Mudassir Majid

Professor Harris

English 110

December 17, 2018

                                                             Theory of Writing

Writing is an important skill that is necessary in almost every field and job type, whether you are writing reports or writing an email, being able to communicate your ideas to words is crucial in the workplace. As a college student myself I have been writing for years and have done many types of writing. All of this writing has allowed me to develop my own theory of writing, basically my approach to writing and overall writing process.

Coming into college all I thought about writing was that as long as I fulfill the assignments task Im good. But the more I began writing I realized that in order to get the grade you desire your going to have do more. Aspects of writing such as background, flow and clarity, should be more focused on. Answering the question isn’t the only part of an essay, you need to make sure that your essay is clear and concise, don’t just answer the question but help the readers understand what your answering. This can be done by providing a background of the question and how it arose. This is one of the most important things about writing that I learned while in college.

One thing about writing that I have learned while taking this class is that reflection is a major if not the most important part of writing. Reflection allows you to further improve and perfect your piece to the way you want it. Revising your pieces helps you learn and see how you write what mistakes you make often, when reading your own pieces you can see your writing style and tendencies. This helped me in realizing my own theory of writing.  

 As a student I know how it feels to have no idea what to do or write when it comes to an assignment. Sometimes starting an assignment or finding out what to write about can be the hardest part, overtime I have figured out ways or tricks on how to solve this issue. Often when I don’t know how to start an essay I usually free write. This allows me to get whatever ideas and claims I want to write about onto paper. Once you get all your ideas and claims out you can begin adding onto these ideas, further explaining and providing evidence. This allows you to begin to develop your body paragraphs and before you know it a huge chunk of your essay is done. Free writing is a big part of my writing process and is one of the first steps I take when I start to write.

Another part of my theory of writing is the way I write or my approach to an essay. While writing an essay I start with free writing but when constructing my essays I find it most effective to start with my body paragraphs. Starting with the body paragraphs instead of the introduction is effective in writing an essay as it allows you to write more and think less, meaning your writing does not get disrupted with you stopping and thinking. Since you already know what to write about in your paragraphs, you can dive right in and finish your body paragraphs without breaks and within a short period more than 80% percent of your essay is finished. I find this technique effective as it shortens your working time and allows you to be more technique. Also when you have all of your body paragraphs written out this helps you in writing your introduction and conclusion paragraphs. Since you already know whats in your essay you can introduce your topic without including too much and instill your thesis. Your conclusion should be done last as you need to know what to summarize.

“ Even though most Americans celebrate their heritage as a nation of immigrants, immigration has become a negative thing in the eyes of many Americans. Immigration is one of the most controversial aspects of American politics in society today, with immigrants being separated from their families by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. The trump administration has made it one if its top priorities to crack down on illegal immigration and even restrict immigration into our country. Trump proposed to build a wall blocking mexico from our country and even placed a travel ban that temporarily banned certain countries to come into this country.”

This is taken from my Inquiry based research essay, this shows my introductory paragraph, which was written after my body paragraphs. This technique allowed to me effectively introduce my topic and discuss what I was going to write about. Thus making my introduction and conclusion more effective and well constructed.

Depending on the type of assignment, your going to need to do some research, whether it is to find out more about your topic or to get evidence to back up your claims. Research is an important part of my writing process and throughout this semester I learned how to utilize my resources more and better incorporate my research into my writing. When doing research it is best to identify your genre beforehand this why you can specify what kind of sources you’re looking for. Academic journals or scholarly articles are better utilized when you need facts or supporting evidence, but if you want to talk about social issues or current events it is better to use open web sources such as magazines and newspapers. Another thing I learned is to check if the source is credible. These are aspects of rhetorical analysis which should be followed in your writing especially if it’s persuasive. Other aspects include genre, stance, audience, purpose and the rhetorical situation, which is why or the circumstances that lead you to write.

Another part of my writing process is how to utilize your research to ensure that it is used most effectively. Once you got all your research and evidence that supports your claim, than you should instill your research into your essay. One technique I learned throughout this course is how to effectively use my research. One such method is the “TEA” method this taught me how to better construct my paragraphs. The T stands for topic sentence where you introduce your claim. The E stands for evidence this is where you support your claim using the evidence you find in your research. Lastly the A stands for analysis this is where you analyze your research and explain how it effective or why it is important. This technique helps your essay to flow and brings an organization to your writing.

“Limiting or restricting immigration into this country will harm our economy as immigrants play a major role in our country’s economy and promote growth, productivity and efficiency. Contrary to the belief that immigrants harm the nation, there’s more evidence that immigrants benefit the economy. Since 2011, immigrants have enhanced two thirds of economic growth and have founded 30 percent of US firms which 50 percent of startups that are valued over 1 billion ( Kimberly Amadeo). Immigrants entering the labor force increase productivity in the economy and raise GDP. Another major benefit is the phenomenon “ immigration surplus” in which immigrants income rises as well as the incomes of the native population. These working immigrants also pay taxes towards social security and medicare which improves the age dependency ratio by increasing the number of workers that support the senior population. The more immigrants entering the workforce the better as this ratio is worsening causing more benefits to the retired population.”

This paragraph is from the same essay, this shows how I used the TEA method to organize my paragraph. This allows me to better construct my paragraphs and I use this in most of my essays in all my classes. With these techniques and my theory of writing I am able to better write papers.

Overall my theory of writing is how I write my essays and in this essay I discussed what has contributed to it the most. Free Writing and research are a big part of my writing process as this is how I start my writing, this allows me to effectively get out all my points and ideas to paper. Another part of my theory is starting my essays by writing the body paragraphs first and organizing them with the TEA method. This allows me to finish the majority of my essay and better organize it, also to utilize my research more effectively. This is how I write and are the aspects of my writing process. My theory of writing has allowed me to become a better writer and has allowed me to apply it to other classes and effectively complete my papers.

.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.