also glad that there are citing guidelines on MLA and APA styles. The way we are supposed to cite is always changing and hard to keep up with not to mention that all of the different things we have to cite keeps growing. I love using Easybib because it does the work for me, but sometimes an internet site doesn’t know how to cite and it can make mistakes which is why having this book as a reference will really help not just in this paper but all future papers. All of these tools and examples will help me when I write not just my prospectus and annotated bibliography but when I write my argument essay based on my career.

Chapter 4: Tips & Examples on Writing

I liked how in this week's reading it gave examples on how some people analyzed different text. I like how at the end it pointed what each person did right and how. It was also a good section because it gave you some questions to ask yourself before, after and while you're writing to know your purpose, audience, stance, media & design. The next section on getting response and revising was good because it was a follow up after writing your paper of things to check that you had and to have people check for too. Revising is an important part of writing because it is the time where you are trying to make your paper as perfect as possible before turning it in. This isn't a simple process it's something that takes time and effect. I think that it was a great idea that we did peer edits in class because peer edits are always useful when revising a paper. You can have someone edit it outside of class, over e-mail or read it out loud to yourself or others to hear the mistakes. Personally I like peer edits because you get good edits because it's something done in class and it's on paper so you can look at it anytime. It's easier when you go in to edit your first draft when you have the edits in front of you because you are less likely to lose your place. Although people in class may not know you personally in a way that it better for editing because they edit it how it needs to be and don't feel like they have to say only positive. Not saying that you shouldn't give positive remarks, because if your paper to written all over when you get it back you feel awful and that your work will never be good enough to get a good grade. I think that all of the readings were good extra supplements for writing and editing our rhetorical analysis papers and will be good tools to remember for future writings.

Chapter 3: Processes & Reading Strategies

This week we did two reading one on processes and one on reading strategies both are important not only in college but in life. The section on processes was important because it gave tips on going through the process of writing any type of paper. From asking questions of what the purpose of whatever you're reading to editing and proofreading. I enjoy this book because of the fact that although it gives you all these different tips the authors aren't saying you either do it this way or you fail; they're just saying ideas that might help to make the process easier. It gives you advice for working on a paper by yourself and working a group which I found interesting and insightful. I thought it was interesting the part where it talked about everyone facing each other because the conversation works better, which is probably why are class is set up that way. I also found it interesting how this section talked about how keeping a journal and a blog is a good way to get out your opinions and thoughts. Most people look at journal as being written by silly love sick high school girls, when in reality they are quite useful. I also like how they listed as the different pre-writing strategies showing that certain ways work better for certain people and although most people by the time they get to college they know what there's is it gave new ideas to experiment with, or if you hadn't it was there to help you figure it out. Then of course it talk about how even though you have all these tools you need to find out how, where and when you work best so that you will write better quality work. Growing up you find out what your system is, mine for instance is being in a quiet atmosphere but depending on what I'm writing I may listen to music. The Reading Strategies section was helpful because although we did have to read textbooks and other material in high school I hadn't really found a good reading strategies and this section had some good tips that I'll try to keep in mind and imply in my future readings that will help in reading and doing assignments based on it and also in retaining more of what I'm reading. I know that although this class will be presenting me with a lot of new information it is useful and will help me both now and in the future.

Chapter 2: A Week in Review

After having had two classes of English 205 I can say that I enjoy this class and look forward to all that we will be doing. Already I have learned what a rhetorical analysis is, and have learned more about writing techniques such as purpose, audience and genre. Although I already knew the basics of these techniques it was nice to have a refresher before we really started getting into writing papers for class.It was also a good section to read because it will really help when we start writing our rhetorical analysis paper. It not only tells you that you need to find the authors message and see if it's creditable but it also shows you how to do it, and how you should structure it when you write. I think that it was smart how they did each major component in a different chapter so that they could break it down and really go in depth. Because I want to be a writer this was a good section on rhetorical situations to read because I need to apply most of it, if not all of it. The audience section made me really think about how you can't just write things however you interpret it personally, but you have to consider the fact that everybody thinks differently. You need to be conscious of that fact and not write so that you  understand it,  because they might not interpret the same way as you do, so you write so that others will understand what you are trying to convey. I like how even though I had basic knowledge about what we had to read I was still able to learn something new, which is the great thing about learning is you can never learn everything and are always learning something new.