Tatiana Hadchiti
WRIT 015-08
Professor Lipscomb
Final Portfolio: Draft
The overall theme of this class, “Writing for Humans,” has allowed me to approachthe whole writing process in a more analytical manner. I believe I have improved my writing skills in this class with the weekly blog posts as well as the three main essays required for the course. For every assignment we were given, no matter the length, the targeted audience was always different and I had to practice writing in a way that would engage this audience. I had never really thought about target audiences in high school before; my teachers had never stressed the importance of it. However, this class has taught me that the audience is the first and most important thing you should identify when faced with an assignment. Knowing whom you are writing to lets you formulate arguments in a way that will move this intended audience, and gives you a sense of the tone you should be using when addressing the topic at hand.
Identifying my intended audience for my assignments is one of the many things I have learned to do in this class. I had not done peer-editing workshops in my last two years of high school, and had done them infrequently in previous years. However, I am now able to more effectively revise essays; the peer-editing workshops that we have in class have allowed me to view essays, especially my own, with a more critical eye. By revising my peers’ assignments, I have developed a series of basic expectations that every essay should meet. For example, every essay should have an opening paragraph that sets the reader up for what’s to come in the rest of it, as well as topic sentences that guide to reader into every new idea that is introduced throughout the paper.
In addition to all of this, I have found that making detailed outlines are particularly useful. The preliminary work we would do before delving completely into an assignment was very helpful in getting our ideas together and really thinking about the structure the essay would take. For example, if we take the James Joyce analytical essay, we were asked to formulate a “They Say, I Say” argument based on one of the critical essays we had read, and state whether we agree or disagree with what these authors were arguing. I found that examining a critical essay more in depth and stating my position on the same topic was a good way for me to narrow down my ideas for the essay and determine what I had more standing on.
Writing Tool
My documentwill appeal to a specific audience.
No12345Yes
My document will move my readers to agree with me, despite their initial opinions.
No12345Yes
My document addresses the topic at hand using the appropriate tone.
No12345Yes
My document will answer any potential questions my readers may have.
No12345Yes
My document is cohesive and coherent.
No12345Yes