Theory of writing

Writing has always been a challenging yet important aspect of my academic career. It is the tool that I have used to communicate my research to a given audience. Throughout this semester, my theory of writing has changed dramatically in that the methods and practices that I have learned in this class has enabled my ability to express my views more effectively. Several rhetorical devices, such as audience, tone, purpose, and word choice have been crucial to my improvement in writing. Brainstorming, drafting, peer reviews, group work, and revisions have also helped me to accomplish my utmost potential in this class.

Audience and Tone

Learning to identify the specific audience of a paper has helped me to focus my viewpoints and provide a more understandable argument. For example, in the technical description of a lock and key, the intended audience was manufacturers and safety regulators. Knowing this, I was obligated to bring up certain aspects of the technology that were relevant to these people such as listing the materials and densities. The job of a technical description is not just to inform, but to persuade. My use of an assertive tone and word choice is a practice that I was forced to learn while writing this paper because of its persuasive nature. For example, words such as absolutely, and undeniably came in handy when trying to convince readers of the importance of safety, in the manufacturing of a lock and key. Hence, identifying the audience and the practice of an assertive tone, both helped to effectively strengthen the arguments in my technical description through improving the writing aspect.

Purpose Analysis 

Purpose is a rhetorical term that describes the main objective and explains the reasons for a piece of writing. Another important thing that I have learned this semester is that by understanding the purpose behind an innovation, one can write more effectively. For example, for the group proposal, my task was to write a technical description of the fire hydrant cap. If I did not fully understand why this invention was useful, and what it could do to improve the conservation of water, I would have never convinced my audience of how the system works. The valve seal, complements the copper tubing, and paints the picture for the audience to visualize how the fire hydrant cap will reduce water loss through its plumbing system. Another very useful method that was practiced this semester was brainstorming in the form of outlines. I found that creating outlines propelled the drafting process into a very smooth transition. This is because when drafting without an outline one has too many disorganized points that need to be discussed and do not fall into place properly. An outline completely eliminated his problem through chronologically listing each point along with specific examples under each one.

Writing Process 

Drafting has always been a part of my personal writing process which greatly prepared me for the lessons in this class. Before submitting a paper, I must have at least two drafts thoroughly checked before I could be proud of my work. I simply believe that drafting takes away the stress of time management as well because the work is spread out. One thing in this class that was previously unfamiliar to me but I found surprisingly helpful was peer review. It is never easy to see your own flaws, which is why, handing my drafts to my friends shined the light on all of my writing weaknesses that I had not allowed myself to see. For example, a problem that I had was my lack of descriptive language in my writing. The more that people viewed my work, the more flaws they would find, and eventually the papers would improve. I also started to notice that my papers for my Theater History class had also improved because I implemented more descriptive analysis. Reviewing other people’s works filled me with new ideas that I had implemented in some of my own. The importance of revision cannot be understated as it is what we had done the most besides drafting. No matter how many times we would revise a paragraph I do not think that we ever truly felt satisfied with what we had. However, we did the best that we could and I am proud of that. Hence, the importance of revision, group work, and drafting is not to be understated as they have dramatically improved my writing this semester.