Koehler1 John Koehler Professor Fuentes English 1101 12/3/2013

Writing about My Writing Over the course of the first half of the semester I have written a large number of papers not just for this course, but for others as well. This course specifically is having me focus more and more on my writing. Doing this large amount of writing is causing me to fine tune my skills as a writer forcing me to write in a variety of ways; from a rhetorical analysis to a literacy memoir. Some of the pieces that I wrote that really stand out to me include my literacy memoir, and my rhetorical analysis of the government shutdown. Each of these pieces was written with a different rhetorical situation. My literacy memoir required me to write about myself, and provide insights on how I learned how to read and write. This paper had a three to five page length requirement and allowed us a few weeks to complete the project. This amount of time allowed me to look over my paper and gave me the opportunity to produce multiple drafts. Some of the guidelines that we were supposed to fallow included; providing insight to why I read and write the way I do, and to provide personal stories of literacy history. While writing my literacy memoir I tried to remember who the intended audience which was my peers this affected the language I choose to use and things I decided to write about. Compared to the literacy memoir the rhetorical analysis called The Current Government Shutdown was a much shorter piece. This piece had a minimum requirement of 500 words this size of paper is usually more condensed and requires a more concise language. Because it was

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shorter we had significantly less time to complete the assignment; this forced me to work fast. While writing the rhetorical analysis I had to read and interpret the direct and the indirect message, and the intended audience for each of the articles and compare and contrast them. Each of the articles had a different view of the government shutdown showing it from three different perspectives. In summation, this class has forced me to learn how to write in a variety of different ways. Some of those include writing peer responses that forced me to be concise and constructive compared to writing opinionated essays where I can be more subjective. Doing this large amount of writing really makes me relies how much prewriting makes a difference allowing you to focus on the prompt and answer the questions it asks. Also doing multiple drafts or continuing to re-read over your paper will help you correct your grammar and other mistakes.