Reflective Essay: Organizing Idea and Thesis

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     For my reflective essay, there are five different organizing ideas and themes that I could use. Each one of them will change how my thesis is worded and, ultimately, what my essay becomes.

1. "Focus on a specific assignment, experience, or concept."

     

     Thesis: From opening a blog to searching for forums; from opening my first social media account to making a presentation of my argument in my blog not only to my classmates, but also to all of the Internet, I learned in this extensive project and now assert that, to make the optimal public argument for any topic, audience, argument, and occasion must all work hand-in-hand, lest the failures to align those three aspects will weaken the argument, muddle its purpose and significance, and even jeopardize the credibility of the arguer for his seeming incompetence in forming a coherent argument.

2. "Compare your experience writing in this course to past experiences."

     Thesis: When I wrote in high school, I always thought that it was possible to write to a general audience--that everyone can be affected (if not immediately, then eventually) by any arguable or influential topic; but in college, however, I learned that that was a mistake: for every argument, there is always a target audience, never a "general public." By holding on to that principle, I discovered that my writing became more focused, more precise, and more impactful than it ever was before.

3. "Reflect on strengths and weaknesses."

     Thesis: Over the three months that I have delved into unique genres of writing and confronted their individual sets of problems to solve, I realized that I may be skilled in forming grammatically sound, well-structured paragraphs with smooth transitions, in synthesizing outside information within my own rhetoric, and in creating logical arguments based on data and facts; but all of those mean nothing if I cannot overcome my greatest weaknesses: neglecting and forgetting who my audience is and why that audience should mold how I write.

4. "Focus on course objectives."

     Thesis: Because of this English course, I discovered that rhetorical analysis and awareness can do more than give insight into an author's eccentricities and nuances in writing: it can extend beyond the book and stretch into the real world in work and in everyday conversation, and it can very well determine whether or not your argument or your viewpoint will successfully reach out to others or fall prostrate in the dirt, as I found out in my public argument.

5. "Focus on your writing process/self-perception as a writer."

     Thesis: After working on three major projects, all of them placing me and my classmates in unique rhetorical situations, and after writing multiple papers and essays before in high school as well, I realized that my tendency to act as a "heavy planner" may be great for the short term, but crumbles in the long term; therefore, for this class, I sought to break away from that tendency and to begin embracing attributes of the "heavy reviser" to counter my planning proclivity and to reduce my "burnout" for correcting the mistakes in my first draft.

   

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     I believe that the third thesis would be the most effective, interesting way to organize my essay because it deals with a problem that I had and still have. It is something that seems easy to ignore and to cast aside, thinking that you can get away with having the "general public" as the audience; but, if you and I do that, it actually muddles our arguments and makes our purposes unclear. Since I, the speaker, have that problem, I can make authoritative statements for others who may have that same problem or even other problems that they are struggling to eliminate. For my audiences (my professor and my classmates), this topic is very relatable: certainly my professor has seen this problem again and again in her many years of teaching English, and my classmates know the struggle of trying to correct their faults, even if it is not the same as mine. Therefore, by complementing those facts with a conversational tone, I can fulfill my purpose to prove that yes, I did improve my writing and actively sought to identify and be constantly aware of my audience, but also to show that that problem still persists in my writing and that I am still trying to improve more and more everyday. It is a message for the everyman in writing.


Note: I commented on Michael's and Cati's blogs.