MWA2 Writing Process

Writing this most recent paper was long and arduous and I ultimately felt I didn't give my best effort on my first draft. I compiled all my sources at one time, then I went into a detailed look at my materials so I could find citations and information for my arguments. Once I had the arguments together, I went into detail on both arguments with both citations and personal experience to enrich these different points of view on the both the structure of the US's soccer administrators and the culture surrounding the sport. The different domestic viewpoints got developed albeit in a shorter word count than designated by the prompt. I plan on extending these in a second draft later this week. I found this assignment very enlightening on how to develop opposing arguments believably. I was definitely confused early on, but I changed my outlook toward the paper from the overload of material toward specific diametrically opposed data points to make the arguments more simple.
When I sat down to write this essay, I tried my best to cram the entire essay into as few sittings as possible. This project was important to me, but I didn't want to belabor the process over a long period of time. Under the stress of completing the paper, I ended up cramming most of writing into the last 48 hours of the due date. I will allow more time for myself for the next writing assignment to complete and edit it.
When considering the PACT of my paper, I spoke to everyone who has an interest in soccer or youth sports in general. I wanted to express the importance of the availability of youth soccer to all children regardless of their identity. I wrote this essay in a world where the Men's national team failed miserably in their attempt to qualify for this year's World Cup. It is an essay with many reasons both to spread youth soccer to the entire country and why it will never be able to grow. I tried to show the entire argument with both viewpoints.

Schimpf- MWA2 relfection

Chapter 3 of Changing writing talked about the writing process. The first step, which is analyzing your own writing process, is the pre-writing part of the process. During this step, chapter 3 talks about preparing your writing space, writing tools, habits, and mind. My writing space was my room at home, because I wrote the second major writing assignment when I got home for spring break. I sat at my clean desk, in a comfortable chair, without my phone, and with no one around to distract me. This atmosphere helped me concentrate and stay focused on writing. My writing tools were the sources I found before I started writing. It was helpful to have sources prior to writing because I had already planned the basic format and focus of my MWA2 paper. My writing habits typically involve me getting pretty distracted and procrastinating when the deadline is far away, but when I’m writing at the last minute, I’m able to stay focused and work fast. My writing habits and writing mind go hand in hand. Because I work better under pressure, and I write better at night, I was able to knock this paper out. I only had a day to write it, so I was very motivated to get the work done without getting distracted. Changing Writing also talked about the PACT process for writing papers. PACT is an acronym for purpose, audience, context, and text. PACT starts off with purpose. I think my purpose for MWA2, or the main message for my argument, was very strong. I gave multiple reasons for rescuing dogs and backed them up with facts. I think it was convincing because my reasons appealed to the emotions of my readers, but they also appealed to logic. The second part of PACT is audience. My audience is anyone who is interested in getting a dog. The audience could be anyone, but it makes more sense to be those who actually want a dog, because people who don’t want a dog may not be interested in reading about HOW to get a dog. The next step is context, which is related to audience. While this argument applies to anyone who wants a dog, it is also important for them to be able to have a dog. As I said in my paper, dog owners need to be able to afford their pet, and they need to have time to care for them and play with them. The final part of PACT is the text of the paper. For my dissoi logoi, I used MLA format to set up my nine page paper, and I had colorful charts to present the data of my survey.

elbow/ch 3 reading + mwa 2

In the Elbow article, he discusses how judging articles and essays are based on two types of criteria: 1) if the writing is true, meaning it embodies valid reasoning backed up by good ideas and true statements, and 2) if the writing has good style, meaning the points being made come out in clear strong statements and unified paragraphs with a flowing progression of ideas. Another important criteria that is unconsciously done is to see if the piece of writing produces the desired effect in the reader, or reaches the goal. On the other hand, chapter 3 of Changing in Writing discusses effective procedures for elaborating and responding to assignments or writing works, and also starting writing works. It is about the use of the PACT system (purpose, audience, context and text) and helps to figure out the structure, outline and direction to take your paper. The book also had other good ideas for writing papers like it is important not to procrastinate, you should write over a few days or weeks to have time to make new drafts and edits with new ideas, add personal ideas for the emotional appeal with the audience, and to pre-write with different diagrams and images.

