Ibraheem Solaiman

Sarah Jacobson

English 110

17 December 2022

The purpose of writing is for someone to express an idea to an audience. The medium of writing is an infinitely creative form of expression depending on what a writer is trying to convey, and who they are trying to convey it to. In my writing, I have always utilized and understood rhetoric, but it was never something I was conscious of, or something that I could even identify in writing. This past semester has made me more aware of the conventions and rhetorical elements of writing and how they can affect or contribute to a work. I had always done these things, but never fully understood why it worked in my writing because I had never thought about my writing metacognitively. This freshman composition course allowed me to reflect on writing itself, to consider what defines different genres of writing, how their audiences impact it, and what conventions are dictated by these things, which was the goal of this course. Of the intended learning outcomes we were presented with at the beginning of this course, the most meaningful to me were: exploring varieties of rhetorical situations and genres in reading/writing, composing texts to integrate stance with sources by using summary, critical analysis, interpretation, and engaging in the collaborative or social process of writing.

The idea of a genre is common knowledge, but I’d never delved into what exactly defines different genres and why they are defined this way. Genres of writing aren’t limited to types of fiction, which was the only way I’d thought of it. It’s interesting to consider how different mediums and audiences dictate aspects of writing. The language used in an academic journal obviously needs to differ from something like a magazine. This is because the audience for these mediums need to be considered. The formal and academic language needed in a research paper has no place in a magazine, who’s audience most likely does not include experts in scientific fields. This was the principle behind the Composition in Two Genres assignment, which required us to present our research in different genres. That assignment is a great example of how important and impactful the audience of writing can be. For example, I had to convey the same information from a research paper into a professional email, which is a medium of writing used to notify people and give them concise information. I had to modify my tone and simplify the language for it to make sense in that hypothetical context. This was a meaningful skill for me to learn, because the essays I’ve written in the past have generally been the same genre. As students, we are almost always trying to defend a stance argumentatively to a teacher, so we never consider adapting our writing to different genres like memos, or emails or pamphlets. Understanding the conventions of genres allows for more versatile and effective writing.

This also applies to analyzing writing. One of my other biggest takeaways from this course was being able to analyze sources to integrate a stance into my writing. This is showcased in the Inquiry Based Research Essay, which required us to use sources of different genres to answer our research question. I find that the best way to improve writing is by reading, especially reading analytically. Being able to break down a text and identify all its parts, like the genre, the purpose, the rhetorical situation, the language, or the audience, and how each part contributes to the text can help a writer learn to utilize it in their own writing. In writing my research essay, my language and tone were heavily influenced by who my audience was. Because my topic was more scientific, and many of my sources were academic in nature, I maintained a formal tone while trying my best to use digestible language. This is an example of the many nuances in writing that become more obvious as you spend more time reading varieties of sources; like the change in voice from a research proposal to a magazine column to a news article. Understanding why the convention for these genres works requires an understanding of their respective rhetorical aspects, which helped me look at my own writing metacognitively.

An often-overlooked part of the writing process is the social and collaborative aspect of it. Writing is essentially a way to connect with other people, so giving and receiving feedback and talking to others can help a writer reflect on their process. This learning outcome was meaningful to me because the value of writing really depends on how the readers perceive it, so it is essential for the writing process to be social or collaborative in some capacity. Having other people, especially peers, read your work allows you to directly interact with your audience, and as we’ve established, audience is the driving force of a text. Every assignment in this course involved a peer review, which allowed us to learn from each other and also be exposed to other people’s writing processes. It is essential to learn from other people who have different levels of knowledge and experience. This is something I’m sure most students are used to because of how often we’ve done it in school, but that just shows how beneficial it is to the writing process. It is essential that the writing process be social, because who your readers are, and how they perceive you text dictates almost every aspect of it.

In summation, if I were to compare writing to a car, up to this point I was learning how to drive, but this past semester I started to understand the parts that make up a car. A text is a machine that has many essential parts that play different roles in the overall structure. Of course, these parts are more subtle than the parts of a machine. Coming out of this semester I feel that I have a better understanding of how the different rhetorical aspects of a text play in conveying a writer’s idea. I also have a better understanding of how I use these elements in my own writing. My development as a writer this semester was more focused on learning about writing itself rather than improving my writing skills, and I hope this newfound understanding shows in my future writing as I continue to grow and improve.

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