Letter to the Reader

January 22, 2013

Dear Reader,

            I came into College Composition with useful writing skills that I had learned in 11^th grade and also with a love for writing.  I loved writing about topics that I was interested in and that were familiar to me.  This class has made me realize that even if you don’t like a topic to begin with, you can learn to write in depth about it after research and applying writing techniques used in class.  An example of this is for the 9/11 narrative paper.  I didn’t have a personal story about 9/11, and I thought that it would be really difficult to come up with a fictional story about someone’s experience, but after researching the event more and using “The Ashen Guy: Lower Broadway, September 11, 2001” by Thomas Beller for references, I was able to come up with a theme and story line.  Along with being open to new topics, I am also able to write with a lot more description through our “explode a moment” exercises.  This technique makes writing a lot more fun and interesting.

            Coming into this class, my expectations were that we were going to be writing essays that would help prepare us for assignments that we might receive in college.  I believe these expectations were met through the modes of writing that we discussed in class and through the many different writing techniques and strategies that we learned and applied to our writing.  This class was structured around the different modes of writing that we took notes on during the very first week of the course.  The four categories of writing were narrative, descriptive, persuasive/argumentative, and expository.  Within these units, we went further in depth and talked about useful techniques such as sensory detail, connotation and denotation, dominant impression, showing vs. telling, exemplification, definition, process analysis, and transitions. 

            I learned a bunch of helpful tools that have helped me to write more effectively.  Two of these tools are transitions and the technique of listing.  The transitions that we discussed in class: for example, for instance, at last, instantly, and denotes, all help to make my writing flow more easily and help the reader to understand the point that I am trying to convey.  Also, with the listing technique, this comes in handy when there are many different examples that the reader would benefit from knowing.  For example, when we made a list of our favorite Halloween candy and then incorporated that list into a short, memorable Halloween story.  One of the short pieces we read in class that used listing was “What Is REALLY in a Hot Dog?”  All of the ingredients used in the hot dog were listed.   

            Two major areas in which I grew during this course were my ability to write with more description, and also, applying various writing techniques to my writing.  One exercise that we did in class that helped me write with more description was the “explode a moment.”  Instead of writing a simple sentence about an event that took place, I expanded the moment into intricate details that really helped to define each specific part of the event.  This technique comes to mind when I find a boring section in a paper that I am writing, and am then able to expand that less interesting part into a more descriptive scene.  Dominant Impression is another category under description that I grew in over the course of the semester.  When you write a paper with great detail, the reader can better understand the general feeling/impression about someone or something that you are trying to introduce.  For example, in “The Miss Dennis School of Writing” story by Alice Steinbach, the dominant impression of Miss Dennis is influential and inspiring.  Another descriptive technique found in “The Miss Dennis School of Writing” is sensory detail.  This technique helped me to describe every aspect of the situation that I am explaining.  It consists of the five senses: sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste.  Some pieces that we read in class that use many examples of sensory details are “The Mute Sense” by Diane Ackerman, and “A View From The Bridge” by Cherokee Paul McDonald.  An example of sight from “A View From The Bridge” is “blue base-ball caps with gold braid on the bill and a sailfish patch sewn onto the peak,” and an example of sound is the boy’s “shrill voice.” 

            The other major area that I grew as a writer was using writing techniques.  A technique that I learned a lot from was the showing vs. telling.  I tend to just write pure narration, but the Blog posts helped me to work in dialogue to create a narration and scene version.  This was very helpful in my writing.  Another technique was exemplification.  This is a method of development in which the writer uses a series of examples to support a point.  I tried to use as many strategies as possible from this technique, such as facts, events, people, statistics, and details.  Two pieces that we read, “Red, White, and Beer” by Dave Barry and “English Is a Crazy Language” by Richard Lederer, did a great job of introducing exemplification.  Definition was another writing technique that I improved upon throughout the semester.  In my definition paper, I used strategies such as surface meaning, dictionary definition, compare/contrast, description, and examples.  Lastly, feedback was very helpful for me during this course.  I improved upon my definition paper by reading feedback from my peers, and also added another example to my exemplification paper after reading the feedback from Ms. Basko.  It’s important to understand how others perceive your writing and know new ways to make your writing even better.

            As I read through my first papers and my last, I see a definite improvement in my ability to write in detail and give many good examples.  The tools that helped me the most were the writing techniques, and I know that as I go off to college, I will always keep them in mind and continually use them to strengthen my writing and give my pieces a deeper meaning.   

Sincerely Yours,

Sara MacNally