Amarlis Vazquez

11 December 2019

ENGL 21001

Essay #4

My writing technique has increased over this semester. I have edited, researched and taken both the professors and classmates’ advice. I have taken into account my classmates writing techniques and tried to apply it to my own writing. In essay three, my classmates reviewed my essay and left comments. They told me to add analysis to the lyrics that I mentioned were the artist’s, Kesha, way of sending a message to someone. “The tempo and lack of instruments made her vocals and lyrics come out clear. “(Critical Analysis). Since I mentioned that the lyrics were meaningful, my classmates were expecting me to explain why. I did so by saying, “Kesha’s lyrics have themes of strength and bravery. It is obvious that she is speaking to someone in her lyrics. In the first verse” (Critical Analysis). Analyzing the lyrics strengthened my thesis. When I would write essays, I didn’t necessarily have a goal over all because I would write for the word count. It was difficult for me to reach word counts or page requirements because I wasn’t writing enough. I then realized that I need to explain every claim I make because my opinion on things are always going to be self-explanatory. When I write now, I am mindful to the word count, but my goal is to properly explain every claim thoroughly. Writing for this course, made me realize that summarizing a source shouldn’t be most of your essay. Your opinion and claims should be most of the essay. The person reading your essay can easily read the text you’re writing about and not have to worry about rereading the story in your essay. There should be three or five sentences on the text but then it should be claims and proofs after that. “The image the author includes is an image of a woman’s neck and down to where her bra is showing. In the link the author included, there are more images that campaign created. I think the author wanted the audience to realize that this is an actual issue that occurs to women daily. She makes this purpose visible due to the language being understandable and not difficult. “(Opinion Editorial). I summarize the image in one sentence and then write my opinion. Before, I used to love writing summaries and not about my claims. It made me lose points. I believe a good example of how my writing has improved is the comparison of the first essay, Opinion Editorial, and the last, Critical Analysis. For the first essay, I was focusing on word count and making sure I would finish time. I fixed the essay after editing it, but before it wasn’t giving much to the audience. In the last essay, I wrote plenty because I was making sure my points were being explained properly. Even though the word count requirement was different between the two, the first essay was only 700 words and I struggled to reach that. The last essay had to be 1700 words and I could’ve written so much than I have. I could have rambled on for pages if I really wanted to. I appreciate writing more than I did in the beginning of the semester. 

Word Count: 535