I wrote my essay pretty differently from the ideas from the Elbow essay and from Changing in Writing, and I wish I would have known a lot of these tips. One of the big things I need to work on is planning on how to communicate my specific ideas instead of focusing on facts and what is wrong how the my topic issue is being handled. What I need to do before submitting MWA 3 is not only cutting out important factors about what is wrong with the program now and adding more on what should be done, but developing those ideas further for MWA 3. I understood the purpose and audience of the paper, but I feel like my point being made could've been more specific. I enjoyed going to writing services and hearing some of the ideas she had to say, and a lot of them were problems I wouldn't have recognized on my own. Before turning in my revisions of MWA 2, what I need to do most is to rewrite an outline, plot where I need more strength, add more to my ideas on what needs to be done and to do this over multiple days so I can come back to my essay with fresh ideas and a clear head.

MWA 2 // Changing Writing

Chapter 3 of Changing Writing talks about the process of writing a paper. It starts from the beginning of the process of writing a paper: brainstorming. Then it goes through the rough draft and how to approach initial ideas. I did not brainstorm on my own that much and just started writing the paper. I like to jump in right away because the first paragraph or so is always the hardest for me. I tend to procrastinate starting papers because I never know how to start. Changing Writing brought up how there are many different ways to work through your initial ideas first before beginning the actual assignment. You can gather resources, make charts, reviews notes, etc. I definitely went through a lot of sources to find the ones that I thought would work best in my paper. However, I threw them together as I wrote MWA 2 and did not plan ahead by connecting them beforehand. For my argument against what I was trying to persuade, I feel like I had too few sources. My argument was therefore unsupported by sufficient research and evidence. 

One other thing that was emphasized was PACT: purpose, audience, context and text. In my paper, I focused a lot on the purpose because I was trying to use the resources I had to emphasize my point. Although I tried to incorporate all aspects of PACT, I definitely lost sight of my audience a bit. Looking back on my writing process, I now realize that I do not have a clear audience. My paper addresses the general public and I lack a definitive focus group. Aiming at too wide a range of people can make it difficult to effectively persuade people to change their minds or act a certain way.

After starting the paper, I realized I needed extra help so I went to Writing Services. The tutor helped me improve on my original ideas and brainstorm more ideas to further extend my paper. It was helpful to have someone else look at my paper because feedback is useful to improve my writing. We wrote down on a white board a list of new topics/ideas. Slowly, we went through and added to or crossed out each one. This technique helped me get a better picture of what I actually wanted to include in my writing and what was just distracting from my main goal. At the end, we made an outline which gave me an idea of how I was going to format the rest of MWA 2.

MWA #2 Reflection

Chapter 3 of Changing Writing focuses primarily on effective strategies for responding to writing assignments. The chapter emphasizes the use of PACT, the acronym which stands for "purpose, audience, text, and context" and helps structure essays. A key point in this chapter is reflection on the assignment, the topic ideas, and notes over the chosen topics. They also identify the use of personal memories and stories within writing to allow connection between reader and writer. However, these were all ideas for brainstorming. The step of moving from the ideas to actual drafting involves a lot of planning, and they suggest free writing, "mind maps", and outlines to structure the argument before actually writing everything out. I guess I still need to become comfortable with using PACT because I understood the purpose of the writing and the audience I was approaching, but I did not convey that very strongly in my actual writing. That part of the assignment seemed kind of lost on me when I completed my rough draft. My brainstorming was pretty strong because I am passionate about my topic and had already identified several issues I wanted to address within my argument. However, I also know that I need to work on my organization of ideas. I went to writing services and talked with one of the advisors about my topic and my ideas on how to approach my argument, and he helped me to create a more solid argument that appealed both in factual and ethical senses. This was extremely helpful, but I would have done much better to take both the ideas I brainstormed and the ideas the writing consultant provided and written them down as reference points in my outline. This would have allowed me to collect evidence and see the parts of my argument that needed help with strength, as well as help me keep the audience and purpose in mind when I began to draft the paper. I also would have benefitted from creating an actual outline rather than diving straight into the writing, as this would have led to better argument construction. These are just points to use in the future, ones I will try to implement in further writing assignments.

