Hillmer’s Art of Persuasion

Evaluations of Other Students and My Own Writing Progress Throughout the Semester

Evaluation of Chelsea's Writing:

One of the first things I noticed while reading Chelsea's initial papers was that she was very eloquent and strong in her ability to respectfully state her opinion in a way that considered the audience's potential differing views from her own, but, at the same time, communicated her personal views on the issues being discussed. I believe that this is an extremely important aspect of writing and a trait that she continued to use throughout the course of the semester. The one area I thought that Chelsea improved the most on was how she explained elements of her writing to her reader. As a writer, it's easy to visually see in your own mind where your going with an idea and, therefore, what your reader should be thinking as well. However, what the speaker believes is self explanatory is often not adequately described in a way that the audience can fully understand. Chelsea greatly improved on her ability to describe in detail why she thought what she did while providing the evidence to support her claims.

Evaluation of Kayla's Writing:

It was interesting to read Kayla's writing because, throughout the semester, I have often been assigned to her peer editing groups and been able to witness her development as a writer first hand. The first thing I noticed about Kayla's writing style was her strong ability of using both pathos and logos simultaneously to persuade her audience. I recall in her first paper, she used a charming bagel anecdote to catch the readers attention and then went on to discuss the complicated ideas of scholars such as Elbow and Bartholomae. In her early papers, she was very good at using such humorous remarks
(such as the bagel plot), but her papers became even stronger near the end of the semester. She still integrated her trademark bitingly witty comments, but she began to use more personal life experiences. These true stories were a great way that Kayla was able to reveal a very honest, confident, no bullshit persona that allowed the reader to connect to her as a writer.

Evaluation of Kara's Writing:

Kara is very passionate with a vulnerable and relatable quality to her writing. This openess "I am who I am" trait is one of the strongest characteristics in a good writer and one that I personally strive to attain. In the beginning papers, Kara uses experiences that have happened to her throughout her life to discuss and relate to the scholars and academics we studied in this course. However, as demonstrated in essay's towards the end of the semester, Kara grew tremendously in using her concrete evidence to convince the audience of her point while, at the same time, trying to look objectively at both sides of the arguement. This growth was obvious in her paper 2 final draft.

The other blog I was suppossed to evaluate was Audra V's, but nothing is posted on her yet except for a few reading responses. I will keep checking her posts and read them when they are posted. However, nothing is posted to comment on right now.

My Personal Growth Throughout the Semester:

Without a question, I have grown tremendously as a writer. Not only was it wonderful to read academic writing because I had never read this kind of work, but analyzing such different texts than I usually would helped me to strengthen certain parts of my own writing, like structuring an arguement and providing substantial support for each of my claims.

However, the aspect of the class that I found to be most useful to my development as a writer were my frequent one on one meetings with Professor Sarah Allen. During these times, together we would look over each of my papers and discuss strengths, weaknesses, and new ideas that could be added in. I have had many meeting with teachers in which we discussed my essays and papers, but in my discussion about my work with Professor Allen were different. I learned more about myself as a writer such as what I did well (connecting with my reader by sharing my own insecurities and, surprisingly enough, my voice) and what I had to pay close attention to and work on in each paper (my structure, organization of my papers, and tendency to be too wordy). However, most importantly, I became more confident in my ability to be my own person, my own writier. Each writer has their own unique process of writing, individual voice, and personal style that cannot be altered. For years, I tried to live up to my dad's writing and copy the way that other writer's wrote, thinking that this highly intellectual style, elaborate structure, and complex diction was the only way to write and be considered a "real" writer. I now know, although I still and will always have to constantly remind myself, that this is untrue. When I try to write like someone else, my words don't flow together and my thoughts are incomprehendable, leaving a huge jumbled mess of ideas. So, it's with the help of classes like this that, once again, I reaffirm my belief that I must always write as myself, in the only way I know how. That is the only way for me to effectively express myself. So, although my confidence in my abilities as a writer often wanes and dwindles, I have to write using my own voice or else the words cease to ring true to my reader and, more importantly, to myself.