Gibson 1 Elicia Gibson 04-27-2013 Cover Letter Project 4

Dear Reader: This project has been not only the hardest project I have done but also the one I have liked the most. This is where I have had the ability to talk about myself. I had the opportunity to talk about what I believed and how I felt, not just an analyzation of someone elses work. I was able to show my true potential in this project, making me enjoy it more. In order to get my B, I had to work hard and prove myself worthy. I took my time writing this. I asked questions, sent e-mails, and basically bombarded my teacher for advice on how to make this paper even better than it was. Failure was not an option for me this time. I checked the syllabus at least twenty times, edited over a dozen times, added, took away, moved things, and, at one point, completely scrapped it entirely. I drove myself mad on this project. I am happy with what I have but am I still nervous? Of course. I have come to the conclusion that no matter what, a paper can never be truly finished and completed. Things can always be added, taken away, and so on and so forth. I felt that I got my point across well enough and the structure was easy to follow throughout this paper. I feel like I supported my claims with plenty of back up information from a variety of sources. I feel confident in my paper. I am happy to have had the opportunity to do this project. It have given me more insight on myself and has also allowed me to explain things better. Elicia Gibson

Gibson 2 Elicia Gibson 04-23-2013 Final Portfolio Paper/ Project 4 Mrs. Venn Blast From The Past: A Look Back On My Writing When I came into English 1510, I had the notion that this class would be a breeze. I had gone through high school in all Honors English courses and had been told my writing ability was well beyond my years. With only a few low scores on papers (nothing below a C), I found my papers to be handed back with an A and a smiley face plastered in bright red pen. That is how I thought my college course was going to be like. I was dead wrong. Not only was I challenged with my writing, I was challenged to think in new ways and write in new ways as well. I had to be torn out of my comfort zone at certain times and I began to doubt my so-called amazing writing ability. I am glad it happened though. I now whole-heartedly believe I am a better writer and an even stronger writer due to what I have learned and done in this class. I have developed the opinion and idea that in order to be an efficient writer, you need to include your own voice in your writing to make it different and unique, you should have valid claims that are supported by scholarly evidence, and the more drafts and revisions you make on a paper, the better it will be. I have learned more about myself as a writer in college than I had even touched upon in high school. Anne Lamott and Carol Berkenkotter both agree that draft writing is an invaluable step in the writing process. Lamott made it seem like her first draft was not even a draft at all but sort of like an over done plan. Carol Berkenkotter studied the writing process of

Gibson 3 Donald Murray and calculated on how much time he spent planning, evaluating, revising, and editing. She found that Donald, for at least two of his three papers, spent the majority of his time actually planning out his writing. In high school, I was able to bang out an A paper in about 3 hours with little to no revision what so ever. I found drafts to be tedious and thought my time could be better used else where in my life. In college, I found that drafts were something amazing and actually could make your writing better. Drafts, as I had so newly discovered, were not a waste of time. While doing Project 1 Part 1, I quickly typed it out and considered it finished. I corrected spelling errors and a few grammatical errors and submitted it, proud of what I had done in such a short amount of time. I found myself reading over it later on and not happy with what I had come up with. Some of my sentence structures made no sense, words were out of place, some things made no sense, and so on a so forth. My writing was erratic and disorganized. In one sentence I say, It was as if by making my announcement, I had lost all my ability to sing and I meant nothing to my music teachers anymore, but one stuck with me (Hey). This is a run on sentence if I have ever seen one and also is entirely too wordy. I could have changed it to By making this announcement, I was seen as less of a singer to other, along with my teachers. Abandoned by them, I found myself feeling as thought I was nothing. One stuck with me though. If I actually took the time to write out a draft, I better could have explained myself and made my points come across clearer which in turn will make my paper stronger and more agreeable.

Gibson 4 I have noticed differences on why I like certain authors and why I do not like other writers. It comes down to whether or not they use voice in their articles or writings. In order for a writer to be credible and unique, they must put voice in their writing. While reading Swales The Concept of Discourse Community, I was able to more clearly understand his article when he began to use a personal example about a discourse community he was in. From the beginning I had trouble grasping what a discourse community was since so many different authors claimed so many different things and gave so many different reasons as to why they claimed those things. It was enough to boggle your mind up. He took his six outlines for what make a discourse community and put them to use describing how they fit with his particular discourse community, which was the Hong Kong Study Circle. While Gee basically counter argues what Swales is saying in his article Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, I use Gees method since I believe he did a better job at using voice to explain his topic. Gee had an example using a five-year-old child but it only caused me more confusion with how in-depth and deep he took it. If authors were to not use voice, then the paper would just be regurgitation with no difference or added spin on it. Voice in high school writing was never heard of. One instance that comes to mind was when I apparently used to much of it within my writing. In order to graduate from Seneca Valley High School, my high school, you had to complete a Senior Project. You and your mentor (mine was my long time friend and most important woman in my life, next to my mother, Amber Hugus) were to successfully complete all parts of the project. This was a paper on why this organization or certain topic should be known, a community service project, portfolio, and then presentation. For my paper, I chose to

