Letter to the editor, a poor argument

In the WRIT 1122 class we were assigned to do a series of letters to the editor as informal assignments to the class. We were to pick one and revise it to construct a good well thought out and well written argument.

In my last blog post I mentioned how two aspects of the course had helped me improve my writing this quarter. I also talked about how they both go hand in hand for making a successful argument in writing and that if one aspect were to fail, it makes the final outcome ineffective at best. I believe this is exactly what happened with my letter to the editor. I think my letter to the editor was written well with precise word choice to get my points across and still fit within the 200 word limit, and also used the various rhetorical appeals to pathos, logos, and ethos, or at least a lot better than it would have been at the beginning of the quarter. This however was not very relevant at all though because my argument itself was flawed. I had originally tried to piece together an argument against something in an article that really was quite unfounded and just did not make much sense at all. Since that was the letter I had initially written I kept trying to improve on that, however I found I was always stuck and confused as to where I was going with the argument. This is a definite example of where my writing was flawed in that the argument founding the entire work was flawed.

In addition...

In class yesterday we had 10 minutes to blog about the improvements made to our writing and changes made throughout the course. I was thinking since then of some additions I could make.

Another aspect of improvement made to my writing resulting from the course has also been integrating skills from the course. Most importantly, forming precise bullet proof arguments and proposals. One can practice writing a lot and effectively become a good writer with great word choice, sentence structure, and overall getting thoughts into writing, however practice is NOT everything, to contradict a commonly used cliche. There are some skills that need to be learned and studied, such as in our 1122 class, how to build and structure effective arguments. This is definitely one important aspect of the course in which I improved my writing. The class discussions and overall, just all the information about writing and making such arguments and proposals was very beneficial to my writing. I find this to be because no matter how much I practice writing, good writing is not necessarily a good argument and vice versa. I realized that both are definitely good skills to have and both compliment each other to form the ideal work. One can have a great argument but not be able to communicate it very well through writing which in turn doesn't quite get that argument out there in the way it needs to be or make it very credible. Then again, one could also be great at words but have an a poorly structured argument that doesn't make much sense and that will also be ineffective. Most definitely the practice writing and the skills learned in the class discussions go hand in hand and this is what ultimately has helped me noticeably improve my writing throughout the course.

Improvements from the the WRIT1122 course.

By taking this course, I have had many opportunities to learn about writing.

The first aspect of improvement for my writing has been practice. The course has supplemented the writing I have been assigned in all my other classes to keep me busy enough with writing that there is always some paper or written assignment I am working on at all times this initially was a bit intimidating to me as I was not a very good writer at the beginning of this quarter. What it did however, was improve my comfort level with writing. After this quarter I can write and compose my thoughts into writing so much more efficiently that I can write a lot more and it doesn't take me as long. This has proved very useful and came just from the practice and experience of constantly writing something. Prior to this I was always intimidated by large writing assignments and also had a big problem with composing my thoughts and getting them into writing, it would take significant amounts of time to complete papers that were not all that big. This practice has also set in stone the new things I learned from the WRIT1122 course, meaning now when I write a paper or some other piece of writing for another class, some of these things just develop naturally in my thoughts as I write, and I don't end up having to chop up my first draft as much to try and fit corrections in.