Textual Analysis of Writing Guides

Bullock, Richard, and Goggin, Maureen D, and Weinberg, Francine, editors. The Norton Field Guide to writing with readings and handbook. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

The first few years of college student’s lives are not necessarily the most enjoyable time, having to take the basic core classes. Unless someone is planning on getting their degree in something that involves the basic core classes like; Math, Psychology, any Humanities, or English. English has not been my strong suit and I know that I still have work that needs to be done to make me a better writer, but I believe that I was able to meet and achieve the goals and requirements of this Composition two class.

Downs & Wardle’s “Teaching about writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re) Envisioning “First Year Composition” as “Introduction to Writing Studies” talks about several ways to refer to writing and our response to it. As well as the misconceptions students have towards the proper way of writing and how they have managed to break the “college writing” stereotype and discover their own way of writing.

Revisualizing Composition, by Jeff Grabill along with his fellow co-authors is a paper about a study carried across seven different universities across the United States Of America. Each university ranks differently in terms of various statistics such as enrollment, size and setting, therefore participants have different styles and approached towards writing. Following the standard survey method, a series of questions based on 30 different types of writing, were ranked in terms of popularity and value.

Some of the top advice given to writers is to read prolifically. The more well-read a person is, the more they will intuitively understand what good, effective writing is. Moreover, good writing begins with critical thinking and careful consideration. Curiosity and open-mindedness aid in the endeavor and allow an author to think broadly about a subject. Careful reasoning allows a writer to logically organize information and thoughts and relay them in a compellingly clear way. In “College Writing and Beyond,” Anne Beaufort talks about how strong writers draw on five knowledge domains to produce good work. These five domains are: discourse community knowledge, writing process knowledge, subject matter knowledge, genre knowledge, and rhetorical knowledge. It is important to understand and consider what discipline and discourse community you will be speaking within in order to fashion your ideas into a well-received written contribution. Understanding effective writing processes and critical revising methods grants a writer greater ability to create succinct, effective, and enticing text. Understanding genres enables a writer to know what conventions of writing are expected of them and which best suit their purposes. Rhetorical knowledge facilitates the clarification of a text’s purpose and supports reader

There are many who strive to become famous writers and although some succeed, many do not find such great prosperity. In the words of bestselling author Stephen King, “while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one,” (142). King’s thesis from his novel On Writing can be debated because with “hard work, dedication, and timely help” it is possible for a writer of any skill level to improve to become better. On Writing is intended to teach the basic skills of writing so readers can develop writing skills to progress to be better writers. If one has passion for writing, patience, and the willingness to learn they will succeed in becoming great writers.

When students complete a first draft, they consider the job of writing done – and their teachers too often agree. When professional writers complete a first draft, they usually feel that they are at the start of the writing process. When a draft is completed, the job of writing can begin. That difference in attitude is the difference between amateur and professional, inexperience and experience, journeyman and craftsman. Peter F. Drucker, the prolific business writer, calls his first draft “the zero draft”–after that he can start counting. Most writers share the feeling that the first draft, and all of those which follow, are opportunities to discover what they have to say and how best they can say it. To produce a progression of drafts, each of which says more and says it more clearly, the writer has to develop a special kind of reading skill. In school we are taught to decode what appears on the page as finished writing. Writers, however, face a different

Communication in writing skills for the past six weeks were standards information on different sorts of sources for rapidly flowing needs of today’s writers. This form of writing shows the role of strategies in writing on subjects. It demonstrated contracts between oral communication and written communication. The main ideas in this course discovery, objectives, critical thinking, and tension, valuing course resources time management, and cooperating with others (Giordano 2012). However, the skills for effective writing produce volumes of master’s level for the required resources in this way.

In the article by Downs and Wardle “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions”, the author’s state a common misconception of writing for first year composition is that academic writing is somehow universal. This idea can be misleading since teachers have always taught that there is a basic set of rules for writing. However, I agree with the idea that writing is not universal because college students write for a various number of discourse communities and do not have one general audience. Content, context, and genre are bound to change while attending a university.

Writing is a practice that most of us were taught when we were young. We were taught the basics of grammar, how to form a sentence, conjunction words, how to write paragraphs and more. Although we have learned this skill while growing up and have used the skill every year after entering kindergarten, this does not mean our writing process will ensure the best work. The authors that I chose each encourage their audience to excel in the art of writing in their own way to help with the writing process.

Most elements of writing (development, organization, and style) fit task, purpose, and audience. Some identifiable mismatches.

As the Fall 2017 term comes to end, I look back on what I have accomplished in this class. English 102 – Composition II was one of the most challenging and toughest class I have taken at UW-Stout, but feel as though it has helped me to improve my writing skills. Even before the semester started the feeling of anxiety had taken over, as writing has never been my strongest skill, but stayed positive and confident I would be successful. Much to my surprise, my instructor, Michael Critchfield quickly addressed that this class would not be easy and amazingly changed my views of writing throughout the entire semester.

Writing presents it’s own challenges to those who write books and articles daily; and to those who write less frequently. Getting around using punctuation, placing commas, and figuring out how to start an essay always seemed to be the biggest challenges for me. Through practice is the only way I’ve come to be masterful over my own writing style, even though there is always room for improvement. Because each time someone sits down to write a letter, article, or book; they are practicing their writing style and ultimately becoming better writers. Many people find writing to be a hassle or too cumbersome in a day in age of technology and the internet supplying information to the public so immediate, but everyone must overcome challenges that they

I have always enjoyed writing, and I believed writing was a subject I was naturally good at. I turned in papers that were still rough drafts, I did not evaluate my sources, nor did I ever take the time to fully understand the prompt. It was not until my first semester of college, in my writing composition course, I realized that I had a lot of work ahead of me to be as good a writer as I thought I was. In the writing course, the students were required to compose several essays using different methods to help progress on the course objectives. The work in this portfolio demonstrates that I have used the methods of synthesis and evaluation of sources to advance my critical thinking skills and develop personal responsibility. Though I have

This case study focused on one component of the program: the process of teaching and assessing business writing for the MBA program. Furthermore, they also offered ideas for helping the students who struggled with weak writing skills. The literature on business writing courses is limited, of the 32 programs studied, 18 had required communication classes, and only four had writing proficiency requirements. The