In the beginning of the first semester of my freshman year, my writing was appalling. I was still writing at a high school level without even knowing it. I felt that I was prepared because of the number of essays I was writing in my senior year of high school. The truth is that it’s not just about the quantity it’s about the quality of writing. Sure, practice makes perfect and all but if what you are practicing doesn’t expand your horizons then you might as well not practice at all. The first major assignment that I wrote was my Literacy Narrative. This was my first time writing a literacy narrative. I’ve written essays about myself but never one about my experience with language. My essay was about the language barrier between my mom and I. The language barrier between my mother and I shaped the way I see things and I tried to connect that to a book. That failed in translation because I assumed that my audience knew the story. Explaining it didn’t work and I figured that since I understood the connection that my audience would too. This resulted in my essay being “all over the place”. 

The exploratory essay was a step up from the first essay that I did because I put in more time and thought into it. Towards the end of my introduction, my transition was smooth and it grabs the reader’s attention more. The beginning, however, was very broad and wordy. I was still struggling to let go of the high school technique of starting with a general attention grabber and then getting more specific. 

Aside from that, I was able to analyze the fairy tale of LRRH and use articles like Jack Zipes to explore the rhetoric of the story. As I selectively paraphrased the parts of the Jack Zipes text to explain how older men and kids are vulnerable to prey. In addition I explained how LRRH is a young kid who is sexualized. Through drawings or paintings of the encounter LRRH and the wolf the wolf preys on the girl while she tries to look innocent in a seductive kind of way. There are many ways that one genre of writing can include so many controversial topics. Fairy tales go beyond happy ever after and the hidden meanings are created through the writing style of the author. When a writer is able to use their imagination to create a story with rhetorical terms, themes, topic, strategies and so much more to lure the reader and generations upon generations of readers. 

When I write an essay I try to read it out loud and think to myself would I use this as a speech? Would sound human but professional? Is my audience listening- matter of fact who is my audience? The thought process may seem jumpy but it’s a decent start. In addition to that, I like to have many options to choose from. My brain storm of my exploratory essay as seen in the menu section, may seem unorganized but I understand them. When my mind starts flowing with ideas, it never stops. When I’m branching off ideas from the same topic repeatedly, then I know I’ve found my prince in shining armor. The word limit is no longer an issue and my analysis has enhanced itself. The exploratory essay’s purpose was to give us the opportunity to explore the different themes or rhetoric in fairy tales without taking a stance. The researched critical analysis was the opposite.

When I was brainstorming the researched critical analysis, I decided to challenge myself. It wasn’t just because I felt that others would want to argue the same thing but it was all about expanding my mindset. I want to truly grow as a writer and that decision itself was a massive step. I’m sure that a lot of storytellers have to step out of their mind and into the mind of a character to make a decision- even if they don’t like it. In a way it was a disadvantage to argue a different point of view because I had to train my mind to think positively about the actions and the roles of women in fairy tales. 

It’s easier to argue a position when there is so much evidence towards it. I began to gravitate towards my argument even more because I was surprised by the amount of articles and books I found that supported my claim. I kept the bond going and even for a split second I forgot how much I despised male fairy tale writers for being sexist. Logic and pathos was heavily used to persuade my audience about my argument. It worked well because I talked about Cinderella’s past tragedy and that the situation she was in left her no choice, but to take the path she did.

I broke things down and used my annotations if the texts I chose to further my analysis. Before even annotating the text, I made sure that it was a reliable source. Researching the author and using sites that end in edu or org make a source more reliable. 

I’ve learned to argue my stance and not let the audience know that I may be a bit unsure. When making an argument your voice needs to be powerful. But just because you made a strong argument it doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement.

Doing peer review helped strengthen my writing skills. I’m not sure if my essays helped anyone, but it sure helped me. Sometimes I catch a writer doing something that doesn’t work and it helps me realize what I did wrong or could have done. I will never forget the first peer review that I did in my composition class because my partner and I had a similar story. Going back to the literacy narrative, while I was doing peer review I felt that I was one of the intended audience. 

I feel like with writing you think that you wrote such an incredible essay, until someone reads it and is like what? The feeling of confusion and disappointment is worse than the actual gift you get on christmas day versus the one you asked for.

Feeling that way isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes we need to feel that way as writers in order to improve our writing. When I read someone elses essay I always try my best to give them examples of what could improve their writing. 

In another peer review that I was given when I wrote my fairy tale retelling was very helpful. It was very helpful because the person was honest and clear with the feedback. I was able to understand why they thought that my flashbacks were confusing. I had a hard time and tried my best to make it a flashback that the narrator was having about her grandmother.

We all need feedback that will help us improve but also boost our confidence so that we know not just our weakness but our strengths. 

I do this thing where I focus on one thing and forget about the other. With more practice I’m sure that I’ll be able to effortlessly put thought into my writing. I should be able to hit all the criteria and find many ways to incorporate my personality. From simple things like citation to rhetoric analysis, my goals are closer in arms reach than before. I can navigate the library database with ease than when I cluelessly pushed an assignment aside for later because I didn’t know how to use the database. Now it’s easy to navigate and I don’t know why it was so hard at first. Being able to find good articles that are reliable helped me make a strong argument that many may think it’s impossible to make. It’s a huge progress to actually learn something at the end of a course than to just finish it and I know for a fact that my writing has improved proficiently.