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Throughout my whole education, writing essay’s seemed to be an easy task. Although it’s never easy at first. My typical routine starts with overthinking on a topic to write about. The more daunting task is figuring out how to start the essay. I can sit in front of my computer and have writer’s block for about 10 minutes’ tops. The most rewarding feeling, is getting into the writing zone where my ideas start flowing out of me. It seemed to be the same routine every time I sat down to write an essay. However, College Writing II gave me a different perspective on the writing process.

I write my essay’s in the most traditional way. I start with my introduction, and follow an outline with main points, sub-points, a few citations maybe, and a conclusion. My overall passing grades on these essays’ didn’t really give me much thought on how I tend to write them. I considered myself an okay writer, which meant I was able to hand in an assignment that gave me a grade I was able to live with.

Initially, I thought College Writing II was going to be like any other writing course. I was expecting on writing essay’s after essay’s. At the beginning of the semester when we were asked to define rhetoric, I thought that was it. I learned that you can’t just stop there, rhetoric is used every day in our daily lives. At first, I struggled to understand the point of using rhetoric.

For my first draft in the Selfie Summary and Analysis, I had a hard time writing a reflective analysis. How was I supposed to write a 3-6-page summary of a short paragraph? Through class discussion and peer review, I started to get more of an idea of over analyzing one direct quote. It seemed to come easy to Dr. Kyburz to have a more complex thought and analysis over one quote. As I realized in my writing, I am more straightforward and I never really give much thought to something. If I find a quote that sounds useful, I cite it, paraphrase and continue. From this assignment, I learned to find different meanings and to think more complex on something that I once thought was straightforward. I also learned that you cannot just cite a quote and move on from there, a critical thinking analysis should follow.

From this learning experience, it made a significant different to my approach on the Rational Argument. The topic I chose to talk about was ADHD and the implications of treatment. I have written essay’s in the past on this topic, however, I enjoyed writing this one in particular. In the past, most of my main points came from direct sources. It would be mostly informative and have a formal tone. The purpose of this assignment was to articulate the complexity of an issue, and to work on creating a more complex argument. My first draft was exactly like the essay’s I have written before, it was an explanation of the disorder by psychologists. Once I realized how boring it was to be writing the same thing, I went back to add in rhetorical analysis. Instead of writing an informative essay on the disorder itself, I brought up a more complicated understanding of problematic questions I have come across regarding the topic of ADHD. Such as:

Why are kids being classified as having signs of ADHD when the symptoms sound like a typical child’s behavior?

Is prescribing Adderall or Ritalin to suppress their behaviors really benefiting them, or does it make it easier for the caregiver to deal with a hyper active child?

And one that truly hit’s close to some, why some students resort to taking a non-prescribed stimulant to enhance their academic performance.

I enjoyed the Rational Argument the most because it wasn’t just about arguing one side. I learned to articulate my own ideas and opinions in a complex issue. I found myself finding answers to these problematic questions, rather than just paraphrasing a viewpoint from one psychologist. I enjoyed digging in deeper and illustrating a different form of understanding.

Overall, this course has taught me that there is more to writing than just wanting to achieve a passing grade. Putting in extra thought with critical thinking makes the process more enjoyable, as well as having a stronger standpoint. I’d like to have more of an open mind, and learning new outcomes benefit’s me as a writer.