Welcome to my blog, a representation of one of the many assignments you will be keeping track of in your upcoming English 110 class at OSU. As a student enrolled in any writing class, it's important to evaluate first your own interests/ experiences as a writer, before evaluating a course curriculum, for example, what some of your interests are, what your strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to writing, what your former experiences as a writer entail, what your preferences are as a writer, etc.
I can tell you first hand that coming into this English class wasn't initially exciting for me. I prefer to write in a more liberating style; one that gives me freedom to be creative and express my opinions. What does English 110.01 entail? An academic writing piece about an assigned theme. Looking back on my writing experience in high school, I was NEVER excited when we had to write academic research papers, especially when I didn't have much say about what I could write about. For me, being able to express your opinion in your own writing is extremely important (of course, while recognizing the other side and avoiding excessive bias at all costs), and I advise you to stay true to this when you write all of your papers for this upcoming class.
You may be thinking, is this possible? Well what I've come to learn throughout this writing course is, yes, this is possible! Even though you may be given an assignment theme to write about, you can still make it very much your own piece of work with insightful details, claims, and anecdotes that express who you are. Our topic (which you may have been able to pick up on) is food and food ways. The topic was broad enough that I was able to choose an outlet that appealed to my interests, and create an academic paper that was relatively engaging to both complete research for and compose.
You can also look forward to writing a Commonplace essay. What is Commonplace? Well for me, it was much more exciting than creating an academic piece of writing. Commonplace really gives you the chance to expand your thoughts on a given topic, as well as expand your abilities as a writer. In a way, blogs do this for you as well. Your writing will become much more public, therefore much open for expressivity and public opinion. You will be able to both receive and provide feedback concerning your article or others. This will give you, as it has given me, the opportunity to engage in public writing at the college level; communicate with authors like you about your ideals as well as theirs. It's an opportunity to be an expressive writer!
Of course, there are guidelines you still need to keep in mind. Remember to always be professional, and be casual when necessary. The number one rule of thumb that I've always tried to follow is to avoid becoming biased. In the Commonplace essay, there is more freedom as to what opinions you can express, but what I've come to learn is that part of become a mature writer is accepting that it's necessary to support your ideas with factual evidence. You'll come to learn, that without logos, you lack ethos, and pathos is too prominent. This may mean nothing to you now, but consider this: if you base your writing solely on emotional appeal, where is your logic? Without logic, can people trust your writing? Can you be convincing? Where is your character?
Throughout the course of my writing career, I've always tried to keep these things in mind, but I truly think they were fully brought to light in this class. I firmly believe these are some of the core foundations of exceptional writing style, and I hope you get out of this class, all of the importances that I plan to hold on to for the future ahead. Good luck!
