Timothy

Faragher
UWRT1102
Dr.Blair
Final Reflection Essay
Carefully produced papers fit for academic discourse often contain "flow", engage the
reader, and make a concise point. Over the course of this semester, I have recognized and tried to
implicate these elements into my own papers. The main driving force behind my improvements
as a writer this term is the inquiry project. Comparable to an outline or brainstorm, the inquiry
project process is the groundwork for an essay. What separates the inquiry project from other
forms of pre-writing is that it encompasses ideas like brainstorming and written outlines, then
goes even further in depth. It is a process that lasts weeks instead of hours.
Often in an essay, if the writer strays from the topic, or uses choppy sentences that
include too many pauses, the author can loose the readers attention. "Flow" is the rhythm of the
paper developed by syntax, diction, and transitions. This semester I have tried to improve my
writing by developing a better overall "flow" in my papers. I have done so by using words that
agree in meaning as well as the sound they make when they are pronounced. For example when
describing a boat moving through the water, "moving" can be replaced by "sloshed". Another
way I have tried to improve my essay flow is to use better syntax. Syntax is the structure of a
sentence. An example of advanced syntax could be sentence repetition, where a writer starts
multiple sentences off in a similar fashion to emphasize a point, or to provide familiar
introductory phrases to help guide the reader through a paper. An example of how I used syntax
to increase the "flow" of a paper would be the repetition of the words "I am a poem"

In my

poem assignment. By using that phrase at the beginning and middle of my poem, it signified a
shift in ideas or benchmark in the poem. Finally, transitions are an important part of "flow" that I
seek to incorporate in my writing after this course. If I had just started of the previous sentence
without the word finally, it would have made a harsher transition for the reader from idea to idea,
and would have taken away from the flow of this essay.
One way that I have become a better writer by taking this course is that I try to include
personal descriptive anecdotes in my essays to relate myself to the reader. This engages the
reader by giving your paper a personality. Instead of feeling like they are reading, it can feel like
you are actually telling the audience a story. Another way I try to engage the reader in my paper
after taking 1102 is to bring to light a weakness in my essay. This is one of the best ways to
engage a reader because it makes your paper real. What I mean by this is, often in papers a
person will disguise negative character traits. This takes away from engaging an audience
because they are real people and they have real flaws, just as all authors are real people and have
real flaws; an author hiding all flaws in their writing is being dishonest.
Finally, this term I have tried to focus on making my papers concise. Rambling or going
off topic can disengage a reader from your writing. I have also found trying to write about too
much can be overwhelming for a writer and take away from the strength of an essay. In class this
semester, during a peer revision I was asked to maybe cut down on the different ideas I had in
my essay and stick to the strongest two or three ones. I feel like this helped me significantly
develop my other ideas instead of having many undeveloped ones.
In conclusion, this semester I have worked on improving my papers and academic
discourse by incorporating "flow", engaging the reader, and improving the conciseness of my
papers. One of the biggest ways I continued to improve on these ideas every paper was through

the inquiry process. In this process I combined many prewriting techniques over the course of a
few weeks before even starting a rough draft. Even though I believe I have made significant
improve nuts as a writer, the journey never stops and I hope to continue moving forward from
here. As Robert E. Lee once put it, "the education of a man is never completed until he dies".