English 2010 Improved My Writing and Also My Life

Part 1:

I chose to make homelessness my local issue because I felt it was something

everyone here in Utah knows about, but not a lot of people actually understand what the

real causes are and all of the effects that come along with it. I went about forming my

perspective on this topic by doing a lot of research and having a real passion to help those

who are less fortunate than I am. My perspective on the homeless problem did actually

shift quite a bit from the beginning of the semester due to my discovering that much of

what causes homelessness is just being born into a bad situation or being at the wrong

place at the wrong time. This realization really helped me gain a better understanding of

those who are in this terrible situation. One source that really shaped my understanding

was Lloyd Pendelton’s TED talk on Utah’s, “Housing First Initiative” because of how

effective it was at not only helping homeless people to get off the street, but rehabilitating

them into healthy, happy and productive members of society.

One of the main reasons I chose the mediums I did my different assignments in is

because I wanted to share what I learned in a way that I found enjoyable to write and

learn from. I definitely drew a lot of connections between my profile of Lloyd Pendelton

and my infographic. Though my infographic was intended to mostly inform people about

the homeless issue; I took a lot of the personal narrative touches I learned from the profile

and put them in with the facts I was sharing. They were kind of like personal “nuggets” if

you will.

My process for writing and then adapting the “Flash Memoir” really came from

my love of poetry writing. I just wrote what I thought someone who was in a homeless
situation would probably think every time they interacted with someone who saw them in

their situation, and then the words flowed naturally. What I really took away from my

memoir when transforming it into a poem is that truth in stories are often told the same

way and can portray the same message no matter who’s perspective they are being told

from.

My work with others was actually a very nice experience when it came to editing

my papers. Much of the time I would be re-reading my assignment after the draft phase

really having a hard time coming up with a way to make it better and people who were

assigned to my paper found ways for me to improvem it in less than a day. It really

benefitted me as a writer and helped me make my pieces better then they would have

been otherwise.

When I started this course my goal was to get an A in the class and become a

better writer than I was when I came in. I think I can safely say I achieved that goal. I

worked harder and more often on my writing then I had ever done before. I had never

had my work edited so much and had to re-write as many times as I did. I also was quite

self-sificent when it came down to improving my writing. As a writer, I now see myself

reaching the place I need to be to write college papers and by continuing to work on the

writing process that I learned through this course I hope to become a good enough writer

to really contribute to my personal creative writings such as my poetry and perhaps even

write a novel someday.

Part 2:

To me the “Two Big Ideas” are representative of my entire writing experience up

to this point. First of all, when you look at language and writing as a resource for people
to do, be, and make things in this world we would see that change would be impossible.

When we look at history through the lens of change we see that writing and language

have always been the key to a bigger and brighter future. Without Martin Luther's “Die

95 Thesen” there never would have been a Protestant Reformation. Without the “Magna

Carta” there never would have been a beginning of personal freedom. Without the

“Gettysburg Address”, the Civil War's goal may never have shifted to abolishing the

awful practice of slavery in the United States and without Martin Luther King's “I Have

A Dream” speech there might never have been an effective civil rights movement. If it

were not for writing I would have never been able to write my poem “Do You Know My

Name?”. My poem may not be as powerful as all those great works of writing, but it does

affect those who read it in inspiring them to think about what they can do to improve the

lives of the homeless in our community and hopefully motivate the inspired reader to

volunteer and do more. Language and writing are the pillars by which great changes have

come to pass, and the mode by which future change and advances will be made to

improve our futures. I have even used these ideas when making fun stories to tell my

friends and help me in my job. For example, I often write down other forms of poetry to

share with my friends to share specific feelings and ideas, because of this class I have

really improved my poetry writing and I have been able to write more powerful pieces.

Rhetoric, I have found, also provides a method for studying the work that

language and writing do. Rhetoric has enabled me during my magazine project to better

assist and improve my writing skills. One example of this is when I wrote in my comedic

persuasive essay “My ‘Modest’ Proposal” styled after Jonathan Swift's, “Modest

Proposal,” in regards to funding the “Homeless Battle Royale”, “'Compared to the ‘45
billion it cost to host the Olympics’ (McBride, 20200) $540,000,000 is just a drop in the

bucket.” Without the Rhetorical style of comedy, I may have never been able to write an

effective satirical piece. I have even used rhetoric as a device to assist me in writing text

messages and emails to important people in my life. I especially use the rhetorical style of

informative writing when talking to my dad over text because if I do not convey exactly

what I mean to him, he often gets a bit perturbed. With that being said, without these two

“Big Ideas” that I pondered on during the semester, I would not have been successful in

getting my point across in this class, nor would I have been able to write some of the best

work I feel I have ever written which in my opinion sets me up for future success that I

hope to have in writing.