Out of the papers you are putting into your English portfolio, which one do you think shows your best work and which one do you think needs to be edited the most? Explain why. Be specific. Provide examples of your best and weakest areas.
As of right now, I would have to say that my essay about McCandless best showcases my writing abilities. I believe I have a pretty solid introduction (the writing center tutor person also said so herself tonight) and I have a lot of support from Into the Wild. My support ranges from the beginning (literally the beginning...I quote from the Author's Note) to the end of the book showing how my argument is prevalent throughout the entire text. I think my best areas within this essay would be my analyzation of the quotes that I have chosen to use. I think the quotes really support the argument that I am trying to make. Of course, it still needs editing but I would say that it requires the least amount of revisions as compared to the other two essays that I will be using. My research paper right now requires the most attention primarily because it is the newest essay and I have spent the least amount of time revising it thus far. I understand that with my research paper, I need to provide more supporting information and to omit the generalizations that I have made throughout the paper. I also need to find a scholarly source that provides me with a strong, solid naysayer argument. Right now, I have what Rachel called a "straw man" naysayer argument because it lacked any complexity. By finding a source where I can provide a more complex argument, I will be able to strengthen my paper. In a sense, I feel that I should make more fluid connections between my body paragraphs within my research paper. A lot of my ideas are solid but lack the support that it needs.
16 years ago
I align with you when you say that your research paper needs the most work. Mine is also suffering from the same problems, which, as you personally noted, is almost entirely explication. I need to incorporate some of my actual research in, and hopefully i have enough to fill up the 3 pages that are remaining on my paper. As for the transitions that you mentioned, i also have none, but it in in those transitions that those generalizations find a home, because ina transiiton you aren't really trying to prove a point, merely summing up what you have or giving an introduction towhat you are about to say and yeah, generalize there.
ReplyDeleteThat's good that you have your quotes as your strengths, because reading your essays, you use a lot of quotes and tend to explain them really well. I see what you mean with the whole solid naysayer argument. It's sometimes hard to actually find a good scholarly article that is for your topic. You should try looking for other sources that deal with your topic in a way and try to use that to make conclusions. I found it pretty hard to find journal articles dealing with children and violence, but I found a lot of books on it. I'm actually still trying to find a journal article to match my topic well. I hope I can help you somehow. In class we can discuss this further if you need to!
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