What The Difference Between Joseph Williams And Mcenerney

Writing is something we have been used to since childhood. Beginning to write with just a few words and activities to improve our pendmanship. From easy sentences we all gradually improve our writing, as expected from higher levels of education. However, throughout all this time, many of us have been writing blind. Only writing what is seen an necessary, oblivious to the true skill and precision it takes to actually write quality work. Through the use of Anne Lammott’s article “Shitty First Drafts” and personal experiences, I will advice you, my fellow freshman, on certain a aspect of writing that you may not have known prior to joining the college world, as well as offer some life advice.

In their book They Say I Say, Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst outline strategies writers can use to avoid common mistakes often seen in academic writing. The book thoroughly outlines the different components that make up academic writing, such as initially summarizing what others have said before, responding with original ideas, proving a purpose to the writing, and connecting the writing in a logical and eloquent manner.

In my first “Who I am as a Writer” paper I stated how one of the areas that I needed to improve was writing. I went into more depth talking about how my writing is not descriptive enough and how I cannot grab the reader's attention. Even though I still need to continue making improvements, I have gotten better in both of these aspects. Compared to my papers in high school my introduction paragraphs have improved.

As I look back into my high school years, I thought I wrote papers well. But then coming into a college environment, my papers were mediocre. By overlooking at my past papers, I found that they were unorganized, sloppy and had bad use of diction. From now on, I will use the tools I learned in English 1100-40 as a foundation for the future papers I intend on writing in college. Following the criteria of organizing ideas so that they flow, impacting the reader with diction and also by being creative, will help become an ideal writer. Following the criteria of staying motivated in short and long term goals, taking responsibility for actions and finally the ability to study well will help me develop into a supreme student.

The Little Seagull Handbook, by Richard Bullock, Michal Brody, and Francine Weinberg, is a book full of advice on the writing process. The book is divided up into sections which helps students to easily find the topic they need to review. Section W-4e on opening and closing paragraphs was used to improve my conclusions. I do not have a lot of trouble with conclusions, but I feel that mine do not fit as smoothly into my essays as they should. Therefore, I decided that it was best to improve my conclusions. The section lists out several tactics to form a conclusion, such as, summarizing the essay, discussing the implication of the essay’s argument, and giving a call to some kind of action. Reading the section has given me several ideas on how to finish an essay. Now I can either plan which tactic to use ahead of

"Writing with a Difference" in Chapter 1 of Mirror on America emphasizes on getting started in writing (14). Writing is a big task for many of us and starting to write is probably the hardest part. They explain a few methods in order to get moving and start writing, such as brainstorming, which includes doing outlines and clustering or webbing. These methods can help us put our thoughts together and narrow down topics giving us an advantage when writing. "Considering Purpose, Audience, and Attitude" are very important concepts to consider before beginning a paper (16). They break the paper into steps explaining and giving examples of each: hooking the reader, identifying a thesis, supporting the thesis, organizing the content,

As the semester approaches a conclusion, I have discovered for myself that I happen to exhibit not simply on how I have endured this semester, but then again also what I have gained in knowledge of. In the past four months, I would consider that I obtain an accomplishment of achievement in improving my writing techniques. The most important principle that I have discovered so far ensues on how to become an improved writer. With each writing assignment, I learned additional methods and skills, which tweaked my capabilities to develop my thoughts in detail on paper, to write clearly, and to organize my essays efficiently. In previous years, I would frequently catch myself irritated believing I had terrible writer’s block standing in my path of writing an organized essay. This created a feeling as if I could not distinguish how to write properly and the reasoning behind my hatred for writing. During high school, I learned the Modern Language Association (MLA) formats for bibliographies and parenthetical citations, consequently at the beginning of the fall semester, I knew only this format. I was able to learned the correct format for the American Psychological Association (APA) style when doing each assignment at hand.

Over the course of this semester, I have learned many things to improve my writing. Having taken the course before, this semester has been an excellent opportunity to expand on my existing knowledge. Although I had written many essays before, there is still much to be learned and improved. Two factors of writing that I had learned or improved on this semester were transitions/topic sentences and how to properly structure a conclusion paragraph.

The first changes I have made was to applying a WHAT in the beginning since I was taught that it was essential to have a WHAT, HOW, and WHY in a paper. It was odd to start a paragraph

This chapter also taught me he importance a ntroduction and a conclusion has. Decourm chapter 7 states “The introduction to your essay is a invitation to the reader. If your invitation is boring, they won’t join you” (63). I learned that if your introduction is not powerful or appealing the reader may become lost and not intrested. Decorum aalso states “Conclusions are also important because they explang the essay’s ideas in a larger context and undercover why the discussion was worthwhile” (63).

I entered my first-year college composition course believing I was equipped with the knowledge, skill, and ability to write an efficiently researched and well-organized essay. In high school, I learned how to create the traditional five-paragraph paper with its introduction of a thesis, explanation of that claim through three sections riddled with supporting quotes, and conclusion that restated the author’s substantiated statement. This was the prescribed formula I had learned and grown accustomed to using for book reports, compare-and-contrast papers, and research essays and, from my bestowment of high grades and praise, I’d never thought to question or deviate from its pattern. When I attended my first college writing class, I thought

     When writing a paper it can be very difficult unless you break it up into sections. When I had to write my first paper I felt like a man on a desert island all alone without a clue on how to do anything. But with the help of a few teachers they taught me how to survive on the island of writing papers. What the teachers taught me was that just like everything in life it needs to be taken in steps. The steps they taught me still apply to the papers I write to this day.

Joseph Williams and Lawrence McEnerney, in the third chapter of Writing in College, offer strategies for revising a paper, including suggestions regarding the point (or thesis), the organizational structure of the a paper, the evidence, and the attitude of the argument as a whole. The first step of the revision process “is intended to ensure that the beginning and end of your paper cohere with each other” (14). To accomplish this first step, Williams and McEnerney recommend isolating the point in the introduction and conclusion, and ensuring these sections communicate the same argument. Williams and McEnerney also suggest two different methods to communicate a point: point-first, in which the introduction contains a full statement of the argument

“ In writing your thesis statement you need to think about your final paper. What is it really that you will be talking about? You need to summarize those four points that will make up the body paper”

At this point in college you should have mastered all the past techniques that were taught to you. The only new ideas that you may learn in writing is the use of Ethos, pathos, and logos. Logos is the use of logic in your essays, pathos is the use of emotions to appeal to your audience, and ethos is the credibility of your essay as in where you got the evidence from. You have to be able to successfully give evidence in the essay and give proper credit to the source of the information. Also at this point of writing you should know what type of language you need to use so that it appeals to the audience/readers of the essay. You should be able to write a well written introduction that introduces the novel or writing topic, and you have to provide a good ammount background information too. Lastly the most important part of the introduction, if not the single most important of your essay is the thesis. The body paragraphs must have smooth transitions between them and start of each of them with topic sentence that relates to the thesis statement. In the body paragraphs one should have enough evidence so that you are able to fully and thoroughly explain each one if your ideas. Lastly the conclusion should be able to restate the thesis of the essay, summarize the contents of the essay, and leave the readers with a