An important and useful skill that I learned from this class was, start writing early. All the ungraded assignments throughout my journey to finishing each composition made the prompt more clear and achievable. The proposals helped me focus on the prompt and deconstruct it. The next assignment was a working draft; it helped me write down all my thoughts and sources I had found and also determine if my focus was valid and in the right direction. After having the working draft reviewed, the next drafts were aimed at fixing the recommendations. This process helped keep me working diligently toward the final composition and not leave it to the last minute.
During my journey in this course I learned how to better support my ideas by integrating sources the best way that I could in my writing. With access to large databases of enormous amounts of documents, academic articles, popular articles, newspapers, books, etc., choosing and integrating relevant, meaningful, credible, sources to help make my argument stronger was a tool I learned to use effectively. Throughout this class, I was able to weed out sources that were irrelevant information and focus solely on what supported my argument in the most effective way possible.
Conducting research all throughout the drafting process helped me make decisions about the organization and logic of my compositions by noticing gaps in my logic and narrowing my search to sources that would further help explain my argument. For composition one, I began with some good ideas that lacked direction. I tended to give too much information without making sure that what I was providing was in direct support of my thesis. For example, in my first draft of my composition one paper, I jumped right into talking about the death penalty and what my argument was regarding it. What I didn’t realize is that it lacked proper background information and that I needed to narrow my points down to what I truly wanted to argue. After reading through my draft and with feedback from my professor, I took a more informative, organized route. I was able to break down my argument and give the appropriate background information so that the reader is always on the same page as me.
I learned through the process of generating two multi – modal compositions that pictures, videos, statistics etc. go a long way in argumentation and persuasion but of course it must be accompanied with writing to explain the significance of the artifact. Within my work, I used pictures that strengthened my ethos and validated my argument. For example, in composition one, I explain how using lethal injections as a form of execution without doctor’s assistance can result in immense amounts of pain. A picture I used was of a face detaching from a body because it gets the point across that without a doctor, this process can be torturous and dehumanizing.
Creating a multi – modal composition helped me articulate my arguments with more detail without diverging off my argument. For example, in my two compositions, one regarding the death penalty and the other regarding health care costs, they are very factual and statistically oriented. With that, I was able to use charts and graphs portraying several statistics and facts supporting my argument. I was able to use these pictures to emphasis my points and not venture off.
For my advocacy essay I started off with a solution: cutting administrative costs by completing eliminating insurance companies. At first, this solution was complicated and encompassed a wide range of reform and did not focus on a specific problem. When receiving the rough draft back from the professor she asked is this solution the “best fit” for the problem. The professor then suggested that I come up with a more practical solution, such as reforming the law. Reading this sparked a completely different idea in my mind. My new solution would be to create a standardized, universal administration proesss that would require all insurance companies to abide by the same rules, instead of each implementing their own.
Furthermore, to strengthen my claims throughout the composition I used provided resources that advocated reducing administrative costs by creating a standardized system, such as the American Medical Association. This source greatly helped my ethos because it argued that cutting administrative costs decrease the wasteful spending in the healthcare budget by about $210 billion a year. I continued to include statistics and factual information that would strengthen my claim and argument. I realized that the best way to create an effective argument is through the use of solid facts from a source with a strong ethos.
edit if needed
