Oliphant 1

Jeremy Oliphant
November 3, 2015
Rowe 3A
Words: 1,051

Self-Reflection Paper
Process Questions on Three Beneficial Assignments
At the beginning of the year, one of my first assignments was to describe myself as a writer up
to that point, and what I would like to learn and grow in through the class. The assignment seemed
simple enough, but there was a twist, the teacher wanted to be entertained. I had no hesitation as to
what I would do to draw her attention. She did not know me well yet, so I threw in a story of an
ambulance call involving respiratory arrest, and a patient almost dying. I knew this would draw her
attention. I then continued to show how using your writing, you can create a situation in which the
reader feels they are part of something, and does not want to stop reading. I found this assignment
beneficial because, up until then, I thought an informative essay had no room for stories and anecdotes,
but I learned they could be very useful.
In the second particularly beneficial assignment, I was able to stick to the EMS scene and write a
narrative from the perspective of a firefighter during the September 11th attacks. This assignment
showed me how beneficial it is to have a strong background in the topic you are writing about. The
picture was by random selection, but the choice seemed to be perfect for me. I found that, even though
I am not a big fan of writing fictional stories, writing about something you have a good knowledge base
for and an adequate desire to tell stories about, you will be able to produce much more vivid and
enjoyable writing than when the writing is forced.

Oliphant 2
The third assignment that I found benefitted me greatly was a personal narrative of a childhood
story. This challenged me more than I thought it would. I do not have very vivid memories of my
childhood, and thus was pushed to produce details which would remain accurate and still engage the
reader into the writing. I was tempted to make up details to form a better story, but knew from
experience that the most engaging story would be one that actually happened.
Process Questions on Response Paper
In writing my response paper to Jonathan Kozols The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society, the
majority of my planning was done mentally the day or two previous to the writing of the assignment,
and editing or revising mostly happened as I went; changing things at the end of a phrase, a sentence, or
paragraph, then one final revision after I had finished my first draft before printing it off for the first
time. This seemed to save a lot of time, but did take a little more though on organization previous to
writing.
One of the biggest issues I found in writing this paper was that the essay I was responding to
lacked purpose. I did not feel that I could, as an English 1010 student, say that the authors paper was
meaningless and had no productive purpose other than to state facts. He did not make any decisions or
formulate any opinions. Instead he told us that there was a problem. I found this troubling, but had a
hard time believing that my ideas could be correct, and assumed the writer knew what he was doing. I
feel I did an okay job showing this issue without having to sound like an over confident 1010 student.
In my response paper, I felt that I had good organization and presented my ideas and opinions in
a way that was easily understood by the reader. The one thing I know I fell short on was my rhetorical
analysis. I know what the elements are, and I know how Kozol used them in his essay, but I did not know
how to put into coherent words what I understood. This showed me that I could benefit from writing
down ideas that I am struggling with wording and having them in front of me in a very basic summary of

Oliphant 3
the ideas. At that point I can better articulate the thought. From this response paper, I also learned that
it is okay to have my own ideas about a topic, or another individuals writing.
Subject Related Questions on Response Paper
As previously noted, I felt that Jonathan Kozols essay lacked a purpose. I felt that if you write
about a topic that is a wide spread issue, and demonstrate a good understanding of it, that you should
be able to formulate your own opinion on the topic and share that through your writing. The paper did
not change my mind on the topic of illiteracy, because nothing was presented contrary to my thought,
but it did change my opinions on writing style and the use of straight facts in an essay. I did learn a lot
from the essay though; such as, the challenges of everyday life an illiterate faces, and the difficulty they
have trying to seek help.
Rhetoric Related Questions on Response Paper
In this response paper, I strictly saw my audience as the classroom setting of students and
professor. Looking back, my voice and tone would have likely been different if I had pictured my
audience as the general public or perhaps Kozol himself. Looking at the classroom audience I wrote to,
the main thing I wanted my essay to convey was that writing without a purpose can really alter the
readers outlook on the writing. I also wanted to show that presenting straight facts, although seemingly
pointless, can give the reader enough information to want to find their own solution.
In this paper, my voice was mostly serious, using straight foreword vocabulary, and only
occasionally using a personal story to emphasize a point. I used mostly logos as I was relating directly to
another essay and wanted my paper to be a response solely to writing and subject matter of the essay.
In writing this paper, I did run the risk of stating there was no purpose in the essay, and having
somebody else think there was. To me, though, simply stating facts was not reason enough for the essay
to be determined purposeful and so I had to stay strong in saying there was a lack of a productive
purpose.