Unit
1 Reflection Blog Post
Marlene
Lawston
The academic style of writing has a number of
components. One component involves the structure of the writing piece; in an
academic style essay there must be an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs, and
a concluding paragraph. A second component is academic tone, which is formal
and succinct. These two components of academic writing have been taught to us
[students] starting at a young age. In
WRT 105, my understanding of academic writing style was improved as we were
introduced to two new components of academic writing, the ideas of abstract
thought and referencing the literature of other authors. Abstract thought is
the newest component of academic writing. With this component, the topics that
are written about are often nonconcrete and complex, requiring us to form theories
and claims instead of simply agreeing or disagreeing with an idea or a piece of
literature. This is more challenging because it requires a thorough
understanding of the topic at hand and it goes against human instinct, which is
to immediately “take a side.” Referencing
literature was also an important component that we previously had brief
exposure to. This component, however, was important for this assignment because
it was useful as evidence to support our claims and it demonstrated a thorough comprehension
of the literature from class.
In addition to academic writing, we blogged. This type
of writing was new to me because it has different conventions than academic
writing. For example, in academic writing, the authors typically write in the
third person to hold a formal tone while in blogging, it is very common for the
author to write in the first person and colloquially. Also, blogging does not
require the writing structure that academic writing does and authors have more
freedom when it comes to structuring their piece.
In March 2015, I attended the three
day National Youth Service-Learning conference in Washington DC with fellow
volunteers from Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital. A major theme of this
conference was “Education Inequity.” All of the students in my group were from
fairly affluent areas and went to good high schools such as Niskayuna,
Bethlehem and Shaker. When students and teachers from all over the Nation spoke
at the conference about the negative impact of students sitting in a classroom
and being lectured to all day, we did not really understand what they were
talking about because we had always viewed education as liberating, not oppressive
and discouraging to the student. This is why The Banking System of Education and Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work stood out to me as
we progressed through the unit. They both included numerous impactful
quotations that were important in shaping my claim such as in Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of
Work, when the teacher of “working class” students said “Simple punctuation
is all they'll ever use.” These two
pieces of literature completely changed the way I view the education system.
Before, I did not realize the complexity of the issue; I thought it was simple,
as long as an individual could stay in school and receive an education, they
had a high chance of being successful in life. I thought that the main
obstacles they would encounter would be outside of school and that education
could only benefit them. When I read about how the banking system of education
can in fact be oppressive and how the type of education children receive is
based directly on the circumstances of their birth, I realized that my point of
view on the education system was skewed. This is when I had the idea to incorporate into
my claim that the “American Dream” is not attainable for some because education
opportunities are very unequal across the United States, and even when there is
access to education, it can be discouraging to the student and turn them away
from the path to the American Dream.
Analysis, as Rosenwasser and Stephen claim in Writing Analytically 7th edition, “is a form of detective work that typically pursues something puzzling, something you are seeking to understand rather than something you believe you already have the answers to. Analysis finds questions where there seemed not to be any, and it makes connections that might not have been evident at first. Analysis is, then, more than just a set of skills: it is a frame of mind, an attitude toward experience” (2-3). Analysis skills are important because they can be applied to many aspects of life. This class will help you to further develop your analysis skills through literature, writing, and reflection.
Argument involves inquiry and analysis and engages others in ongoing conversations about topics of common concern. In addition to being persuasive, arguments can be a means of sharing information, posing important questions, or even raising consciousness about issues. In this class, evidence for your arguments will come from analysis, from discussion with others, from your personal experience, and from research. You will also learn that arguments are dependent on the situation at hand: that is, they look, sound, and persuade differently depending on audience, purpose, genre and context.[1]
4.
Writing as Academic Practice