Re: First Steps (Source-Based Essay)
I entered English Composition knowing that but this class taught me new components that I have not considered. The main theme of this class is language and different forms of language. In this class, I learned of different forms of writing and different ways of looking at a piece of writing. In the beginning, we learned of the different components a writer takes into account when writing a paper. These components are the author, audience, tone, purpose, genre, medium, stance, and language. Most of these seem self-explanatory but even if we know what these mean and what they are we do not really look for them when reading or writing a paper. Being able to notice these components now is something I was not able to do before August. It becomes sort of natural for you to start looking for these components when reading a paper. This is called a Rhetorical analysis, being able to pinpoint these components or rhetorical devices and then analyzing them to figure out the reason behind each intention is what we will have to do in order to understand the paper you are reading or writing more. After learning about rhetoric and analyzing them, I had to write a Source-Based essay consisting of just rhetorical components of your research and tying them back to language. In this essay, our analysis could not have our stances inputted into it. This meant that you were not taking sides on an opinion, you were merely stating facts and information on the sources, and their credentials. This was hard to do because of how we are naturally taking sides subconsciously and to resist that urge proved difficult when writing this paper.
Structures (Inquiry-Based Essay)
In the next essay, the Inquiry-Based essay, we inputted our stances on the subject we chose this meant more sources and new research on a specific side or specific topic. When doing research it is important to make sure the source or the writer of your source is reliable. To make sure of this, you need further research of the author to find his credentials and whether he is considered reliable in the topic of the article he is writing. Or to save your self from doing further research on the reliability of the source it is better to just use a scholarly article that is always reliable and contains a lot more in-depth research for your paper to use. In my Inquiry-Based essay, I wrote about how art is a language and how art is able to affect the public’s opinion to cause social some sort of social change. When I was trying to find sources for this, I found scholarly articles as well as sources from google. Although the articles I found as sources were long, I did not read it all, instead, I looked at the topic sentences of each part of the article and then only took certain sentences out to be used as quotes and phrases. As for the searches for google, I used it to search for general terms or examples of artwork that I can use in my paper, then did further research on that specific artwork to be able to write an in-depth paragraph on it.
When I was writing my papers, I needed to relate it back to art as a language and how it causes social changes. To do this I thought of it logically, and this lead to me first breaking down what art and language are. From there, I proved that art is a form of language, and then after that point was proven or made clear, I was able to use the examples to prove they cause a change in society. So if my examples were able to explain the fact that art was able to cause a change in society, then that equates to art, which is a language, was able to spark some sort of movement, and therefore Art as a language was effective in changing the opinions of the public. This was how I created the structure of my last essay and how I formulated ideas together. Besides just writing ideas and words out, you also have to think about it structurally, and the clarity of the paper. If you just dump eight pages of words onto a paper, the eyes will wander and the reader will not know where to focus or what the main idea is. So for better clarity, I used visual aids and I added headings and titles for each general idea I was trying to convey in each part of my essay.
Visualizing and Formulating (C2G)
After doing so much writing in this class, comes a more fun and creative exercise. Composition of two Genres, C2G for short, is creatively conveying the same ideas you have been trying to get across to readers in the Inquiry-based and Source-Based essay through two completely different genres of your choosing. When I heard of this assignment, I immediately thought of drawing and poems. This was because of how versatile and abstract poems can be in conveying messages as well. As for drawings I thought of that because I have been constantly writing about art. To connect it all together, what else but a real-life example from me on how art guides the thoughts and opinions of the spectator.
2 Genres, Cover and Poem(final)
