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Introduction Letter Final

The document discusses the author's final portfolio for an academic writing course which includes a genre translation, explication essay, literature review, and more. The author discusses how their understanding and approach to writing improved after learning about rhetorical situation and genre in the course, and being able to identify these elements for any writing assignment.

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269 views2 pages

Introduction Letter Final

The document discusses the author's final portfolio for an academic writing course which includes a genre translation, explication essay, literature review, and more. The author discusses how their understanding and approach to writing improved after learning about rhetorical situation and genre in the course, and being able to identify these elements for any writing assignment.

Uploaded by

api-544580382
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dear Julie Johnson (and whoever might be reading this),

This website is home to my final portfolio for Writ 2: Academic Writing and is fully

equipped with my genre translation, explication essay, literature review, and a little extra. In

highschool I loathed the writing process. I wrote many essays with lots of words and lots of

editing without really knowing what I was writing about. Writing essays at best felt like I was

pulling sentences out of thin air and at worst felt like pulling teeth. Throughout this course, I feel

like I have developed clarity of intention and thought when writing. I used to feel cloudy and

confused while writing essays (I would get As on papers that I couldn't even remember writing!)

One of the main contributors to this shift in my writing was learning the definition of

rhetorical situation. Laura Bolin Carroll’s essay “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward

Rhetorical Analysis” defines the rhetorical situation as being composed of exigence, audience,

and constraints. While I was vaguely aware of these terms prior to reading Carroll’s essay, I

never thought to consider them all together before sitting down to write. I realized how useful it

is to identify the rhetorical situation before writing (quite literally) anything.

I had a similar revelation when learning about genre from Lisa Bickmore’s essay “Genres

in the Wild Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical (Eco)Systems.” I had previously thought of

genre as pertaining only to books or movies. Instead, Bickmore defines genre by not only its

characteristics but also the parallel situations that call for a certain genre and unite many different

writers under a common purpose. Like with rhetorical situation, understanding genre gave me a

tool to approach any writing assignment. By identifying what genre I am writing in, why I am

writing, who I am appealing to, and by recognizing any constraints, the writing process becomes

less daunting. Overall, I now know how to approach writing assignments with a confidence and

focus I didn’t have before.


Throughout the revision process of both my explication essay and literature review I

focused on improving a few areas based on feedback I received. In my WP1, I focused on

clarifying my ideas. For example, I narrowed down the genre of my translation from blog post to

mommy blog movie review and added additional clarification to my topic sentence discussing

exigence. I also modified my argument regarding constraint since I had initially–and

inaccurately– suggested that academic articles are not constrained by length. Instead, I focused

on the difference between their constraints. I also clarified my point about “outward bias.” By

clarifying these ideas, I strengthened my argument. After all, you can’t persuade someone if they

don’t understand what you’re saying! In my WP2, I focused on concision. I cut out repetitive

turns of phrase that reduced the impact of my points and distracted from the purpose of my

literature review. For example, “clearly/obviously,” “such a,” “of such,” “all tend to,” and “it

becomes apparent” were all cut for concision. I switched a key sentence regarding soft

worldbuilding from passive to active voice which aided in my concision efforts.

When working on these essays, thanks to the course readings and google slides, I was

pleasantly surprised to find that I felt in control of my writing. Going into this course I was afraid

that it might be boring. In reality, getting to write about something I was interested in, Studio

Ghibli, made the process fun! When setting up my website I wanted to convey my appreciation

for Miyazaki’s work. Along with my welcome page, I made a page dedicated to the art of Studio

Ghibli. I hope you enjoy it!

Sincerely,

Ada Albright

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