MWA2 Reflection

Chapter 3 of the book focuses on the process of writing a paper, specifically how to properly begin constructing your paper and how to analyze your paper and writing process. The chapter advises a clear workspace environment that maximizes the focus placed on the paper and minimizes distracting and obstructive elements. The chapter also advocates the use of pre-writing methods such as free-writing and brainstorming to help improve and better one’s general view of their essay. The chapter pushes the importance of the PACT (Purpose, Audience, Context, Text) system during the early stages of constructing your paper to help better one’s general view of their essay and strengthen the basic structure of your essay. To tighten the structure of an essay and ease the writing process, the essay advises to only search for and narrow down vital sources during research. Looking back at the writing process of MWA2, I realize that I skipped over several important steps and tips that would have helped tighten both my essay and my working experience. The majority of time spent on MWA2 was spent in the SLU library and the desk in my room. While both environments were solitary and relatively serene places to be, theoretically perfect environments for some to work in, they might have been detrimental to my writing process due to how solitary they were. I have noticed that I tend to work faster and more efficiently when around a busy crowd or an authoritative figure rather than alone, as I usually procrastinate through browsing the internet or playing distracting music when no one is around to keep me in check. The unhealthy amount of procrastination that has occured during my MWA2 writing process also might have been a product of my lack of proper vision for my paper. I didn’t utilize any of the chapter’s pre-writing techniques other than maybe brainstorming, and as a result it proved difficult to both motivate myself to start writing the paper and to actually think of what to write. Considering the PACT system during my writing process would have likely helped tighten the focus of my paper as well. The opposing argument of my dissoi logoi seems to be lacking in the “audience” department, as it doesn’t have a clear target in sending its message, aiming both at the “for” paper as a direct response and at a general audience interested in the subject. Lastly, my paper holds several relatively useless sources that might have been better left off the drawing board as a result of rapidly grabbing a large amount of sources regardless of how useful they actually are to my paper. I hope to expand my schedule in researching so that I may more carefully observe and choose important sources for a future research paper.

Chapter 3 Reflection

Changing Writing has a lot of good and useful information for your writing process. The writing process is very important for each paper one writes. In the beginning, the book says to find somewhere that is quiet with no distractions. When I write I mainly do it in my room where it is quiet most of the time and I can be comfy. I don’t turn off my phone because every so often after getting work done I allow myself to have some breaks where I check my phone as a reward to working hard. I would say I write better in the afternoon because in the morning and night I am just very tired so in the afternoon I focus a lot better.
The book focuses a lot on the PACT system which I include in my writing process but mostly think more about the purpose and the audience. Purpose and audience are the important aspects to start off with so I think about those first and once I have those figured out I move onto the context and text. Many times, I talk it through with my friends that are willing to help and they offer some really good feedback that is useful to my paper. Finding sources can be a bit tricky because you have to find relevant ones that are just write for your paper. Researching can take a while to find the perfect sources, but once it is complete writing the paper is fairly easy. Freewriting also really helped me I would write my opinions and facts and then go back later and rearrange it so that it went with the flow. I figured out I need a lot of motivation to write a large paper so I would set up little rewards for myself if I got so much done.

