Theory Of Writing
By: Jordan Bunkley – Drain
Writing For Engineering
City College of New York
Julianne Davidow, Professor
May 10th, 2024
Writing is an interesting medium of conveying information and ideas. Throughout my writing Journey my general theory of writing has changed very much. This class also had great contributions to my theory of writing. So many ideas and strategies I have learned. In this essay I will go over my old theory of writing , I will go over how my theory of writing developed throughout the different major Assignments , and I will conclude with how my theory of writing currently is and how the whole class contributed to my literary thinking.
My original theory of writing before this class is interesting. When I was very young I originally thought writing was mostly useless and annoying. Starting in my senior year of highschool however, my thoughts on writing have changed for the most part. Even though I still don’t like the act of writing/typing too much, I have a much better understanding of the practicality and implications of writing and literature. In my senior year of highschool I learned the general Idea of how language and wording can be used to portray ideas. I learned how writing can be used as a way to understand people. Through someone’s writing and language you can get a sense of their personality, their general values, and to an extent how they interact with others. I was taught how reading and watching movies, stories, ect can help you develop ways of being able to better analyze and learn about people, and can even help you be better in terms of conversations and making your own writing more easy to read and digest. In college my earlier classes just reinforced these Ideas, And most of the classes were based on the application of these learned thoughts to different things like assignments on history, science, social ideas, ect. This class however had a profound effect on my theory of writing, and I have learned so much about writing as each of the assignments went by.
The first major assignment, the technical description of the electric toothbrush, was very great in terms of helping me learn and develop my theory of writing, Especially when it comes to composing and integrating sources into my stance with the topic, and systematic implementation of citation conventions. My general stance was that the electric toothbrush was a good technological advancement in terms of dental hygiene. The sources were first used to examine the history of technological advancements in toothbrushes, then I also used sourcing to explain the general differences between electric toothbrushes and ordinary tooth brushes. Then the sources were used to also technically explain and describe the different aspects of the electric toothbrush, and show why it works how it works. Learning how to use the sources was very important in helping me be able to not only explain the brush, but also to help support the argument that people should use them. The integration of the information from the sources helped add a layer of depth to my work that would have been more difficult to achieve if I just picked sources and threw them in like I previously did. This class helped me learn how to actually incorporate the sources in a meaningful way. I also learned how to get better in terms of citations as well, and help give the authors credit in a more meaningful way.
The second major assignment, the Funding project, was also very good for my writing. The main things I learned from this assignment is to use key rhetorical terms to portray my ideas. This assignment in general has improved drastically how I portray my ideas in my work. In doing this assignment I improved at using language and rhetoric to help the reader understand what I am trying to propose. I used language not only to help explain my initial Ideas, but also to address the possible counter arguments in a fair way, which is really good since addressing opposing arguments when proposing something is very important for getting the reader to agree with your statements. It not only helps you create a good rebuttal, but also shows that you are being impartial and fair, and showing how your ideas are actually better, instead of just making the opposing ideas look worse than they actually are , just to make yours look good.
The last major assignment, the Technical Innovation group project, was a great contribution as well. The main things I have learned are how to develop strategies for drafting , writing, and revising, how to engage in collaborative and social aspects of the work, and how to address wider ranges of audiences. This assignment was great in terms of learning how to draft and develop the different ideas we discussed but also organizing the different parts in a more meaningful way. The group was very collaborative and we all were able to pitch in and help each other improve their individual parts of the assignment. We even made a phone group chat in order to more easily and quickly work with each other and make sure we have the best assignment we could do. By addressing a wider audience, I was referring to the presentation. In the presentation we were able to adjust the information to be more digestible for the general public, who may not be as knowledgeable regarding the topics we are discussing. While the normal innovation document we were able to get into further detail .
Overall, throughout the semester, I have learned a great tone in regards to writing, and my theory of writing has greatly developed throughout this class, I have now learned that writing can be generally used as a tool in which to become more comfortable with interacting and working with people, and I have learned that language can be used in different ways, weather it is supporting your arguments, or it is technically describing things. Language can also be adjusted on a scale of more complex to simplified, from fun to serious, and in general how flexible writing can be used. Thanks for reading 🙂
