Throughout this semester, I have learned how to write more appropriately to different audiences as well as many different genres or writing. My blog has complimented the more formal writing by allowing me to reflect to how to write to the desired audiences, and this skill is used universally; it does not matter how you write but you must write according to the audience in mind. For example, by writing this blog, I am assuming that the reader is familiar with my previous posts and with the fact that audience has been the center and base of our papers within the class; since I am assuming this, I am writing the blog accordingly.
My strengths this semester has been writing to the desired audience in my paper. I found that this skill came quite easy, and it did not take much practice until I would continue to keep the audience in the back of my head well I was writing. I am very thankful that we had the natural science paper first because it allowed to my practice and hone this skill for the upcoming papers. My weakness of my work was finding the right diction to get my tone and message across much clearer. I believe that I tended to use weak words to establish a tone. I wish I would have taken the time to build up this skill because it would have been much more beneficial when it came to my auto-ethnography; it would have allowed my narrative to pull deepen emotions out of the reader, which was my goal for the narrative proportions.
I have learned and mastered many strategies in this class that can be used in any discipline of study; although most were working or writing literature, some were skills that can be used in day to day life. One of the more important skills that I believe I have mastered is the skill in writing to a desired audience. This can be used in any discipline and must always be kept in mind while the literature is being written. There may be jargon that the reader is unfamiliar with ad it should explained; there also may be jargon that the intended audience will understand so it can be left in the work. This also teaches a life skill without actually directly teaching it; this skill teaches people to use discretion in their every day life. Discretion must be used when writing to one audience and so, it can used when when making other choices in life.
Of all of my papers, I feel especially proud my natural science paper and the humanities as well. I’m proud my natural science for a few reasons. The first one is that I got a A- on it and whenever I get an A on anything, I feel proud of myself. Another reason I feel proud of my natural science was because I feel I did a great job summarizing a very complicated topic and making in easy for everyone to understand; the idea of using algae for bio fuel is very complicated but I fell like anyone can my paper and understand the concept behind it. I am proud of my humanities paper because I feel like I did a great job writing a pro-Marxist paper about a song that had nothing to do with Marxism. The song had nothing to do with communism because if it did, the singer and writer would have been thrown into jail for being communist supporters; it was written in 1946 but made popular in 1955, during the Second Red Scare.
Of all the papers written, I can say that I easily learned the most from the first paper. It not only taught me how to write to a audience, but also how to use Google Scholar and other databases to find creditable research and experiments. This tool will very useful in the future, if the need arises that would require finding a creditable article.
I found the humanities paper to be challenging because it required me to look at a song I have known for a very long time and re-read in lyrics with a different perspective. I have never had to look at a song with a theoretical view, much less a view I do not agree with. It actually hurt me to write about an old song but with a Marxist theoretical lens. I was able to finish it though I fell like I did a really good job with the paper overall.