First stepping into this class I was a little nervous, and also excited to advance my knowledge in English and writing at a collegiate level. At that point in time I felt I had a mediocre understanding on the concepts and base fundamentals of source citing and writing academically but knew there was room for growth. How much growth? I didn’t know. That was the questioning bouncing around in the back of my head. Academic writing and source citing have always been something I felt I struggled in, so I was eager to learn more about the topic, its proper techniques, and grasp a more in depth analysis of it.
My perspective on academic writing had been that it should be extremely straight forward, fact filled, and to the point. Strong quotes from the author should be found throughout the work, and little or no emotional input from the writer. To say the least I believed it to be very dull and lacking intellectually creativity. It was a form of writing that I did not enjoy or was even remotely interested in, but knew it was extremely important to my academic success. Although I struggled at times I felt I had the mechanics for the process of academic writing strongly embedded in my work. I knew how to find sources and site them correctly, but I was an extremely conservative writer, and had just begun to scratch the surface of my understanding for this form of writing.
I can still remember my first research paper in sixth grade. Every student was assigned a historical figure, and had to write a three to five page paper about them. I was lucky enough to get Baby Face Nelson. I have always been fascinated with the early 1900’s and the bank robbing outlaws that accompanied that time period I felt it would be an easy and fun assignment for me. As we began to learn about citations and using sources I struggled. I can recall my hard nose teacher reviewing my paper and shaking his head through its entirety. The fact was I had plagiarized most of my paper directly from the source. I couldn’t remember him ever discussing plagiarism in class. (Maybe I was sick that day) I had no idea what it was or the fact that it was illegal. As he handed back my paper and said the entire thing needed to be changed, my heart sank. All the time I had spent, which in those days a few hours then seemed like an eternity, had been a waste of time. That was my first academic disappointment but also my first constructive criticism.
Prior to this English 102 a large extent of my experience in academic writing came solely from my senior project. Although it was a very extensive assignment, it only dealt with the basics of academic writing. As we started class a few weeks ago and began to dive into the readings, I found myself very lost and felt I didn’t have an adequate base for the course. Fortunately as we continued I became more confident in my abilities. Completing Extended Bibliography number one was a real eye opener. I had never completed a piece of work quite like this, and after reviewing fellow group member’s work and receiving reflections on my own. I had realized much of what I had been taught was incorrect. My format for sourcing articles was wrong, and I had to fall back on the Owl Purdue web site to recognize my flaws and correct them. This was a simple transition and an easy mistake to correct. Comparing my work to class mates are summarizes and analysis were very similar, but the work differed in the reflections. They really seemed to dig into the article, asking questions and providing personal input, changes and improvements that could be made. My reflection was very brief and simple compared to others. Destiny really helped me understand this. In her group reflection on my bibliography she stated “I wanted to ask you how you felt about your article. In our reading (Writing Analytically) it suggests finding things in the article you find strange or interesting”. This was a strong point I had missed while reading. I know understood the differences in are reflections. The suggestion to find strange things in the article to reflect on really stuck out to me. Instead of just reviewing the important points in an article I know want to strive to find the strange things, and question them. This is a strategy I believe will help me write more interesting research papers that the reader will enjoy and in turn be able to pull more information from.
My preexisting tactic to finding sources was typing my topic into Google or another search engine, and choosing the website or article with the most text. Having mass amounts of information, allowed me to have many different points to choose from while writing my paper. The class readings of (Writing Analytically) has a very strong point, about choosing the best source for your topic and states something I had not noticed I even did before reading the text. It states “If a person agrees with what a source says, they say it's good, and they cut and paste the part they can use as an answer. If the source somehow disagrees with what they already believe, they say it's bad, and they attack it or along with readings they find it hard or boring and discard it” The information I have received from in class discussions along with this statement have completely changed the way I find sources, and the process I go through to analyze one. I now use the databases talked about in class to locate sources and then choose articles that have a different perspective then me. This helps make for a more interesting read, As a writer you can argue your beliefs back in forth with the statements from the source.
This class has helped me so much with academic writing. The course work has been tailored just right for me to become educated as possible in the subject. Readings can be difficult to understand the first time through but after completing the work and discussing topics in class the main points become clear and push me to grow as a writer. This entire unit has complicated my understanding not only of academic writing but of English as a whole. Which has forced me to grow and learn as a student. (sorry richard It wouldent let me tab)