Araceli Rodriguez

Professor Doutherd
English 5M
October 6, 2017
There is always Room for Improvement
PART 1
Do wealthy people with good morals exist? Junior year in high school I was assigned an
analytical essay based on the novel The Great Gatsby by F Scott Gerald. The process of this
writing assignment started of by us students reading the book on our own with a time frame of a
couple weeks. The chapters would be analyzed and discussed in class to make sure that the text
was being well understood. The essay focuses on proving the authors claim about the main
characters true, and the claim is that wealthy people have low morals. Analyzing the characters
consisted of questioning and analyzing their thoughts and actions. The main characters in which
the assignment was focused on were Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Gatsby's
best friend Nick Carraway. In order to get an even better understanding and visual of the novel
The Great Gatsby, both the old and new version of the movies were seen. Doing so allowed for
me to gather up all the information that was needed to complete the essay and focus on using
correct writing format, style, and vocabulary.
Eventually behind any given assignment there is a purpose or lesson that has to be
understood. My english teachers purpose with this essay was to help students learn how to
analyze texts, analyze personal characteristics of the main characters in the reading, and back up
the claim with textual evidence. In the reading Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents by
Keith Grant Davie, he sees exigence as asking what the discourse is about, why it is needed, and
what should its goal be. Learning the skills of analyzing a text is beneficial because the students
are able to fully understand the novel, ask questions, prove a point right or wrong, and help out
someone else in understanding the novel. For example, in my essay I pointed out the authors
claim that wealthy people have low morals and backed it up with a description of each of the
characters characteristics. The fact that I read, analyzed the novel, and watched the movie made
it easier for me to portray my thoughts into writing because I had knowledge on it.
When it comes to writing many people face different type of constraints which are
limitations.. For instance, the major rule for this essay was that it had to be written in MLA
format with concrete detail, and textual evidence. I was only allowed to discuss the social
position and level of morality for each of the characters from the novel. With that being said, the
essay had to be four pages long which made it difficult at the time to not go off topic. However
that did not happen but the essay did turnout to sound repetitive. During the writing process of
the essay, I tried keeping in mind that what if someone who has never read the Great Gatsby
were to read my essay. That allowed me to get straight to the point to not confuse any reader.
Even though my english teacher was my only audience , that thought helped me get through the
writing.I wanted my english teacher to see that I fully understood the authors claim in The
Great Gatsby by properly analyzing each of the characters and I accomplished just that.
What I learned by this assignment was how to write an essay in MLA format analyzing a
reading. Doing this writing also made me reflect on my own life and think about if I knew
anyone that proved F Scotts Gerald claim wrong and challenge it. I thought of influential artist

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that exist in todays society and that proves that not all wealthy people have low morals. In the
reading, Gatsby did not necessarily have bad morals, all he cared about was his love for Daisy
which is made him forget about everyone and everything else. For future writing assignments I
now know the process and what it takes to compel an analytical essay. Reading, asking
questions, and doing what is needed to make sure you fully understand the novel is key.
PART 2
In Sacramento State University, the communications major caught my
attention.Communications falls under the Writing and Researching in the Arts of Humanity
Field. With the major chosen, there are various career paths that one can take because at the end
of the day any job requires good communication skills. In the Arts and Humanity field the
majority of the writing that one will come across is dealing with analyzing readings, using
personal experiences, theories, and readings to back up an argument. The field wants their
writers to get out of their comfort zones, explore different writing styles, and explore thinking
differently when it comes to writing. This leads to using your personal style frequently and this is
key for writers in the humanities field. Other fields require the use of statistics, research, and
data, however none of those are requirements for Arts and Humanities scholars since they tend to
focus on writing with a personal style.
PART 3
In high school, when a writing assignment is turned in it tends to look perfect until it is
actually reread months or years later. Looking back at the essay that was chosen in part 1, it
would not be a good idea to turn it in to an instructor in the Arts and Humanity field. In the
article Writing and Reading without Authority by Anna M Penrose and Cheryl Geisler Janet
and Rogers style of analyzing claims is different. For him, reading was a process of identifying,
sorting, and evaluating the claims made by the authorsJanets goal, however, was not to
evaluate claims but to search for facts(509-510). Looking back at the essay from part 1, the
claim was not thoroughly evaluated. The essay requirement was to show textual evidence based
on the claim and that is all that was done, instead of further analyzing the claim. Another reason
why it would not be a great idea to turn in the essay is because its missing more of the personal
style and flow. Incorporating a personal experience in the paper which proved the author wrong
would have made the essay argumentative and more interesting. Last but not lease there are
excessive grammatical errors that can be fixed.
Writing over the years makes you realize how much improvement you have made.
Principles that must be kept in mind for future writing assignments is to keep the intended
purpose in mind. Doing so will allow for the reader to fully understand what is trying to be said
and understand the overall goal. In Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents by Keith Grant
Davie, Davie states, I include objectives as part of the exigence for a discourse because
resolving the exigence provides powerful motivation for the rhetor(353). Keeping the purpose
and goal clear will be beneficial to others. Getting comfortable with asking questions and
challenging the claims of the authors is another principle that needs to be practiced. This will
lead to the learning how to better analyze readings. Even though the chosen essay was not good
enough to turn in, at least the principles are in mind for improvement on a different writing
assignment.