By: Emily Gonzalez
Although I feel as if I haven’t improved as much as I would have liked this semester, I still feel as if my writing has progressed. I understand that change doesn’t happen overnight, and in order to improve my writing, I must continue to work on it. At the beginning of the semester, I was unsure of how to write analytically without eventually becoming fully argumentative. Throughout the semester, we analyzed different pieces of writing, such as Said and Ernst, and wrote multiple pieces, such as ‘Should We Be Reading the Arabian Nights” and my essay on the hyper sexualization of Arabic women. This allowed me to understand the difference between expressive and argumentative writing, which I have always struggled with in my writing. I think what is good about my writing is that I tend to connect with material regarding the topic I am writing or researching. I also think that I tend to account for the larger narrative or picture while also being analytical. I personally believe the piece in which I truly showcased this was my essay on the hyper sexualization of Arabian nights. In that essay, I connected Haddway’s Arabian Nights, Aladdin, and several texts we discussed in class and framed my analysis and argument around this. In this piece, I connected with the material presented in front of me while also looking at different perspectives. I would like to improve clarity, organization, and being concise. Some ways that I could make this come to fruition are to make it more common to write multiple drafts, try out different writing structures to find out which one works best for my writing style, and make writing every day a habit. I feel like the reason I struggle with clarity is that I struggle with writing first drafts. I usually don’t write multiple drafts for my writing; I tend to go with the “moment.” I believe that because I often write these pieces of writing before they are due, it only allows me to get out all my ideas without really refining them. On one hand, I think it’s definitely a skill, but this limits my ability to be concise and clear. My essay on who and what the Arabian Nights were written for and how this contributes to the hyper-sexualization of Arabic women, I think, was the most well-wrought piece I have written. I think that this was the most well-wrought piece because my analysis was well defined in this piece and my arguments were strong. This was one of the pieces on which I had written more than one draft. I think that because I had written more than one draft, I was able to really organize and focus on my main analytical points. My writing process since the start of the semester has changed substantially. I also enjoyed my poem with the prompt of adding our own stories to the night. I think that it was because I enjoy writing poetry and creative writing pieces. Before this semester, I would just jump into writing rather than writing down a few points I wanted to focus on. I would have a couple points in mind rather than writing them down. I have also started to write freely to just get some ideas out on paper. I have always thought faster than I write, but really taking a moment to jot down all my ideas allows me to filter out certain aspects. Some pieces I would like to rewrite would be my Challenged Assumption and my reflection on whether we should or shouldn’t be reading the Arabian Nights. In my challenged assumption, I felt like it could have had more information and I could have explained the term’s East and West more. With my reflection on whether we should or should not be reading the Arabian nights, I felt like there could also be more information and better organization.
