Rudolph 1

Robert Rudolph Jr.

Professor Granillo

English 103

30 May 2019

On Writing

My SMART Goal for this semester was to develop a stronger thesis in my writing. I am

typically good at pulling credible sources and tying points together, however I feel like I can do

more to create a constructive argument. Something else I wanted to improve on during this

semester were my transitions between paragraphs. This was my weakest spot when writing

essays but it is such an essential to writing a smooth paper. I feel that both of these goals were

accomplished during this semester. My thesis’ became much stronger and direct as well as my

transitions were fairly clean and apparent in the majority of my essays.

Prior to a college writing class, the only writing experience I had was in my high school

English classes. I feel that my writing was very based on presenting facts and writing a couple

sentences on them. In addition, due to being taught that essays must have the same specific

structure my essays always seemed boring as I felt I had to meet a “quota”, for lack of a better

term.

A technique that I have learned is to develop an analysis of the argument. As mentioned

before, I was taught how to present facts through “concrete detail” and never really got into the

portion of what this means to the audience and why it should matter. I feel that the analysis is a

skill that is mandatory for writing a well composed and credible argument, rather than just

relying on evidence.
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While I have learned how to form the analysis, I’m still only on the beginning step. Thus,

I feel it is still my weakest part of my writing as it’s something that will become more natural

and easier over time. Additionally, I feel that I have many instances where I’m repetitive.

Finding new ways to write the same idea has always been a struggle of mine that I don’t feel I

am creative enough to do at this point.

I plan on utilizing English throughout my academic and professional careers through

formal environments. While I do believe that it’s important to always practice how you want to

present yourself, I also believe that it is not mandatory to constantly be strictly following the

rules and concepts of the English language in every environment. However, since being a music

teacher is my future career, one way that I will use my English skills is by analyzing the text of

the song that I am singing; which is already something that I do now in my current studies.

Overall, English is very important but I do feel that it is only necessary in a formal environment.