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Anthony Gutierrez

Professor Beadle

English 115

December 2 2017

Writing Is A Pain

Writing has always been a frustrating process that consists of blood sweat and many

tears. At the beginning of the semester I was worried that I would not be able to perform well in

a university level English class. I believed my writing was mediocre; I am a stubborn person that

has been told that I am a good writer since my elementary years, but I am not at my full

potential. It is now the end of the semester and I believe college has improved my writing, and

my ability to follow directions has improved. I am the type of person that has to be beaten like a

dog in order to follow rules and advice that have been given to me. I have improved as a writer,

because my process for writing papers has significantly improved. My grammar and spelling

errors have significantly been reduced. Writing is still excruciatingly painful, but I have

developed a tolerance for the painful process. Analyzing and viewing ideas from different

perspectives has becoming easier. Improving as a writer means learning from ones own

mistakes, and implementing them in future writings.

This course revolved around monsters, and peoples fears. For these projects my task was

to give my interpretation of monsters and personal experiences. In project space the assignment

was to write about a workspace that I had experienced personally. I choose to write about

construction, but the body of my essay was a little too vague. I had to provide specific examples

to support my claims in order to reinforce my argument. Brainstorming before beginning to write

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helps to organize my thoughts and place evidence after my claims and explaining situations

clearer and more detailed. The most difficult part for me was creating a thesis that answered the

prompt clearly, and I was able to support my thesis with enough evidence to have a valid

argument. In my project space paper, I was making claims about what made construction

monstrous, but I would not provide personal experiences to support my claims. In the following

projects, project text, I would use quotes that reinforced my argument. What also reinforces an

argument is a counter argument, because it responds to the readers objections.

In continuation, I have improved my use of counterarguments in my writing. A

counterargument is supposed to address the readers objections or doubts about my argument.

This makes the reader believe that the writer is reasonable, and has considered other perspectives

before taking a stance on a topic. In my first project, project space, I did not have a good

counterargument that opposed the thesis; in result of not having a good counterargument my

thesis lacked credibility. I believe that writing should answer all of the readers questions with

detail and evidence. In project text I argued that Godzilla, as a monster, did change between both

films. In my text I acknowledged the similarities between the original and new monster, in order

to address the readers opinions on the monster. I have the habit of giving too much background

information but not enough evidence to support my arguments. In my projects I would jump

around with arguments, and did not make sure that the paragraphs were relevant to each other.

Furthermore, my use of quotes and evidence have improved be providing more

background on my sources. In my earliest project I would utilize a quote to give credibility to my

argument, but I would not introduce the quote. In my most recent project, project media, I would

introduce the author and source from which the quote comes from. I previous papers paper I

would insert a quote without introducing it, and it made the quotes almost irrelevant to my
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argument. Before the quote it I found it helpful to give some information on context in which the

quote is used. The technique of the Quote Sandwich helped with the effectiveness of the

quotes used for evidence. I also improved with analyzing and interpretations of the monsters we

used throughout the course.

At the beginning of the semester I had trouble with analyzing, and not being able to view

ideas from different perspectives. I found my last project to be the most difficult to write about

because I had to create an argument on two things that I had never compared before. From

previous assignments and resources I was able to analyze construct a valid argument about

werewolves and homophobia. By talking to other people and doing some reading I was able to

make my own interpretation of the monster and a current issue in America. From my claims and

interpretations I learned how to expand on my ideas I presented to the reader.

In conclusion, I believe I have improved as a writer, because I have seen improvement

with the quality of my essays. My writing process has improved, and involves less frustration

than normal. What I found most helpful was organizing ideas, and discussing my argument with

peers before beginning to write. Organization is very important when writing, because it benefits

me as a writer when I am explaining my argument to the reader. The evidence that I use in my

body paragraphs are now chosen carefully and utilized correctly in my paragraphs. As a writer

my job is to give the reader as much information as possible in order to convince them about my

thesis statement, and the claims made through out the essay. Persuasive writing has helped me

become a better writer overall, because it has given me a new perspective on how to convince an

audience. I have shown improvement throughout my assignments, and have shown a better

understanding on how to write an effective persuasive essay. I am a better writer now than I was

in the beginning of this semester.