Reflection on Project 3

In this post I will provide answers to the nine items on page 520 of Writing Public Lives, in order to reflect on Project 3.

Reimchen, Peggy, "Reflections: Colorful icy layers." 11/7/2009 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic.

• What was specifically revised from one draft to another?

One aspect of my project that I specifically revised from one draft to another was my attempt at appealing to my audience's emotions. I tried to get my readers to be emotionally invested into my argument by including a personal narrative, and by making sure to maintain a conversational but still intellectual tone.

• Point to global changes: how did you reconsider your thesis or organization?

I reconsidered the organization of my text by including more sub topics.

• What led you to these changes? A reconsideration of audience? A shift in purpose?

I mainly made these changes based on a reconsideration of my audience. I felt as though refuting more arguments against legalization would help to make my argument, which is pro-legalization, more convincing to my audience who will most likely be mothers, since moms typically like to have a lot of support and reasoning before making a decision.

• How did the changes affect your credibility as an author?

Adding more reasons to aid my argument in supporting the idea of legalization will undeniably boost my credibility as an author because these additional justifications will help to prove that I have quite a well rounded viewpoint on the topic. 

• How will the changes better address the audience or venue?

These changes will better address my audience because the audience of my argument because it will show them there are indeed a plethora of benefits of legalization with regards to the youth of America. If my readers are able to see that the many pro arguments that I present outweigh the typically faulty justification for opposing legalization then I have achieved my purpose.

• Point to local changes: how did you reconsider sentence structure and style?

In my drafts I reconsidered my sentence structure in regards to the complexity of my sentences. I made a conscious effort to simplify my sentence structure. I also tried to achieve an conversational, but still knowledgeable and believable style of writing.

• How will these changes assist your audience in understanding your purpose?

Since I really tried to prevent my argument from seeming to complicated or verbose I helped my argument in achieving its purpose of portraying the idea that the issue of legalization does not have to be so complicated and aggressive, like other arguments make it seem. I want my audience to see that legalization simply must occur, because it will benefit the young people of America tremendously, which is something that my readers would really value.

• Did you have to reconsider the conventions of the particular genre in which you are writing?

Due to the fact that I have been writing in the blog genre all year for the many deadlines that we have completed, I never really had to reconsider the conventions of a blog post. However, when composing my drafts I did make a conscious to keep my sentences and paragraphs brief, as mentioned above, because I typically. Besides trying to maintain brevity in my writing, emulating the genre examples that I found wasn't too hard of a task.

• How does the process of reflection help you reconsider your identity as a writer?

This reflection process has definitely made me aware of how far I have come as a writer this semester. Before 109H began I had no idea what a blog post even was, but now I have written one that I feel is worthy of going onto a respected site. I now realize that I can do way more than what I originally expected from myself in August, when given the freedom to do so. I now see that I am able to adapt my writing style and my formatting choices, in order to satisfy a specific audience and that I can and must employ many rhetorical strategies, in order to appeal to my readers' decision making processes, no matter what style or type of writing I am working on. It is quite apparent to me that my identity as a writer has been improved substantially, my writing can adapt to different genres and different audiences, and I am happy that I have gained the tools and knowledge to do so.