Mangaroo 1

Justin Mangaroo

Professor

ENC1101

November 27, 2017

Writing about me

My writing was not always as proficient as it is today. I had to learn to use outside

sources to improve my writing process to what it is currently. Using these sources has made my

writing more exceptional. Everyone should look at outside sources for references and insights for

their writing processes because it can sharpen your writing skills to produce an essay to your best

abilities. My writing process developed as I changed the setting where I wrote and used other

sources to help focus on my weaknesses of my writing and fix them.

I never realized how the environment I wrote in affected my writing. In high school, I

used to just write my essays anywhere. I would write essays when Im hanging out with my

friends and even when I'm watching TV. Every time I wrote an essay under these conditions, I

would never have clear thoughts, I would get distracted easily, and I always ended up with a bad

grade on that essay. I got tired of getting bad grades and struggling with my essays, so I decided

to try something new. The next essay I wrote I decided to write the essay in my room alone. I

made sure my phone was on silent and my TV was off to ensure I had no distractions in my

room. For once my mind was clear of any surrounding distractions. I found myself more focused

on the essay than I usually was because whenever I would have the TV on or if I was on my

phone my priority would switch from the essay to whatever was on TV or making sure I texted

my friend back. Once my thoughts started flowing, it just kept on going. I was breezing through

this essay, when normally it would take me hours to write an essay. Not only did I get an A on
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that essay, but I gained more confidence as a writer. After that essay, I made a choice to make

sure whenever I write an essay I write in a quiet setting with no distractions.

Even though I created the perfect setting for me to write, I still had other weaknesses that

I still had to fix. Many of which I just recently fixed and I am still trying to improve in college.

One weakness I had was that I tended to use the same words throughout my essays. My teacher

used to tell me that my essays would lack word diversity. This resulted in my essays being very

bland and boring. I began to use a thesaurus on my next essays and whenever I caught myself

repeating the same word I would go find a synonym in the thesaurus to place that word. Even I

noticed that the essay seemed more interesting and was easier to read when I didnt see same

word repeating over and over again. Using the thesaurus also expanded my vocabulary too. For

example, instead of using the word great over and over, I would use words like fantastic,

wonderful, and marvelous. Even my peers said that they found my essays more enjoyable to

read. My essays used to heavily lack organization. My thoughts would be scattered everywhere

throughout my essay that even myself would periodically get lost and confused when reading my

own essay. It wasnt until this semester of college that I finally found a source to assist me with

the proper organization skills.

The book I got for my English class called Writing About Writing has been a very useful

source for aiding in my writing abilities. There is a chapter in the book called Rhetoric: Making

Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making where Doug Downs discusses the five

canons in writing. Canons are the rules or principles which are agreed upon as fundamentals to

an art. Doug Downs defines these five canons, Invention: Coming up with what to say,

developing the material for your piece. Arrangement: deciding what order that material should

go in and what parts your piece needs. Style: Crafting the particular expressions of your material
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to make it best suit the ecology. Memory: recording your arranged, styled material in biological,

technological or cultural forms. Delivery: publishing your composition for other rhetors to

encounter via specific modalities. (qtd. in Downs 477-478). I turned those five canons into my

planning method when writing essays now. Implementing the five canons into my planning

method has made it easier for to me piece my thoughts together to make composed essay. My

thoughts were not as all over the place in my later essays as they used to be, they went in order

and was easier to follow along as you read.

The internet is another outside source I use while Im writing. When I am having

difficulty understanding the topic of what I am writing about I will search up different websites

that can help me out. Depending on the topic, certain websites will have example essays on the

same or similar topic I am writing about. Reading these essays gives an insight of what I should

be discussing in my essay. I also get multiple perspectives on the topic from the different essays

which sometimes formulate new ideas that I can put into the essay. The internet provides useful

guidelines on how to format an essay depending on the genre of the essay. In college, different

professors require different formats for essays. I had to write an essay for history earlier in the

semester and the essay had to be written in a Chicago-Turbian style format. This was the first

time I had to write in a Chicago-Turbian style format. The only format I have ever been taught to

write in was MLA format. At my high school, teachers usually only ask for MLA formatting

and dont normally take points off your essay if you mess up the format. However, professors in

college will take points off if you do not meet the format requirement. I had to go on the internet

where I found a website called Purdue OWL that showed me how to write my essay in a

Chicago-Turbian style format. If I didnt look on the internet to do it and messed up the format, I

would have gotten ten points off my essay and my 95 on my essay to an 85.
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All in all, learning how to utilize and implement all those outside sources into my writing

process has effectively improved the results of my essays. If you only write based on your

perspective, you will be limiting yourself to the amount of information you can put in your essay.

Observing and taking note of other sources expands your knowledge on the topic you are writing

about, allowing you to put more information into your essay. If you use other sources, you may

find resources that might be useful to your writing that you may never have even thought of or

heard of using. Also making sure you have the perfect setting while you are writing is extremely

important. If this means turning off your phone or TV then by all means you should turn them

off. Having zero distractions while you are writing results in clearer thoughts and increased

creativity. Implementing all of these sources into my writing process has allowed me to continue

to master my own writing.