DSP Essay Reflection
Nico Pozsar/ Writing 100
Professor Darling
The University of Michigan provided all incoming freshmen
with a writing assessment designed to gauge what level of writing the students
are at, and therefore what writing class would be the most appropriate. The
University of Michigan assigned incoming freshman to analyze an argument given
be a professional writer and to defend, qualify, or refute her argument with
examples given in the written text. The university assigned this work in order
to gauge how well incoming freshmen can write, thus the primary expectation of
the assignment was to view the quality of the assignment turned in, and perhaps
to note whether the student completed the assignment on time.
As
with most academically rigorous assignments, I faced various difficulties
whilst completing this assignment, perhaps most notably finding the motivation
to complete it. I learned that for each stage of the writing process, a writer
must sit down for a given period of time, free of distractions, just to
complete the given task. One of my greatest successes with this paper in
particular in particular was completing it on time. I attempted to work on it
as soon as the University of Michigan assigned it, and that was a large
contributing factor in what allowed me to complete the project on time.
Despite difficulties one might think would require me to change
my overall strategy of attempting the paper, neither my strategy nor my
assignment evolved at any point during the time I spent working on it. I
essentially went about addressing the essay as I might have an essay in a high
school writing class. I first reread the assignment multiple times in order to
be sure that I full understood what was being asked. Without an explicit
understanding of what the assignment is asking, it becomes nearly impossible to
truly complete the assignment. Next I wrote out a cohesive plan including a
clear thesis statement, specific examples I would include in the body
paragraphs, as well as a succinct conclusion. During the writing process, I
would write out a whole passage of key text from the professional writer, some
of which I thought I might want to include, and then later I would go through
and highlight specific passages and focused quotes I would choose to include.
As I had learned in prior classes involving academic writing, a comprehensive
plan provides an essential path towards success.
Despite this cohesive plan with specific, targeted
examples, I did take the occasional risk. One particular risk I took was not
editing my paper thoroughly after a strong urge to just be finished. Some
examples of these mistakes include repetition of certain words, as well as a misspelling
of no for “know”, and occasional excessive wordiness which I could have easily
edited out, had I taken the time. Other than the general laziness I exhibited
in editing the paper, I took major risks in writing the paper itself: I started
off with an anecdote or allusion, then a clearly stated hypothesis, specific
examples backed up with relevant quotations, and then finally a conclusion
which summed up my examples and rephrased the thesis.
Overall I feel like the assignment helped me practice
some of the key skills of academic writing, but the actual writing process
itself was not fun at all. Planning, writing, editing, and polish all felt
incredibly tedious, though not unnecessary. The completion of the paper made me
very happy, so happy in fact, that I scarcely edited the work. Despite the
tedium of it, I did practice a number of important abilities in writing such as
extensive planning, finding motivation to write, and polishing skills.
To conclude, I feel like I completed the assignment
competently. I submitted it on time, it had specific examples, a clear thesis,
and a conclusion. Despite this, I do not know how I did as neither a professor,
nor an instructor ever read the work. As with all academic assignments, there
is room for improvement. In the future, if I were to repeat this assignment or
complete one similar to it, I would take more time in the editing process to
make sure there was no egregious typing errors. I would also try to further
polish the finish products by removing some of the wordiness.
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