Chapter three of Changing Writing focuses on how one goes about starting the writing process. The author advises writers to utilize the books' PACT system (purpose, audience, text, and context) in order to lay out a foundational outline for a paper and figure out what direction they want to take their writing. The author also warns readers of the dangers of procrastination, and advises that writers give themselves enough time in order to form drafts, revise them, and get them to the level that they want in order to significantly convey what they want to get across to a reader. The writing process consists of two major parts, the first of which is the prewriting stage. This consists primarily of organizational tools like brainstorming, flow charts, diagrams, images, etc--essentially anything to get a writer's thoughts out and organized in order to better process ideas. Once the prewriting stage is done and ideas have been narrowed down, then the actual writing stage can begin and one can start formulating a formal outline and writing a first draft, revising, and rewriting however many times they need to in order to get to a satisfactory end product.
Whilst writing my MWA #2, I feel like I did not do hardly any prewriting in comparison to the writing. I don't physically do a lot of brainstorming, charting, or diagraming of my ideas--instead I just sort of think about what I want to convey and how I can go about doing that in an effective manner. My thought process also generally flows in a fairly chronological manner, so it wasn't too difficult to get sections put together and organize them well, despite this being b bit more lengthy than the average paper.
I also wrote my paper very differently from the Changing Writing suggested process because I would kind of do everything all at once rather than separate things into processes and steps. For example, I would look for a source that I thought would be credible and useful to my paper and then I would directly write about that source as it pertained to my chosen topic. After writing, I would then cite the source and add in the citations as needed before going on to find another source. I found that that process actually helps me more because I need to actively think about where to put the information and where it makes the most sense in the paper, as opposed to just writing based on an outline where I could potentially go off topic in my though process.
I also didn't really use the PACT system at all in my writing process, and I definitely procrastinated this paper a bit. I only went through one draft as well, because with the way I write I tend to edit and move things around as part of an organizational process rather than writing, editing, and rewriting like most people tend to do. However, I've found that the way I write is very effective for myself and more conducive to getting a well-written essay than following an outline and having very rigid steps, which allowed me to effectively and efficiently write a good MWA #2.

MWA 2 and Ch 3

     According to Changing Writing, analyzing your writing process is crucial. It mentions that being in an area free from distractions leads to a successful writing process. In my case, I kept to my room because, in my house, that is the place with the least number of distractions. The book then moves on to saying to think about the purpose, audience, context, and text. I began my paper by first going through and finding the sources I would use. I sifted through about twenty sources before narrowing it down to seven, which is something the book mentions- narrow down the sources. The purpose of my paper was to inform my audience of the impact social media influencers have on our society and how it is an advantage and disadvantage. This was something that was decided after I went to the Writing Services and worked on brainstorming for my paper. The tutor and I brainstormed the pros, cons, flaws, and strengths in the argument and what evidence I could use in my paper for and against my argument.
     However, after finding my sources, meeting with the Writing Services, and starting my paper a family emergency came up and I wasn't able to finish my essay. I turned it what I had, but I couldn't complete it. Now that everything is settled, I plan on sitting down to decide and figure out my audience and how I want to use my evidence and sources to my advantage. I also plan on going to the Writing Services again because I think that they are super helpful. They help with things that I wouldn't normally see if I were editing my paper myself.

Chapter Three Reflection-Pollett

In reading Chapter Three I found a myriad of ways in which the writing of my Major Writing Assignment paralleled with the chapter.  The chapter showed how writing the first words of a paper, is not the beginning of the writing process.  For example, attaining research for the paper, taking notes, brainstorming, or even having a clear workspace all count as beginning the writing process.  For this assignment, I made sure to attain my sources on the SLU Library database before I wrote the paper.  This way I was able to understand my topic of Global Warming and ways I can solve it, before I even start writing the paper.  I also went to SLU Writing Services to brainstorm my topic, and they even provided me with arguments I had not even thought about using.  I also made sure I took notes during this Writing Services appointment so I made sure I discussed everything we talked about at the appointment on the Dissoi Logoi.

