Compare-Contrast Topic Selection

By examining the ideas in the essays Freewriting by Peter Elbow and The Makers Eye: Revising your own manuscripts by Donald Murray. One can gain a better understanding of the process of turning a piece of writing from an inspiration into a craft. By examining the elements lined out in each essay can be beneficial in creating a piece of writing that is beyond a college or student level. Elbows essay lines out the importance of a strong prewriting regimen. That editing too early can ruin writing. He believes that by using the method of free writing, it can inspire ideas that may be limited when worrying about grammar. While Murray emphasizes the necessity to create many drafts to form writing into its full potential. Saying each draft is an opportunity to discover what the author has to say and they the best way to say it. By transforming writing into its maximum potential it goes from being an idea an inspiration a masterpiece.

My writing process, no matter what, always includes brainstorming, rough drafts and proofreading. When I receive an assignment I read the question over what feels like a million times till I fully understand what it is asking. I will make notes on the handout and as soon as ideas come to my mind i will jot them down, even if I do not end up using them. As soon as I get ideas i role with it, even if I have to go back in the end and change everything. Rough drafts come next. I like to write them out first so i can scribble and make notes to myself and fill things in when i need to. I write in pen so sometimes by drafts can be more rough then they should be, but that is how i like it. After my essay is all finished I proofread, many many times.

When beginning to write an essay everyone has their own method of doing so. Some may like to brainstorm while others may prefer to go straight into writing about their topic. I personally beginning every essay by collecting ideas about my topic before coordinating them into a type of diagram, next I proceed to do my rough draft before revising over the paper and finally composing my final draft. The point of the writing process is to help break everything down so ideas can be organized and everything can make perfect sense for not just the writer but also the reader.

The system of higher education in America could be in trouble. Due to dramatic change in what society values, they could soon be under attack. In the two articles that I analyzed, these issues were discussed in further detail. The first article was titled, “The Future of College” and was written by Graeme Wood. Its purpose was to draw attention to a new approach at education. The second article, “The Troubled Future of Colleges and Universities”, written by Gary King and Maya Sen, focused on the obstacles that universities are facing and gave suggestions of ways to overcome them. Along with this, both articles, addressed what education may look like in the future. With the development of technology and information from new studies, many wonder what the outcome could be. Will lecture style classes remain? Could higher education convert to a completely online experience? What is the most effective teaching method? In the first article, Wood argues for a completely online education. Whereas, the other article believes that universities need to focus on the importance of research. However, students learn in different ways, therefore, today’s higher education institutes should offer a variety of instructional methods.

The article brings to some interesting views on the futures of colleges and the experience that goes along with that first important step into adulthood. He brings some serious points to the argument. First, the traditional college experience versus an online college experience. Next, the quality of the online course information, as well as, having a tenured professor or an average non-degreed person teaching/monitoring a course. Then, he asks the question “Will employers take a person with an online degree just as serious as a traditional means degree?” Will they hold the same water so to speak? And finally, he weighs the pros and cons of the cost of

Writing has always been one of those things that I have had to work at to get words on paper that is not the case anymore. For some reason just letting myself free write for a couple weeks has suddenly made it much easier for me to write, and write significantly

While tuitions rose and salaries static, families no longer see the need to splurge on the “college experience”. Not only are students paying for the expense of academics, but on campus dorms and a meal plan as well. Although Students could choose to commute to cut out the cost of dorms, many colleges are too far away from home to do so. If living on campus and commuting were out of the question, then students may enroll in online schooling to get the education they need

Finding your own writing process is crucial for a writer in order to write a successful paper. Everyone is unique and everyone’s writing process is going to be unique as well. A writer’s notebook is a perfect way for people to record random thoughts, dialogue you hear, and any other ideas you might hear. Brainstorming is a key technique to get started when composing a paper. Brainstorming allows you to think of different topics that would fulfill the requirements needed on your topic assigned. Freewriting, clustering, listing and outlining, and collaborating are also some other techniques that when practiced could come very useful when writing a paper. Having the ability to use either of these five techniques would help tremendously when composing a paper.

The stages of the writing process that helped me write an essay the most are the Prewriting, Writing, Self-evaluation/self-revising and peer editing, and lastly finalizing the finished essay. Prewriting in my case is to be considered the simplest process, even though it is crucial in any essay. The reason behind it is that it consists of generating ideas through brainstorming (for me jotting the idea down on a paper), as well as engaging in free writing (writing everything that comes to

I always thought I can write well as needed but I did not really had a sense of a proper process of writing. There is more to it than writing and proofreading a rough draft as I thought before. Prewriting has taught me to write my papers for nursing much more easily. This allows me more time to proofread and check my facts. It also gives me some

People have many ways that they write. Some do a process of doing drafts so they can look through, edit and make the paper better. Others will just write a paper and turn it in. My process consist of starting with making a thesis. Then from the thesis I create the topic sentences for the topic at hand. The best way to write the essay in a good format and have good detail in the writing I would write a paragraph a day. By doing that process it allows me to get what is needed out on the paper so none of the paragraphs are mixing content and making the paragraphs less structured. This process not only makes writing essays less stressful while also getting the paper done quickly.

Although my writing process is not where I want it to be yet, I have made significant improvement. This class has been instrument in providing me the necessary guidance to improve my skills and grow in many areas. I feel more confident and will continue to work tirelessly to continue to grow. In regards to the final draft of this week critical essay and my writing process in general focuses on several key techniques. I have found my brainstorm technique to be an effective way to embrace any subject I have to write about. My weakness lies probably in organizing my writing. I’m working on following Dr. Idowu’s guidelines and recommendations to strengthen my abilities to deliver better results. Our professor’s guidance has help me tremendously,

Every writer and reader has their own opinion and perspective on things. In “Exploring Language” chapter 2, all the authors had a great point and advice about how to be a successful writer. The one with the most useful information for improving my own writing was a professor at the University of California-Davis, Anne Lamott’s essay because I can totally relate to the subject. It has been always a struggle for me to write any of my college paper, but Lamott eased my fear of writing. She states “It is a matter of persistence and faith and hard work.

In order for college students to receive the best education that they possibly can, traditional face-to-face schooling is a better choice than online schooling. College students deserve to receive the best possible education for them, and traditional face-to-face schooling will allow them to get just that. There is no reason that they should be bereft of a quality education. Traditional face-to-face schooling is proven to be more effective than online schooling and that’s why so many more people prefer traditional schooling. The quality of the

Education has undergone significant changes because of the development of information and communication technology over the 21st century (Lin & Jou, 2012:2). As a convenient and inexpensive way to gain knowledge while pursuing higher education, online learning, a form of training or teaching that takes place over the Internet, has been considered as an alternative to traditional classroom learning (Zhang et al, 2004). This essay will argue that even though online learning has benefit such as flexibility which could outweigh traditional learning, traditional classroom learning might still not be entirely replaced. This essay will discuss positive and negative aspects of online and traditional learning in terms of four criteria: