Boyu Ran The Instructors ENG 101 02/25/2018 The Theory of Writing Introduction To My Thesis On the Theory of Writing There are different definitions of the theory of writing for students who are in this ENG 101. However, I believe that the theory of writing means that the writing process which to use the WPA Outcomes and Habits of Mind, not result. What kind of Writer Am I Evolving Into Through ENG 101 ENG 101 teaches us many Habits of Mind and WPA Outcomes to write clearly process for audience. Structure, tone, word choice and etc., are changed flexibly by different readers and topics. My Identify as a Writer Through this part, I will explore my struggles, accomplishments, and ability as the identification of reader, writer and critical thinker to prepare for my future writing. Reader: Struggles--Lazy is my enemy. There are three pieces of peer views for each writing projects. When I saw the length of others’ articles, I almost wanted to give up. In particular, many of their articles did not have similar format, like same margin, same text size and so forth. That is very hard for me to read their projects. However, based on my responsibility, I read all of them word by word, and gave useful feedbacks for their writings. Accomplishments--I use several reading skills—reading thesis statements, the main idea of body paragraphs, conclusions first and using WPA Outcomes to analyze their articles—to understand what the purpose of this writing project. For Writing Project #1, one of these three articles was very confused to understand, because the grammar and logic did not make sense. If I did not fully understand the purpose of article, I cannot give effective feedbacks to him for revising his writing. At here, I cannot post the picture about this problem because I do not know how to go back to see their articles again. However, I use these skills to solve this problem what I think it is important for reading. Ability--Based on the personal experience in ENG101, I got better understand about the habits of mind to succeed in college writing. As a reader, I need to focus on the purpose of writings. After that, based on the supporting details for body paragraphs, I can fully understand how writers process their articles. Writer: Struggles--In this course ENG101, almost all of assignments are about writing. As a beginner, I was so excited to know that I have many chances to practice my writing skills. However, when I saw the requirement of Writing Project #1, I was shocked. The reason why was I never know the structure of autoethnography before. For instance, how to shape a person within my larger community by this activity? How to use details through example, anecdote, and explanation to relate my understanding of the action and its significance. For getting a good grade, I had to ask Google, peers and teachers for help. Accomplishments--In this course ENG101, almost all of assignments are about writing. As a beginner, I was so excited to know that I have many chances to practice my writing skills. However, when I saw the requirement of Writing Project #1, I was shocked. The reason why was I never know the structure of autoethnography before. For instance, how to shape a person within my larger community by this activity? How to use details through example, anecdote, and explanation to relate my understanding of the action and its significance. For getting a good grade, I had to ask Google, peers and teachers for help. Ability--According to habits of mind, my writing skills are improved significantly, especially openness, creativity and curiosity. These habits engage me to see what the world looks like. Also, revising step is very important step for every writers. No one make anything perfect. If I read my articles on several times, I could pick out many grammar errors. Critical Thinker: Struggles--“Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, synthesize, interpret, and evaluate ideas, information, situations, and texts.”(Outcomes 2) “Read a diverse range of texts, attending especially to relationships between assertion and evidence, to patterns of organization, to the interplay between verbal and nonverbal elements, and to how these features function for different audiences and situations.” (Outcomes 2, point 2) Word by word is a good strategy for writers to think it deeply, like what the function of this object is, and how it affects in this writing. I know that I must control critical thinking skill in college writing. However, It was difficult for me to think it deeply. Normally, the first step is for people to accept the news. After that, they give their basic points to evaluate the news, not thinking it deeply. During college writing and this course, I will try my best to be a critical thinker. Accomplishments--Based on one of habits in Habits of Mind that is “openness”, it encourages me to examine my own perspectives to find connections with the perspectives of others. For each Writing Project peer views, I read their articles word by word, while I connected these information to my own experience or any principles. For instance, if they write about their high school life, I would use my experience to explain why I agree with them about most of actions what they did in high school. Ability--We should think about why these materials—photos, data, videos, original sentences, and etc.—we use in our writing. If we know what these materials connect which points in our writing, we can attract audience to read these fantastic writings. My Writings, Outcomes, and Habits of Mind In this section, I will summarize what I learned WPA Outcomes and Habits of Mind from Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing. Rhetorical Knowledge I heard and learned a little bit about “rhetorical knowledge” in my high school. However, I totally forgot when I was a freshman. When I heard these two words on first time, I thought it was rhetoric, such as metaphor, simile and etc. But nowadays, I was wrong. “Rhetorical knowledge is the ability to analyze contexts and audiences and then to act on that analysis in comprehending and creating texts.”(Outcomes 1) Besides rhetoric, use different technologies engages audiences is also one function of rhetorical knowledge. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing The most important outcomes I have learned in this course, ENG101, is critical thinking. To be honest, I was not good at critical thinking. I was like the people who just accept the news, not thinking deeply. However, for Writing Project #1 and #2, there were connected. I cannot afford to neglect my writings. This was why I used special word and rhetoric in my writings. I need to consider that why I should use that word in this paragraph. I think it is a good start. Process Based on WPA Outcomes in this course, it helps me to arrange the time and to use many strategies for multiple drafts. Writers should make their own deadlines for first draft, second draft and final draft. However, I was regretted to delay my writing assignment until the last minute in my university once. There are still two points to explain why delaying writing assignment is not good idea. First, the quality of my assignment is defective. Second, I cannot focus on my lecture at that day. After that, I tried to take multi-strategies to develop and to complete my projects. Knowledge of Conventions In the writing process, I almost used formal rules—cite other official words—and informal guidelines—the story which heard by other people. For instance, for the first writing project, I need to know how to make dumplings. I used a video as source to finish my writings. This is a good start to use the knowledge of conventions. Curiosity and Openness Curiosity and openness are helpful for me to achieve WPA Outcomes. For curiosity, I need to have curiosity to analyze what is principle of this phenomena and how to make it. The definition of curiosity is the desire to know more about the world. For openness, I need to consider new ways to show what it is and to think what the principle is in this world. These two habits can help me improve my critical thinking. Critical thinking is analyzing and evaluating ideas in writing projects. If I do not have any curiosity and open mind, how could I be a critical thinker? My Growth, My Writing, My Future Academic Projects All knowledge I gain in this course, ENG101, will help my academic projects about engineering. Based on my major, I need to write different lab reports and articles to verify some unique phenomena. I need my "openness and curiosity" to find this scientific world. Professional Projects Writing, reading and critical thinking skills will help me to fully understand what I should write reports in technology. Also, curiosity, engagement and responsibility help me to write technology report perfectly. Personal Projects Except a student, I am also a video editor. The knowledge—habits of mind and WPA Outcomes—which is in this course can make me think deeply why I use these materials like words and rhetoric. Writing is like editing video or photographs. For instance, why I must use this scene at this time, not later. And why I did choose this song as background music in this short video.
Academic Projects Academic Report
Professional Projects Technology Report
Personal Projects Film Editing
Concluding Thoughts In conclusion, this writing project is kind of self-reflection. I introduced some information about writer’s current struggles, accomplishments, and abilities as different identifications. As a reader, I hope that reader should figure it out what the meaning of articles. As a writer, keeping writing is very useful for each students to practice their writing skills, like assignments in this course. As a critical thinker, we have to think everything deeply. It helps us to broaden our horizons to analyze why this situation would be happened. Also, the WPA Outcomes and Habits of Mind provide me many ways to explore my world—writing and editing—deeply. I know when we get the exact level in writing, we can produce the result. However, based on our capacities, we cannot produce the perfect result. So, the theory of writing, nowadays, is writing process.