Matthew Herzog

Erin Workman
ENC 2135-0009
27 July 2015
Writing Genre 4
In the process of writing this research paper, many decisions had to be made in order for
the paper to successfully communicate information and how that information answered the
research question of how do certain written forms of communication between a student and a
teacher in the classroom affect the education of the student and the effectiveness of the teacher.
These decisions ranged from how I would organize the paper to achieve my purpose to
incorporating certain parts of sources. While writing this research paper, my theory of writing
expanded overall but certain aspects of it condensed as well.
In order to fulfill my purpose of answering my research question, I made sure to utilize
outside sources that directly related to my question as much as possible. There are times where
sources that only briefly mention a topic are useful. However, I felt it was necessary to use
sources that gave concrete evidence instead of evidence that I would have to synthesize. I also
made sure to gather a variety of sources that spoke on numerous topics so that I would not be
discussing a single topic. If were to use one topic, the research paper would become boring rather
quickly.
I also conveyed the information I gathered and achieved my purpose by following a loose
paradigm that I use for most papers. This involves introducing each point I am going to talk
about, discuss a topic in each paragraph while attempting to connect it back to previously
mentioned topics, and concluding what I have written by summarizing. In this case, however, I
used the summary in the conclusion to reflect on what I personally learned and what steps I

thought should be taken next in regards to my research. The reason why I follow this structure is
because it helps add fluidity to my writing and allows me to clearly convey my purpose.
In addition of using a certain structure, I also chose specific parts of my sources to
incorporate in my writing to support my claims more clearly. I did this by using two methods:
incorporating parts of quotes into my own sentences and summarizing studies. The reason why I
incorporated my sources in such a manner is because it allows my audience to understand where
I am getting my ideas from and so that any claims that I make are not unclear. I also use sources
in those ways, especially summarizing, because they add credibility to what I am saying; I am
not just regurgitating information but I am synthesizing evidence to support my research
question.
In order to convey my purpose of exploring sources to find answers to my research
question, I also included personal anecdotes in my paper. To me this was unconventional
because, in most of my research papers, I was not permitted to using the first-person. However,
since my audience indicated that they were receptive to personal anecdotes, I utilized them. Even
though I used personal anecdotes sparingly, I believe they showed the validity behind my
research and thus made my purpose much more clear. The scarcity of anecdotes was also due to
the focus of the paper being on research rather than reflection.
Since my audience was a professor, the tone of my paper was rather formal and thus my
information had to be gathered from academic sources. However, since I was permitted to use
popular media sources, I did add some informal aspects to the paper, such as mentioning a
Tumblr post about ridiculous student essays. The reason why all of my popular media sources
were comical in nature was because I did not want my paper to be completely academic; I
wanted some playfulness in the paper to add a sense of casualness rather than fully scholarly. By

using these sources, I was able to expand my audience from just a professor to many students
who are interested in education.
As I was writing this research paper, I realized that there were many aspects of good
writing that I never appreciated before. I realized that fluidity is very important in order to
successfully convey ones purpose. I saw this when we did the cutting up activity. My paper
made sense in multiple ways, but the overall organization of topics stayed the same. This showed
me that certain transitions can change the fluidity a reader perceives from a certain piece of
writing. During this writing, I also noticed the individual importance of purpose and audience
and how they relate to each other and genre. I also saw the importance of organization and how it
can make a paper seem well thought-out. Having a piece of writing seems thought-out adds to its
credibility and impressionability. During the writing process of this research paper, I also saw
how critical cooperation is. If there was no cooperation involved within this paper, my purpose
would definitely be not as clear as it is now.
Even though my idea of good writing grew, some aspects of my theory of writing were
removed or compressed as well. For example, I removed the term communicative because I
realized the other aspects of good writing innately make writing communicative. I also removed
creative from my theory. The reason for this is because I realized that all writing is creative in
some form no matter what, unless a writer is plagiarizing. Instead of creative, I added unique
and impressionable to my theory. I believe that the uniqueness in the content and presentation
of writing can make it unique and thus create a long-lasting impression on a reader.
Overall, writing this paper has allowed my theory of writing to become much more
complex and narrow. The many aspects that I changed about my theory were changed as a result
of my increased awareness of who I am as a writer. I realized as I wrote this research paper that I
do follow a skeleton of a formula when writing. I do realize that formulaic writing can be

harmful to ones writing, but I do not follow a concrete one; the formula I use is flexible enough
to be used in multiple genres of writing.