The theory of writing is an interesting term, as it can mean varying things to different people. Everyone writes one way or the other, ranging from texts on your phone to diary entries to typing for your school or job. We may not all consciously realize it, but writing is in our lives one way or the other. Writing is one of the ways to communicate, but more importantly, to express our creativity. A bit of ourselves spills into our words, whether we mean to or not, and it really can reveal a lot. To me, the subtle things definitely matter but also can the things that we write explicitly.
To me, I can definitely enjoy writing with a more open-ended capacity in which I have more freedom to write about topics that interest and/or are relevant to me. When I have this incentive, per se, in these situations I tend to write better as I am not forcing the words onto paper as much. However, I always try to write with some sense of purpose as it helps me stay on target and remember why I am writing it in the first place.
More specifically with my papers, however, I keep this sense of purpose as to why I am writing the paper in its context. Before beginning my paper, I of course read the assignment sheet and from there I try to first see and read any relevant coursework such as texts given in class, or any work-related papers I have done with it in order to gain some ideas. For example, with the technical innovation proposal, I reread and went through the technical description I did prior to get an idea about how various innovations are made and how they help humans. In addition, the formatting from that technical description ranging from the headers, and table of contents, to the way I described the item, and even to the quotes and their analysis helped shaped that future paper.
In addition, I improved my ability to quote, cite, and analyze citations throughout my writing journey this semester. For example, in the Lab Report Analysis paper, I was able to effectively mix quotations into my sentences in order to enhance my work with tangible evidence in a smooth, concise way. For instance, in an excerpt from that assignment, I wrote, In this section, it is crucial to “describe your methods in enough detail that another researcher could perform the same experiment using the same materials and methods. This characteristic, called replicability, is one of the foundations of the scientific method” (Merkel, 2018). Dancy’s lab report does exactly this, displaying the procedure needed to conduct the experiment step-by-step, even including how the values were calculated in context. In this part, I properly introduced the context for the information I was setting up, then I gave a quote using APA citation to back up my claims, and afterward, I explained the quote by giving an analysis of it. Doing this procedure was able to give the reader an understanding of what I was talking about, and overall grasp the point I was making and the purpose of it as well; with this, both learning outcomes six and eight were fulfilled.
With this said, my ability to research has improved throughout the course of this class. Now when I am researching, or just browsing the web in general, I look for the author, and keywords in the headline or article to look for credibility as well as bias. In addition, I check what organizations or companies that the website I am on is involved in. Doing so has also sharpened my eye even in everyday news, in which I may analyze articles, posts, and the like for clickbait or to check if they are advertisements trying to promote something or not. This is one of the useful and applicable skills that utilize going forward in my life.
Furthermore, one other skill I improved on, utilizing learning outcome two, is the ability to edit the work I do. The way I did this is when I get stuck, perhaps in writer’s block, I just write for a bit on whatever comes to mind, not worrying about the formality of it. After I take a bit of a break, I reconvene and really try to hone in on my ideas and format the work, making it concise and presentable for the paper I am doing. I feel for me at least, this is more productive than just getting stuck, giving up, and procrastinating so I continue to utilize this.
Overall, just the practice of writing in different ways about different topics can impact and change ones writing abilities and perspective on the matter. The only way to change is to get out of your comfort zone, and this certainly is true in almost all facets of life. A lot of the skills I learned in this class I will be able to take with me in the future, and I am grateful for having learned them. Writing is a process that we all go through, and the journey of it is truly remarkable.
