During this course, I have learned many things about writing and analysis. My biggest takeaway from experiencing this course is what rhetoric is and best practices on analyzing works rhetorically. Before this class began, my understanding of writing was basic in the sense of different formats. E.g. Essays, reports, short-story, etc. After completing this course, I now understand that like artists, (whether with paint or music), writers have their own style of creating written works of art. Understanding this concept now allows me to better perform at work whenever I write emails, draft reports on support tickets, etc.
While learning about writing, my biggest take away is how we write and how to recognize writing patterns. In the assignment: Flash Narrative, we wrote a personal story that required us to go into detail of scenery, sensory, atmosphere, etc. While completing this assignment, I learned that being detailed with our writing can hook a reader’s attention places them in the world you’re writing about.
Rhetoric was another concept we learned a lot about. In the assignment: Writing Does Work in the World, we were required to find an artifact and analyze it rhetorically. This assignment taught me that everything humans make has some form of rhetoric from the shape of the piece, to the color and font choice. Everything we do was based on a single decision at one point. That decision then inspired other decisions that eventually ended with the final product.
Another concept that we learned was about how writing is a form of action. In the assignment: Definition Remix, we learned that words have a lot of power and different meanings. We learned that not only is our word choice the same throughout different cultures, regions, age, gender, etc.; but so is the context we use them in. You can’t have action without words or writing.
While learning how to write, we learned the writing process with includes deliberation. This deliberation can include anything from what you’re going to write about to the genre. This was reflected in my paper about rhetorically analyzing Simon and Garfunkel’s song: Bridge Over Troubled Water. I had to deliberate which song I was going to choose, what I was going to include in the analysis, and how I would structure the paper. I learned that good writing must also include good deliberation, and good deliberation must include good engagement.
When writing my analysis on Bridge Over Troubled Water, I had to engage myself within the song itself. I listened to it multiple times, as well as some of the other songs listed on the same album. I conducted a lot of research into the song and the band itself. During this semester I learned that writing is a process of engagement by thinking about what to write, researching if necessary, revising and collaborating.
The final concept I learned in this course was contingency. This is best reflected in the Definition Remix assignment. This assignment taught me that our words, symbols, shapes, signs, etc. are all contingent on our culture, situation, person, or the purpose of the artifact. I learned that just one word can have numerous meanings throughout the world and time.
While completing our final project which analyzed everything we wrote during this course, I have learned that as a writer, I tend to conduct deep analysis into what I’m writing about, make connections, and then find humorous links between these connections. My most significant learning experience in this class was learning that we are creatives and that we all have our own rhetoric that can be found everywhere. This was significant to me because we don’t often realize that everything we make could’ve had a lot of thought and work put into it and sometimes it’s good to realize and appreciate this.
The most influential take away from this course was learning about how writing is a resource and tool that we use to accomplish things. We write to teach, we write to present and we write to invoke change. This take away was beneficial to me because I consider myself a person who values change. I believe that if you want to improve yourself, you first must be willing to change yourself.
If I could present any advice to future students taking this course I would advise them to make sure when analyzing pieces, to look at everything in detail. Being detailed and opening your field of vision can allow you to write even more than what you would’ve noticed before. If I could offer any advice to my Professor who was teaching this course, I would suggest including more in-class discussions. In my opinion, in-class discussions are a great way to learn from peers on their thoughts and opinions about the subject at hand.
This section includes my best work from this course. Using the tabs above, you can click around to view my work.