Final Reflection

For this class what I wanted to achieve was not to only improve my writing skills but to also be able to find the mistakes I make in my writings. I believe that I really have improved with my writing skills. Before this class I was not able to be as descriptive and did not have proper grammar but by doing all the assignments that were assign and the help from other people I  am now able to. I am also now able to identify the mistakes that I do in my writings by reading the paper a couple of times and redoing it has helped to see my mistakes. After being in this class I would definitely change some of my initial goals because I never thought or paid attention to certain things that I do now for example the audience. The audience plays a major part of your paper. When you write a paper you have to think about your audience that will help you think on how you can convince them and grab their attention. The strengths that I would like to continue to develop are being more descriptive, knowing my audience and also having strong evidence. What I will continue working on when writing a paper is to have a clear thesis and for the following paragraphs to follow my thesis.

Planning for Revisions

For my portfolio, the type of essay I decided to revise is arguing a position. My strengths in the arguing of a position essay were when giving convincing evidence and had a good thesis. My weaknesses were, talking about a personal experience and not following my thesis completely in every paragraph in the essay.

For my essay to be effectively revised, I will need to change the story I had talked about. Talking about a personal experience seemed like I was trying to manipulate the audience instead of informing them. By including this personal experience the position I am taking will just fail. I should instead talk about something that looks more convincing and relates to my thesis.

I will also make sure that every forthcoming paragraph will go completely with my thesis. In my paragraphs I only included part of the thesis. When I wrote my paragraphs I only concentrated in following only certain part of the thesis. I did not know that every paragraph had to relate with my thesis. Not relating my paragraphs with my thesis completely made my essay incomplete. Once I am done revising the essay, I will now go over it a few times and make sure that each paragraph is related to my whole thesis.

Analyzing and Writing Arguments

The article that I analyzed was “Should the Obama generation Drop out?” One thing that I learned after analyzing this argument is that you definitely need to have strong evidence. In order to have a successful paper, you need to have evidence that can really support your thesis. Having strong evidence throughout your argument will maintain people interested, informed and will also help them obtain a clear idea of why you are taking that position.

Secondly, I learned that you need to have a good thesis statement.  Not having a good thesis statement can lead you to having an unsuccessful paper. The thesis prepares the reader for the forthcoming information. The thesis is also the key to follow in each and every single paragraph throughout the entire argument paper.

Knowing your audience, when writing an argument paper is also very important. If you are not sure who your audience is it will be very hard to convince them. Once you know who your audience is, it will be much easier. For example when arguing about a situation involving teenagers, a teenager is less likely to comprehend certain issues rather than an adult.

In this article, even thought the author gives convincing evidence in some of his opinions. He however contradicts himself, which makes it harder to comprehend his position. This taught me that going back and forth in a position you are taking can affect your paper. When writing an analysis paper, I have to be more aware of what position I am taking and make sure to concentrate on only that position.

Thinking Critically About Evidence

Topic sentence: Teenagers obtaining their drivers license.

Thesis: Student’s shouldn’t be able to obtain a drivers license at such a young age as 16 years old.

Evidence:

1) Some teenagers are not responsible enough.

 2) Teenagers take this as freedom and fun instead of taking it as something serious. 

3) Teenagers put their life at risks when acting irresponsible.

4) They are not conscious of the consequences a minor incident can bring.  

My compelling evidence for why students should not be able to obtain their drivers license at 16 is because teenagers take it as freedom and fun instead of taking it as something serious. This is strong evidence because when a teenager obtains their license, they immediately they think that they have the freedom to go anywhere at any time. Yet they do not think of it as a serious responsibility. This will be a good evidence for my essay because it’s a primary reason of teenagers’ actions.

My weakest evidence is that teenagers put their life at risks when acting irresponsible. This is my weakness evidence because there is no way I would be able to prove this without doing any research. Also not all teenagers are irresponsible; some take more precautions than others. I shouldn’t include this in my essay because I am trying to prove that all teenagers are not responsible enough to obtain a drivers license at 16.