The Writing and I Writing is always difficult and takes a long time, this is my first impression about any writing class. Not only because of its techniques, but also the language was a big obstacle. I don’t see myself as a good writer and writing for me is just a required task Thave to get it done. I moved to the United States three years ago. I have taken English as a first foreign language in my Egyptian school beside Arabic –my native language–. When | moved here and started school, I placed in an ESL class for a quarter and then moved to regular English classes after that.
When I start the writing courses here at UCI, I wasn’t happy about my placement. After, I was taking a regular English classes in high school, I placed in AC English 20C/D. I wished that I had gotten placed in a more advanced writing course. But after finishing these academic courses, I can admit that my enrollment was not a waste and it was the right choice. During these courses, I have improved in many different areas. Doing the essay in three drafts required me to go over and reconsider my essay over and over, which helped me to find the best way to improve my sentences and find the mistakes that I could not see them at the first time.
I also improved my word choices and learned more academic complex expressions. In addition, I got to know how to create the flow by connecting the different ideas and make a smooth transition for the reader. It may be that flow has to do more with the relationships among the ideas in each paragraph, rather than simply the ideas themselves. I felt that what I have learned in these courses would help me to succeed in my composition program here at UCI without struggling with grammar or syntax. Moving to the next level, Writing 39A was a challenging experience for me.
Reading poems and unpacking them, writing my own poem, creating a prose and analyzing the rhetorical techniques of the different genre of writing were a first time experience that showed me the real meaning of the creative writing which is an art, not just a process. In just ten weeks, my persuasive writing skills have been improved dramatically, thanks to many hours spent writing, revising, polishing, and even thinking beyond the prompts. This course taught me several skillsets that I believe that they are the key to success in any future writing class.
The first skillset is the process of creating a creative, interesting, and complex writing. I can summarize this process in three words: “Show, don’t tell”. I have learnt that a vivid picture or situation is the one that helps the reader to see it, to smell it, to touch, to taste it, and to hear it. I have found that in order to paint this picture, I need to use some tools which is called the figurative language like descriptive details, metaphors, dialogue, simile, and different tones and scenes.
The second skillset I have learned in this course is how indirectly drive a message or Truth to the audience. How the reader participates in revealing the truth from the different genre of writing. Writing depends on different literal and rhetorical techniques that used to be a mean for the author to state his/her evidence. This evidence help the readers making their assumptions which are the Truth or the moral of writing. The third skillset I have learned is the rhetorical techniques, using critical and analytical thinking.
Rhetorical device or technique is a technique that the author– the rhetor–uses to convey to the reader –the audience–a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective. This course pushed my limits and made me do things I never thought would have done before. In Writing 39B, I wish to continue improving my writing because I believe that there is always room for improvements. Despite all the improvements and the skills that I have learned, I still need more. I need to focus on the rhetorical analysis in the creative writing rather being heavy on the literary analysis.
I feel there is much more I need to learn about the rhetorical techniques, analyzing the cultural and historical context and how to apply them in my own writing. Also, I need to practice working on some techniques like metaphors and drawing the picture for the reader by using similes and images. I am looking forward to achieve these goal under your guidance. My plans to achieve these goals are seeking help every time I need either from you or the writing center specialists. I also plan to challenge myself and push my limits in order to achieve this course goals.