For this assignment I chose a paper I wrote is sociology. The guidelines for my paper were to research any topic I wanted but I had to connect it to sociological themes. I had done many research papers before so I knew how to do them. We had to use APA format so I would have to look that up to figure out how to do that correctly. I felt as though writing this paper would be extremely easy for me since I had so much experience now with the recursive process so I would be on a focused path when writing this paper. So first I brainstormed an idea. I knew from the get go I wanted to talk about the emotional impacts of injuries since it was a topic near a dear to my heart. So next I had to come of with what I wanted to say about it exactly. Eventually after I decided on what I wanted to say I started researching those topics. From English class this year I feel as though I have learned how to incorporate quotes better so I feel as though my quotes flowed smoothly.I also learned from English how to organize my paper. After writing it I went back and thought about if my paragraphs made sense where they were placed or not.
I feel has though English 110 has helped better my academic writing because I now feel better in my ability to actively read and to use the recursive writing process. I truly think that if I hadn’t learned those skills then I think my writing wouldn’t have progressed as much or even the way it went this year. I think the learning environment let me open up and feel more confident in my writing abilities. I think the way we did peer edits and how much we went over the process has made me a better critique as well as a better writing. I even noticed after every peer review I had less global edits to make and more local edits which made me feel proud with my efforts. I think if I continue to follow and use the skills that I learned in English 110 I think my writing won’t “stink”. Actively reading is a huge way to not make writing stink. I say this because if you are actively reading a source to use for a paper and you take good notes and make connects with the writing you are most definitely able to write about something. When you don’t actively read you have less of a chance to understand what the source is about and thus only weakening your essays more. I also think if we listen to what Pinker says about professional narcissism, apologizing, shudder quotes, hedging, meta-concepts and nominalization our writing won’t “stink” If we are able to find a way to engage and connect with people but still make a point then our writing will stink less.
