Jose Real

Kneece
Writing 2
18 May 2016
Reflective Essay
The process of creating this writing project was an accumulation of my learning in
Writing 2. It forced me to evaluate what the main lessons of this class were. Furthermore, I
decided not to write on the most important aspects, but rather the ones I struggled on the most.
My first writing project had good ideas, but there was no flow in the piece. The second essay was
underwhelming and did not express itself as most wished it did. Creativity is what personally
allows me to fill in the cracks of my writing, which is why the two genres I picked for this
assignment are a song for children and a poem for adults. The comparison between these two
genres will show how different they can be according to its audience, context, and purpose even
though they have very similar structures.
These genres are not easy to establish, especially because of the rhyming required to
succeed. However, they are by far one of the most creative, and creating a different genre with
the conventions that I chose to write about would result in a faulty assignment. Before choosing
my conventions, I decided to look at the corrections I received for my previous writing projects.
Most of the critiques I received were that my work needed organization, but my personal
critiques were that my diction was not up to part with the rest of the class and my persuasion
skills on my essays were weak. Because of these flaws, I decided to write about them, which is

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how I made the song and poem genres about three important aspects about writing (to me):
organization, diction, and logos, ethos, and pathos.
In order to approach the song, I first had to see a few examples first. I searched for lyrics
of my favorite songs and noticed its structure. They were all written in stanzas, and those stanzas
were separated by verses, chorus, and bridges. In order to make it appropriate for my audience
(13-14 year olds), I had to simplify my diction (ironic). Simplifying my diction accords to the
audience to make it much more appropriate to them. Furthermore, the simplified diction allows a
teacher to show it to their class, which makes the context much stronger. These students would
listen to the song as a possible assignment from the teacher, where they could possibly be asked
questions about the content the song specifies. The song is for 13-14 year olds because it is the
beginning of high school writing, and learning these conventions could help them throughout
their high school course. I attempted to use an ABCA rhyming pattern. Most of the rhymes were
exact rhymes, but there were still some half rhymes in order to allow some air when singing the
song and make it less repetitive, which contributes to the purpose of singing the song. For
example, It makes us look so cool / Into a grown adult (Real) is a half rhyme, while It is used
in all the jobs / A piece that brings all mobs (Real) is a full rhyme. Since there were three
conventions that I wanted to write about, I decided to separate them by section. Diction was
mentioned on the first verse, organization was mentioned on the second verse, and logos, ethos,
and pathos were mentioned on the bridge. The chorus consisted on the importance of writing, in
general. This helped the song have more organization and make it clear for the audience in case
they wish to focus on a single topic.
Approaching the poem was much harder, mainly because I had to look at examples of
poetry which I do not enjoy as much as I do music. However, I found that there is a vast amount

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of poem types, all using imaginative imagery and figurative language. My diction had to be
stronger for my audience (4th year undergrad students) and the format had to be more elegant.
This audience was chosen because 4th year undergrad students focus their year on writing their
thesis. What better help than a poem that gives tips about the DOs and DONTs of the
conventions specified in the poem. I did not use iambic pentameter, but I attempted an ABBC
rhyming pattern, but it soon switched to ABAB, and towards the end it became an ABAC. The
switch is shown on the lines But essay flow is much more than that / The potential of a flowing
heart to The necessities of some essays/ Leg of this powerful message, into With bouncy
facts and legs / You would laugh as reality begs. This switch of rhyming scheme helps the poem
remain lively but still maintained its professionalism. To write about the conventions I used,
there was a separation of stanzas per convention, ending with a stanza about the importance of
writing. Like the song, I separated each convention to appeal to the audience. This will help them
focus on each separate convention if they wished to do so.
To have some liability in the statement of both of my pieces there needed to be some
reference that asserts what I mentioned. I used an excerpt from Mark Bunn that comes from his
piece, How to Read Like a Writer, that says, This is a fairly uncommon word, so it stands out,
drawing attention to my choice in using it (84). Mark Bunn gave an example of a rare word in
his piece that allowed the essay to stand out, which allows it to build on diction. I used this
example to encourage the students that using strange words is ok and to remind the college
undergrads that uniqueness in diction is what makes one stand out. Laura Bollin Carroll
constructed the piece, Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis, where she said something particular
about pathos, Pathetic appeals(pathos)...can come across as emotionally manipulative or overly
sentimental(55). Here she mentions the counterargument that pathos has which is that it may be

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seen as overly emotional and unnecessary. I may have manipulated what she mentioned, because
although that is an excerpt from her article, she did falsify that statement. However, I wanted at
least one of the conventions to have a negative aspect to warn both of my audiences of what it
may be capable of if used incorrectly. The last reference I made was of L. Lennie Irvin, who built
the piece, What is Academic Writing?, where he spoke about the main characteristics of a
successful Academic Essay. Irvin said You should divide up the proof, which means
structuring the body around clear primary supports (68). This quote shows the inclusion of
organization as a characteristic of a successful Academic Essay, which I decided to use since a
good flow allows an essay to be easily readable. This quote was almost an insidious quote. Not
only was it mentioned in the pieces, but it was also applied on the writing pieces themselves.
Most of the information that I translated from PBe was the same, there was not much change,
mainly because since writing that PBe I already knew what my weaknesses in writing were and
that they had to be written about.
Throughout this writing project, I learned about the difficulty of making these genres, but
even more difficult was modifying these genres so they can work for their target audience. I had
to use the conventions that I wrote about in the actual genre to make this successful, and I
believe it is on its way into becoming one.