Strengths and weakness: shaken, not stirred

I find it incredibly amusing ,actually, because the assignment I found the most challenging, the advertisement analysis paper, I got an 83 on. The assignment I found easiest to write, the rhetorical analysis of the New York Times column, I got a 73 on. So while I may have found the advertisement essay harder to write, I got a better grade on it than on the rhetorical analysis that I enjoyed writing. I think that actually says a lot about my writing, because while my personal words and views flowed better when writing the rhetorical analysis, as an academic paper it failed in places.

I am a stronger writer when I’m not bound by rules and strictures and the perfect thesis and evidence to back up said thesis, and the rhetorical analysis felt too much like a free write for me. I expressed my feelings, and while I wasn’t wrong in doing that, I missed key things that would have made my paper more of a rhetorical analysis, like the assignment called for, and less of me ranting about hypocrisy and calling the article author a moronic idiot every other paragraph. I jumped on the wiggle room the provided and turned it into room for a dance party.

The advertisement analysis had a lot more definition. I had a specific purpose the paper had to fulfill, and I didn’t have the opportunity to throw my opinion around with it. There was point A, point B, and point C, and my job was to make them flow well together, neat and organized. That was a lot less fun for me, and when writing isn’t really fun, the words don’t flow as easily. So because I had the structure of the advertisement analysis to follow, I hit more correct points and got a better grade, but I struggled to get there and didn’t really enjoy the process.

This class really helped with my essay writing skills. As much as I love writing as a whole, essays were something I struggled with a lot my last two years of high school, when the topics became more academic and less personal. I know how to come up with a starting thesis (I think I need a little more help before I can work out a final thesis on my own) and how to turn it into a decent college-level paper, and I definitely could not do that at the beginning of the semester.