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The writing assignment that I am most proud of is definitely my 11 page research paper. There was so much work involved in the pre-writing stages of this assignment that built up to the final product. I worked harder on this paper than any other because it was the last paper in an English class that I will probably ever write so I really wanted it to represent the writer I have become after 13 years of school. Even though the assignment has yet to be graded I feel like it represents my best work. I have never read and re-read a paper so many times in life as I did with this one. Once I wrote it, it changed many times (for the better I hope!). At the beginning of the year I was so intimidated by a 10-12 page research paper, but know that its done it feels great. I am really happy to be done with English forever! For future English students I would say the best way to successfully complete a writing assignment is to go into the first stages of writing with a positive attitude. It really makes writing less painful and more enjoyable.

Group Work

The only advantage to group work is that if your group pulls through you might have been able to split some of the work load. After the past two semesters I realized that I’m not really a fan of group work. Group work is like the spinning wheel on wheel of fortune because you never know what you are going to get. Your group could be awesome and you could land on the $500 cash prize section and get an A or your group could be a bunch of slackers and you could land on the -$20 section and end p with a C or god forbid a D. You are trusting someone from your class that you barely know with your grade. If you are anything like myself and really care about grades you gets upset whenever you don’t get an A on something, so group work is just stressful. Everyone in college has a different busy schedule so I like to do work on my own time and meeting outside of class is always inconvenient. And if you know someone in your group is doing a bad job you can’t just say it to their face, they would think you were a jerk. So you end up waiting until they aren’t looking and then making the changes yourself. My advice is to just avoid group work but if you absolutely have to do it make sure you communicate with your group about everything. Even exchange e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

Process

Out of all of the projects I have been assigned my freshman year of college the group research project has by far had the most components. The research project was a long process. First we had to get into groups, then select a topic, then write our thoughts on the topic, then write a research proposal, then we had to find sources relating to our topic, read, evaluate and rate them, then we had create a webography page, then put together a poster and presentation that represented our topic, then write an outline, and finally we are now working on our ten page paper. Although the whole process has been long and grueling, writing the final ten page paper was not as difficult as I thought it would be since I had already completed so many prerequisite steps, the outline was especially helpful when it came to writing the paper. By writing a detailed outline before each paper it will be much easier to complete the final writing process.

Analysis

As I was writing my critical analysis essay I had to evaluate the author’s argument, as well as their creditability.I had to make sure I read the article thoroughly so that I would be able to really understand the author’s main point. A lot of times I read an article and ten minutes later I can barely remember what I just read or what the author’s main point was. Since writing this paper it has become easier for me to read through any article and pick out the authors main points and a few important supporting arguments. This will benefit me greatly through the rest of my college career because I will be better able t oread something and understand the main points and supporting arguments. This will also be useful one I join the workforce if I ever need to read a report or analyze someone else’s writing.

Evidence

Throughout the semester I used various forms of evidence to support my arguments. We have also learned how to recognize different forms of evidence in the writing of other authors. In the critical analysis essay we had to identify forms of ethos, pathos, and logos that authors used throughout their writings. Ethos having to do with the author’s creditability, pathos deals with emotional appeal, and logos is having to deal with logic or supporting evidence. Logos is the most important aspect of evidence when trying to prove a point because if your argument is illogical no one will believe you even if you are a creditable person or have a lot of emotional appeal. Citing sources is the best way show that you are creditable because you have researched your topic and also a reasonable supporting evidence. I found it difficult this semester to use enough pathos during my paper because it is hard to find an emotional example to support every argument.

Genre

Your audience’s expectations vary from one assignment to the next based on the topic you are writing about. When I wrote my objective summary, the audience was not expecting a detailed analysis. If the audience wanted an analysis they would read my critical analysis paper. If I was reading a bed time story to a four year old kid they would expect something along the lines of Dr. Suess, not Stephen King. My writing style also changes while I’m writing these blogs. When I’m doing a blog entry I use an informal conversational tone whereas in my research paper I use a more formal tone.

Audience

Throughout the semester I most effectively understood the needs and expectations of the audience during our group presentations. The object of the presentation was to explain to the general student population what topic we researched and what conclusions we made about our topic. My group chose to research an online internet group known as Anonymous. Most people have never heard of this group and have no idea what it is. We had to keep this in mind while presenting to make sure we did not go too in-depth or specific and lose the audience’s interest. Simply defined, Anonymous is a loose group of internet users who try to expose corporations that they believe to be corrupt or participating in unethical practices. This is a simple definition of Anonymous, however in order to really explain what the group is all about one would have to go much more in-depth. During our presentation most people only stopped by our station for a few moments so we had to make sure we could logically explain what the group was all about in only a short amount of time. We tried to relate the practices of Anonymous to our audience (average college students). We talked about example of anonymous dealing with youtube because most college kids can relate to watching youtube videos. I felt like the most important aspect of the group presentation was understanding your audience and catering to them.

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