Gibson 5 write about the stress of looking beautiful in young girls. I wrote about how young women were influenced by friends, family, and the media to always have to look perfect by having to use make-up and other beauty enhancer products. This in turn made the girls not feel beautiful in their own skin. I had to write the polished first draft in my junior year English class. My teacher gave me a pointer on how I should use more of my own opinion and idea in my paper. Come senior year to re-write and create my final paper, I added in my own opinion and example into the paper and turned it in. I said, When I was younger, I watched my mother put on her make-up every morning. Due to my curious nature, I asked her, Mommy, why do you put that stuff on your face every morning? She replied with, It makes Mommy prettier and feel better. I had always thought of my mother as beautiful. Why did she feel she needed this junk on her face? I then became a teenager with the idea that in order to be truly beautiful, you needed make-up on your face. (Senior) That was it. That was the only time I voiced something in my paper. It dealt perfect with what I was discussing. You can imagine why I was shocked when I got my paper back to see that I had gotten a C because I had added too much voice into my work, making it less credible. I had known this wasnt a full opinion piece but I supported it with back up information. Had I not done what my previous teacher had asked of me? I then on thought that adding my own voice into my writing was evil and something to never be done if I was to be a true writer. Coming into English 1510, I was hesitant when our teacher said to write an opinion piece. I was then shocked to learn when reading these

Gibson 6 highly acclaimed professional articles that many authors use voice and the great ones use it efficiently. I was installed with this fear from high school that turned out to be nothing more than a myth. Even though voice turned out to be a good thing, I believe that those new claims must be supported by scholarly evidence in order to sound legitimate and professional. With out good back up, your argument can become weak and sound too much like just an opinion paper. Opinion papers are nothing bad at all but there is a reason something is called a professional article and then there is something called an opinion piece. An opinion piece is just your opinion that does not necessarily have to be backed up by anything other than your own word. With good evidence from other sources or authors to back up your new, valid claim, you can make a professional statement. In Deborah Brandts article, Sponsors of Literacy, she does just that. She takes her own studies she has done professionally to make her point. She tells the stories of many people like Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez. Comparing and contrasting them, she tells how they each have had different sponsors of literacy based upon their backgrounds and different lives they led. Even though she is using her own research that she done, she has conducted it in a way that makes it more credible to her paper. She is not just using her own opinion, but rather using the factual information she found to make her argument. While writing my Project 1 Part 2 original paper, I found myself struggling to really write my paper well. I had a tough time really supporting my claim with other authors ideas because no one had the same idea as I did (I learned later that this was because of my stubbornness and big-headedness that no one agreed with me). Once I was completed with this paper, I found my argument weak and not very believable. My

Gibson 7 teacher agreed with me on this and thats when I decided to change my argument. I changed my new topic to how multiple drafts can make your writing better and stronger than if you did not choose to do any form of draft. I took my thesis from I believe you can write spontaneously and have it be to the point, well thought out, and efficiently stated. (Paradox) and made it into The benefits of a draft are that you can revise your work easier, plan efficiently, and have the abilities to apply more ideas later. (Revised) I found this to be better supported, making my claim stronger and better supported. Instead of having a weak paper with no scholarly support, I made a whole new paper with a more valid claim and better supporting evidence. While this class has not certainly been the easiest, I have learned more about myself as a writer than I ever did in all my years in middle school and high school. I have learned that something having to go out of my comfort zone is not as bad as it may seem. Making mistakes is all part of the process and that a shitty first draft may actually produce a pretty spectacular final paper. Had I not been pushed to my limits and demanded to tread on new paths, I would not have had this chance to see what works for me and what doesnt. I was able to form my own opinions on what good writing should be and not just think something was right because some lady with a red pen told me so. I was able to see that writing drafts were not that bad, that using your own voice in a paper can not only set it apart, but make it that much stronger, and that sometimes claims need to be backed up in order to have a solid paper. I have also learned that most of the things you learn in high school English are a load of bull anyways, so why stick with them in college years? Never have I once yet used the five-paragraph essay or been chastised for not correctly knowing the difference of when to use an adverb or an adjective. You need

Gibson 8 to come into college with the mind set that everything you learned in high school will be turned inside out and upside down. In college English, your voice does matter. I have come so far from the beginning of this course and looking back, I am proud of all I have accomplished. The things I have learned from this course will stick with me through my entire writing career.

Gibson 9 Works Cited Berkenkotter, Carol. "Decisions and Revisions: The Planning Strategies of a Publishing Writer." College Composition and Communication 34.2 (1983): 156-69. Rpt. in Writing About Writing. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 218-30. Print. Brandt, Deborah. "Sponsors of Literacy." College Composition and Communication 49.2 (1998): 165-85. Rpt. in Writing About Writing. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 331-50. Print. Gee, James P. "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction." Journal of Education 171.1 (1989): 5-17. Rpt. in Writing About Writing. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 481-95. Print. Gibson, Elicia C. Hey There Mickey. Rep. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Gibson, Elicia C. The Paradox: Writing About My Writing. Rep. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Gibson, Elicia C. The Paradox: Writing About My Writing (Revised). Rep. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Gibson, Elicia C. Senior Project Paper. Rep. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Lamott, Anne. "Shitty First Drafts." Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994): 21-27. Rpt. in Writing About Writing. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 301-04. Print. Swales, John. "The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings (1990): 23-32. Rpt. in Writing About Writing. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 466-79. Print.