Connor Owen

Professor Franzese

English 160

December 2nd, 2024

Growing and Evolving as a Writer

Dear ePortfolio Reader,

Prior to taking English 160, I had always enjoyed writing and have considered it to be a passion of mine. While it had always been a passion and something I believed I had wanted to do for the rest of my life, it also brought me immense comfort to do so. While I have trouble expressing my own emotions and conversing with others through verbal communication, I never had this issue with writing. When I was feeling some emotion, or a lack of, I knew I could always write it down. I used writing as my main tool when it came to expressing my emotions. I wrote letters to people in my life, wrote poetry to myself, and wrote essays on music I enjoyed solely because it was my favorite thing to do. Taking English 160 has affected my writing process heavily, specifically outlining and drafting. Prior to this class I wrote everything from the beginning to the end in its entirety. In class, I read an excerpt from Anne Lamott which changed my perspective on my writing process. Lamott states “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something — anything — down on paper.” (Lamott).  Lately, I have been drafting each one of my paragraphs, giving each one a few sentences to put down an idea that I can later revisit and expand upon. This way of writing is more efficient and motivating for my own writing process.

I believe that the most successful of my assignments in English 160 was the media review essay. I reviewed the album “Deathconsciousness” by Have a Nice Life. I organized this essay into three separate body paragraphs, each one representing an aspect which makes it a great album. Within each of these paragraphs, I used lyrics within the album as evidence for my claims. While I feel my media review was the most successful of my assignments, the assignment in which I am the least proud of is my open letter. If I could revise it now, I could have changed the tone to be more consistent and properly display a sense of urgency for the issue. I attempted to make the issue seem important to the reader, though at times I was inconsistent with maintaining the urgent tone. Another aspect of my open letter I would revise is making the goal of the letter more clear. My letter could have been considered a call to action, but the action itself was unclear at points. I would have established that more rather than letting it sit behind the emotional appeal in terms of importance.

English 160 also required me to create a publicly visible ePortfolio. This process was easy by itself, though the idea of someone other than my instructor reading writing I have done was a mental hurdle for me. It helped me get over my fear of sharing writing, which has not completely dispersed yet is actively being improved upon. From that point on I had to consider that others may read what I have written, which heavily affected my writing process. While the style itself remained the same, I began to worry about the vulnerability I show in my writing and attempt to limit it. While it is still a very important aspect in my writing, I keep it to a minimum knowing I cannot choose who reads this and it will affect the reader’s perception of myself. As English 160 comes to an end, I find myself far more confident for future writing classes such as English 170. I can now confidently research and cite topics I previously had no knowledge on. I believe that is my greatest improvement as a writer and what will assist me in my future research and argumentative writing. I also feel more prepared by cutting down on procrastination and completing assignments on time. While that is still an issue I need to work on, in the last year there has been immense improvement and I hope I only improve from here.

After English 160, my confidence as a writer has improved, along with establishing better writing and general work habits. These can be attributed to my better understanding of citations, formatting, and writing techniques. Prior to this class, I struggled with citations the most out of any aspect of writing. We did several assignments in class including citing research which helped me develop the skill which will be beneficial and used for the rest of not only my academic journey, but my life. These writing skills and confidence in writing ability will continue to prove useful until the day when my hands can no longer pick up a pen. So far I have used these skills developed in class for other courses with writing assignments. My new approach to outlining has increased my writing productivity drastically. That technique specifically helps me get work done sooner and in a more organized manner. Another way in which I have used my skills from class has been writing poetry. While very different from argumentative style essays, the same techniques apply and can be used to be more efficient with any writing medium. I feel more confident in my ability to tell a story and keep an audience engaged. When I read “Everyone’s an Author” in class, I realized my faults as a writer – “a good narrative provides more than just the facts; it gives us a well-told story that captures not only our attention but also our imagination.” (Lunsford). I realized I can’t just list events to tell a story, I need to engage the reader and make it their story too. This has benefited my creative writing mostly, but has improved my argumentative writing for the use of emotional appeal.  I no longer struggle with transcribing my thoughts and ideas to paper, further expanding upon them afterwards. While I’ve always loved writing, English 160 helped me nurture that love and let it expand into its truest potential.

 

Best,

Connor Owen

 

Works Cited

Lamott, Anne. Shitty First Drafts Anne Lamott from Bird by Bird. 2005.

Lunsford, Andrea A. Everyone’s an Author with Readings. 3rd ed., New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.