Final Reflection

I like how Tolkien famously describes the unexpected outcomes of an unassuming

journey in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He enlightens, “It's a dangerous

business… going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's

no knowing where you might be swept off to.” When I started this class, I did not expect that I

would change much, if at all, when it came to how I approached, framed, edited, or polished a

paper. More generally, I thought of the assignments that we would be crafting as just papers; that

being, an inconsequential collection of paragraphs loosely connected to a topic. However, once I

“stepped onto the road” of the writing experience, I unexpectedly learned that joining the

conversation, a phrase which carries a better connotation than “writing a paper” does, required

much more foresight, formulating, balancing, and nuance than what I had preconceived. I also

learned more about myself: not just about how I write, but about how I contemplate information

and choose to express my opinions. I believe that through this experience, I have found answers

to the question “Who Am I as a Writer?”

The first project that I was assigned challenged the way I approach the selection of a

topic and the interpretation of a quote. For the project, my classmates and I were supposed to

write papers that were based on a topic of our choice. It could be composed in any writing style,

as long as it made sense with the topic, but it had to be seen through “academic eyes,” which is

to mean that the topic, though it may be unacademic in nature, needs to be expressed and

discussed in academic terms. In compliance with Mark Twain, I decided to “write what I know,”

and what I thought I knew was music. I set out to write an argumentative essay which

championed classical music above modern, popular music. Here is where the challenge emerged:

quotes that support music as a being an objective – not subjective – art-form are next to non-
existent. By selecting a topic to argue that is naturally more subjective in nature, I had severed

myself from almost every authoritative voice in the music industry (consequentially, I also

changed my opinion about music’s objectivity via research). I ended up changing the purpose of

the essay to argue …actually, inform is a better word… inform people as to why music is

essential. Although I was pleased with the final product, in hindsight I know now that that paper,

or really any paper I compose, would be a bit stronger had I either picked a different topic

altogether or initially chosen a style better suited to the topic.

During the next project, I learned how to navigate through the nesting-doll nature of a

critical review. Throughout my high school experience, I never had to do a full-length, in-depth

critical review of a documentary; at least, not in the way we did it during this course. The

assignment seemed simple enough: watch one of the listed documentaries, analyze the

documentary that has been selected, write up a paper detailing that analysis, and then voila! I

have a critical review. However, while I was dissecting the documentary, I became confused by a

grey area which blurred the divide between one set of criteria and the director’s main point. It

was nuanced to the extent that I needed to physically draw something similar to Vin diagram and

see what topics overlapped each other. What I eventually figured out is that the evaluation (my

personal opinion of the director’s intended point) was to be determined and supported by a

certain list of criteria. This is where it gets a little hairy: I could criticize the director’s choice of

support for his main point (analyzing pathos, ethos, or logos); or I could criticize the elements

which enhanced the pathos, ethos, and logos (such as the setting, cinematography, etc.…)

instead. Although the guidelines and main points of the critical review were given, it took time to

decipher how all of those elements related to each other in a flowing, “living” critical review.
From this, I learned how to take a topic, break it down into its elements, and combine them in a

way as to emphasize the elements which support a claim.

This final project showed me that I often neglect facets of an argument that are more

ambiguous than what I prefer, and taught me how to think more like my audience, contemplating

the scenarios that they are likely to be in. When it came down to the last project, a researched

argumentative essay, I had the warped sense to choose a topic that is one of the most contentious,

most ambiguous arguments of modern society: the morality of abortion. I had formulated my

first draft and my revision to the first draft before I had met with my teacher to conference; so

when I looked at my argument, I believed that my paper had great stances and made good

predictions. However, when I finally had the conference (that is a whole story in itself), I learned

that in two consequential areas of my paper, I had left out a major side of the argument and was

using a “straw-man” argument to support a claim, which made my writing very weak. That made

me contemplate the true context of the conversation I was joining, and helped me to realize that

what I want to emphasize about an argument is possibly not as important as what I should

emphasize.

At the beginning of the semester, I asked the question, “Who am I as a writer?" As a

writer, I am now conscientious of the significance of matching the appropriate writing style to

the topic at hand. As a writer, I am now more aware of how to break down a topic and reorganize

its elemental parts to emphasize the more influential aspects of what it is really saying. As a

writer, I now realize the importance of including all of the many facets of an argument, and not

just addressing only the one or two most convenient points. At the beginning of this course, I

answered this question with a touch of apprehension; I did not know exactly who I was as a

writer, but I assumed the worst about myself. However, as Stephen King once put it, “The
scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.” Now as I

reflect on that question, I am filled with confidence as to my capability as writer.