            The main message that this chapter gets across is the usage of PACT.  PACT is an acronym representing purpose, audience, context, and text.  Purpose is the main message of your argument.  For myself, I believe my purpose was very strong because I provided a lot of facts to back up my points as well as some emotional factors (such as our future children may not ever see a glacier).  Moreover, I backed up my points with numerous diverse and credible sources to bolster my argument.  The second part of PACT in Chapter Three is audience. For the Dissoi Logoi the target audience is myself.  In this assignment, I provide both sides of the argument, in an objective way, in order to make an informed decision of what side I stand on.  While there were many strong points against phasing out non-electric cars, I still decided to stick with my original plan.  The third part of PACT is context.  For this, I had to discover the type of climate that the United States is in today, to make such a decision in phasing out non-electric cars.  Because of this I had to do a lot of research on whether such a law could even be passed, how it would be passed, and if the United States would be the first nation to go about such a process.  The fourth and final part is text.  For this on the Dissoi Logoi it involved a full page paper using MLA format.

Chapter 3 ~ MWA2

Chapter 3 of the changing writing book focuses on the starting process of writing. The authors advise students to use the PACT system (purpose, audience, text, context) to create a general idea of what the paper is going to look and sound like. They also advise against procrastination, and giving yourself ample time in order to create and revise as many drafts as needed until the goal of the paper is sufficiently accomplished. Then comes the prewriting part that consists of brainstorming, flow charts, pictures, etc, anything to get your mind focused on how the paper is going to be organized. Once all the prewriting is done, then students should begin the long road to outlining and creating a first rough draft, and so on.
As for me when I was writing MWA 2, I felt like I spent much more time in the prewriting aspect of the process than actually writing the paper itself. Organization was my biggest priority since it was such a lengthy paper with so many different sources and arguments. Another thing I did differently than the book suggested was that I began with summarizing all my sources on paper first, then I grouped them together in categories that I thought connected them, and lasted created introduction paragraphs and added a title. This process may seem backwards in the changing writing book, but since I spent so much time organizing and prewriting, it was actually more helpful for me when I sat down to write it. The Changing Writing book also states that "getting the first words down" is the hardest part of the process. For me, the hardest part was sorting through all of my sources and narrowing them down to the ones that worked for my paper. Eventually, I narrowed it down to 15 which was well over the requirement maximum, but I felt as though each one connected to the others in a specific way. Once I had an idea of the categories I wanted to have for each of the two papers, it was easy to group the sources together in a way that made each argument as strong as possible. I didn't end up using the PACT system like the book suggests, and I really only made one draft and proof read that draft before turning the paper in. Changing writing may not agree with that way of writing, but I found it to help me the most and I was able to efficiently and effectively write MWA 2.

MWA 2 and Changing Writing Chapter 3

The writing process, according to Changing Writing, focuses on purpose, audience, context, and text. It is important to be focused while writing, use sources that pertain to your argument, and proofread always. It is important to consider each aspect of the writing process. While writing MWA 2, I found myself in a place of procrastination. I would sit at my desk and become distracted by everything around me. I would be curious to what was happening outside my dorm room even though I knew it did not pertain to me whatsoever. This, ultimately, led to me realizing that I was a little behind in my writing process. My roommate left for chapter, and I realized that it was the prime opportunity to get the first part done. I plugged in my headphones and listened to music with no words for the fear of becoming distracted once again. After scanning and highlighting more than 15 sources, I found ones that I believed would really allow me to strengthen my argument. At the end, I was done to about 9 sources, so I began writing. My purpose was to inform my audience about the negative effects that mass media had on body image. The hardest part was deciding my audience. In the end, I realized that my audience became those that were interested in seeing a change on this issue. My written essay was filled with statistics, quotes, real life changes, and problems that shows my audience the detrimental effects that mass media has caused. After finishing my first rough draft of part one of my dissoi logi, I took my essay to the University Writing Services. Here, I was able to read my essay aloud for both me and Pauline, the tutor. Reading aloud helped me realize mistakes in sentence structure, as well as point out some unclear aspects in my writing. Pauline was able to help me brainstorm ideas on how to add more information in a way that was clear and not overbearing.
For the 2nd part of my essay, my against argument, I took a different approach. I used the same sources, but used them in a completely different way. The University Writing Services and Pauline helped me brainstorm ideas, rather than read an already written essay and check for organization and clarity. I think if I were to redo MWA 2, I would go into University Writing Services for help on brainstorming, as well as clarity and rereading after both parts of my essay were written. Overall, I think my writing process was very similar to what was explained in Changing Writing. However, for MWA 3, I would take into consideration using my resources more and to my advantage.

