Britt 1

Lysa Britt

Professor Collins

ENGL 1301

29 November 2017

Composing Words Out of Thin Air

Before entering this semester, I did not have much knowledge on communicating through

writing academically other than a remedial English course. This semester I have vastly improved

on research, analysis and creative thinking through writing. The two essay assignments that

assisted with my improvement are essay 2 and essay 3. If I were to take this class again I would

research the topics itself, it would further assist my writing drastically. By researching the topic, I

was able to decide which one would have more credible content and if I could relate to it, by doing

so writing the assignment would be easier to construct.

Essay 2 was written about a report of the procedure of circumcision on male newborns and

represent either side fairly. I researched through dozens of scholarly reports, medical journals, and

news articles. I had to analyze both sides of the argument and present my findings. The purpose of

the assignment was to form an unbiased report. Upon researching the argument of circumcision, I

came to the realization most people are not going to be easily persuaded if their argument is based

on their faith. Due to the purpose of the essay being a report, I was not able to express my emotions

on the topic I had to utilize my creative thinking. This essay required countless hours of reading,

locating appropriate evidence from both arguments and developing a summary.

One of my last assignments happen to be the most challenging, essay 3 was a visual

rhetorical analysis. I choose the advertisement on the effects of banning abortion, it was created

by the Guttmacher Institute. I immediately went to the website and other websites to research the
 Britt 2

facts stated in the advertisement. I learned through research that abortion had a generous amount

of information on both sides of the argument. Analyzing for this advertisement was simple since

it was something I could look at and see. The issue I struggled with this assignment was the creative

thinking, I thought to myself how could I come up with 950-1300 words for this assignment. After

an astounding amount of determination, listening in class, going to a tutor and reading my English

book, amazingly I was able to produce a 1000-word essay.

During this semester I was able to grow my communication skills through academic

writing. English 1301 has taught me how to locate credible sources, and what pathos, ethos, and

symbolism entail for academic writing. I have learned how to effectively analyze other published

documents and form a summarization of what was written. Also, during this time, I have been

working on my creative thinking by opening my mind to other viewpoints. I may not be as well

versed as most but most definitely more so I linguistics skills have grown which makes me proud

of myself. Henceforward, the knowledge I come to have accumulated from this course will assist

myself to lay the foundation of any assignment that will be appointed in my upcoming courses.