Reflection on Project 2

Libertová, Lenka. "Child's Reflection"
 07/20/2015 via Pixabay. Public Domain License.

Logan Pearsall Smith once said, “Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.”  Unfortunately, I’ve never quite had this confidence about my writing.  I often avoid reflection on my works as I know that even the smallest mistakes will make me cringe.  But in the faith of becoming a better writer, I will take another look at my process of completing my rhetorical analysis.

The majority of my revision process was focused on accommodating my reader’s needs.  This included making sure my purpose matched the guidelines of the essay and my points were thoroughly explained.  I revised my thesis to include the message of why rhetoric was so important.  This gave my paper more analysis to explore in the body paragraphs.

I also focused heavily on the introduction and conclusion as they were not written with the audience in mind.  My introduction originally was exciting and hooking, but it left the reader confused about what exactly my essay was going to be about.  My first conclusion did little for my reader.  My revised conclusion gave something new to the reader, something to think about, and successfully wrapped up the point I was trying to get across.

I felt that these changes transformed my purpose as the author.  More than just showing my reader what I found, I was revealing to them why it mattered.  This turned my role as author from expert with a lot of information to teacher with information to pass on.  My readers are now more inclined to hear what I have to say.

There was a major flaw in my paper in which I seemed to completely contradict myself.  As the author, I knew the article I was analyzing in depth, but my reader had never read the article.  Thus, many of my local revisions included clarifying my points and making sure my sentences came across with the correct intention.  Otherwise, my readers were left very confused.

I also went through and made sure my words were carefully chosen.  When describing rhetoric, it is important to capture the exact feelings that the specific strategies create.  I wanted to make sure my readers knew exactly the sub text of the article since they had never read it.

Through this reflection process, I’ve realized how much writing is less about what you have to say and more about how the reader take it.  Even if you as the author think that your words exactly capture your message, your audience may not get the same thing out of it.  This is not a bad thing, but as an author you have to consider the impact what you are writing will have on the reader, and if this is really what you were intending.


Reflection:

I was surprised to find how my peers had almost the same reflection process even if their paper was totally different.  Austin See had to completely dump his first draft which I didn't do.  But the reasons behind both of our reflection were the same, it was all about bettering understand the audience and figuring out what our relationship to the reader.  Allison Perger discussed how she in a way put herself in the shoes of the reader.  I realized I also had to do this to make sure my readers would comprehend what I was trying say and to see if they would actually listen.