MW2 changing in writing

Our textbook Changing in writing Chapter 3 laid out 4 steps to complete an writing. The first is analyzing your writing processes, this includes figuring out your writing space, habit, tools, and mind. For me, I find writing in my room is very hard to focus so I usually go to the 3rd floor of the library to plan out my writing. I also like how in the library I can immediately go look for print sources if I reached d bottleneck. Having the right writing mind is also important because that's where my words flows out of me, I also I have to make a decision in making my standpoint at the issue I want to talk about. The second point is starting out the paper with consideration of PACT: purpose, audience, context, and Text. When I was writing MW2, I focused mainly on the details and getting down the facts from my sources, so there were less argumentative elements. However, by examining PACT before writing can help set the tone and voice for my essay. I think my audience is youth aged from 15-24 year age group because they are a large group of users of social media. My purpose is to lay out the benefits and disadvantage of social media for MW2; however, for MW3, I would have to take a opposition on arguming only on one behalf. My context is the social and academic learning development on youth. The third point the textbook introduce is how to have ideas. This means reviewing the assignment, doing research, and gather sources. Sometimes it is hard to come up with an opinion on something we never considered before, so getting to know the material from the sources helps shaping that opinion. After spending 2 days of class with Martha, I am very comfortable in gathering information using SLU search and library texts. Finally, the last point that the textbook mention is how to move ideas to a draft. For me, this is the hardest process because it involves organization of everything I want to say to a coherent piece. Instead of knowing my outline before I write, I often just start writing and then begin moving chunks of information to the point where everything flows. During this process, new ideas are added and moved to other places. The draft may eventually looks very different from what I constructed in the beginning. For me, the brainstorm never stops during any part of the writing process.

MWA 2 compared to Changing Writing Chapter 3

Chapter 3 in Changing Writing highlighted four main points. These points are how I was able to analyze our writing process throughout our essay; how I displayed the aspects of PACT, or purpose, audience, context, and text; how I was able to narrow down the sources I used; and the way I used brainstorming as well as free-writing to improve the quality of my essay. The writing process that I used to create the best argument I possibly could for my topic was just as the book said. I was able to find a large chunk of free time to sit down in a calm environment where my mind was able to go anywhere on the topic. This allowed for my final product to be very strongly opinionated, while also being able to add in the sources the I wanted. The way I brought in the different pieces of PACT are different in strength for each part. I feel as if my purpose was strong due to the opinions given on the topic, while also adding a good number of sources to back my argument without overwhelming the reader. The strongest part of my essay would be context because I was able to add a lot of examples of effects stemming from the cause that my issue created. I could have improved the appeal to the audience because as I read the essay back, I am more trying to appeal to a wider audience rather than trying to convince one person. Chapter 3 also talked about the importance of being able to narrow down sources so that there is a lot of opinion added to back up a certain source. With my sources, I first found my topics for each paragraph, then went and found the correct number of sources to fill in all of the sources needed. From there, I added commentary as well as connections from one source to another. This method has always worked well for me because it eliminates the possibility of having to find another source because once I have the number I am happy with, I just add commentary and opinion to back up that source as well as my topic. The final point highlighted in chapter 3 was the importance of brainstorming and free-writing. As a writer, I do not typically brainstorm because like I said earlier, I write best when a topic is given, and I am able to write as much as possible. Once I had the sources for my paragraphs on my argument, it was basically a free-write to fill in the gaps between the sources. I definitely could have brainstormed more than just the sources, but my personal preference has more free-writing involved.