Starting off with “Me as a Writer” I still feel the same way about myself as a writer. Writing has become something I somewhat dread doing. Especially when it comes to topics that I am not interested or educated in, I find it extremely hard to get my ideas to flow together. I have struggled with explaining my ideas and thought process. I also have struggled with finding the correct words to use when trying to express a certain point or idea. Those are some of the key factors that I would like to improve on moving forward. One of my favorite pieces of writing was “Observe & Describe: The Great Allentown Fair.” Writing this piece was actually interesting which is why at least to me it was very descriptive and entertaining to read. Over the course of the semester, my writing has changed overall for the better. In the beginning of the semester, I feel like it was a lot harder for me to just get at the question. Meaning I feel like I often went around the question or the assigned writing prompt instead of just targeting the question and then going off of it.
My writing is good in the sense that I have really good ideas and the points I make are clear. In my first formal essay, “Representing “the Orient,” I thought my thesis and claims were very strong and coherent. I even enjoyed the use of language in that essay, as that is a point I often struggle with. The conclusion of that essay was something I also really felt like was powerful and effective. The main thing I struggled with in this essay was making the claims flow and supporting each other. That is often the main issue I have with many of my writings and hope to improve on that factor. It is very easy for me to come up with the claims and points but making the points flow into each other is something that is very difficult for me to do. This might relate to the idea discussed above about not being able to put my thought process into words.
“A different ending to the Nights” was particularly well-wrought because it was a topic that I was very interested in writing about. Not only did I enjoy Aladdin, I was always eager for a happy ending. Therefore, writing this piece was extremely easy and came easy to me which is why I believe it was well written. Some of the pieces I would like to rewrite are “Reading with the Grain” and “Prologue to Arabian Nights.” Although both pieces had a strong claim, both writings needed more description and stronger points. For example in “Prologue to Arabian Nights,” a claim I made was “Shahrazad plays a big role in affecting the decisions of the king.” What is her role? How does she affect the decisions that the king is making? What decisions is the king making? All of these unanswered questions will help make the claim clearer and coherent. I should not assume that the reader knows the answers to these questions and should provide more context.
