Colton Mobly
Instructor: Britton
Andrews
English 101
16 March 2015
Retrospective
Analysis Essay
Initially, at the beginning of this quarter my definition
of writing and that of English 101’s were vastly different. My first quarter
There were many different concepts that were discussed
and practiced throughout the quarter which proved to improve my essays
significantly. Granted, I would sit and think, tediously for hours on end, in
an effort to stray from the writing that has been expected of me for much of my
standard education. I had to make sense of all of these new terms such as,
ethos and tone, framing, and worst of all, critical inquiry. When asked to,
“write down a total of five participatory cultures and write a 5-7 page essay
on it” I was in shock, but as I began to participate in all of the exercises
implemented into the English 101 curriculum everything fell into place.
One
of the practices that helped me form a clear understanding of the subject that
I chose to write about in my presentation essay was done through the
organizational structure of issue, situation, and question. In this exercise I
was told to place the subject that I planned to write about in three separate
categories, in this case, situation, issue, and question. Through the
separation and organization of ideas I was able to, not only discover my topic
efficiently, but implement many of the ideas and create a conversation between
the other writers we studied throughout the quarter. I was able to first define
the context of the subject through the situation. In this, I simply stated what
the subject consists of and how it functions. I then went on to concisely
explain an issue. This issue, from my perspective, is fairly subjective and is
based on the writer’s ideas of what the conflict is. In this case, I sought to
talk about the book the subject of my essay plans to implement as a potential
canon, and subsequently tied this back to Bronwen Thomas’ ideas of canonicity
and fanfiction. I finally was able to ask myself several hypothetical questions
to complicate my thought process; eventually incorporating these ideas into my
final draft.
After
incorporating the many ideas of all of the authors we studied into my thought
process I felt in necessary to properly incorporate them into my final
presentation essay. When a writer aims to adopt any ideas outside of his or her
original thinking one must try to place these notions in an organized manner.
More importantly, a writer must give appropriate recognition to the author from
whom they are borrowing. For this purpose, it was necessary that I utilize
citation packages. Much of the writing and use of outside information in my
writing before this course consisted mainly of statements, quotes, or ideas
blatantly laid out on paper with no real connection to my original thought path.
Thus, citation packages were implemented into my writing to ensure all of the
authors I chose to quote were incorporated into my writing in a coherent and
cohesive fashion.
Citation
packages consist of several major sections, the first being the lead in. In
this, the writer is meant to introduce the writer or author and simply give a
concise summary of his or her work you wish to reference. This is made apparent
in my presentation essay when I introduce Bronwen Thomas and give a broad
description of her essay, “Canons and Fanons: Literary Fanfiction Online.” The
second move in a citation package is to place the quote. In my case, I
implemented these quotes into my sentences for the purpose of clarifying my
ideas and easing the transition from my speech to Thomas’ own words. Finally,
the
next step in the citation package process is to specify the ideas you wish to
pull from any outside author’s writing and show how this information holds
significance in your own writing. Personally, I first chose to place emphasis
on the idea of “more of” and “more from,” and subsequently discuss how this
idea was meaningful to Thomas’ study of online fanfiction. I then went on to
discuss how this notion is applicable to the subject of my essay and how it
aids in the expansion and complication of my evolving thesis.
When a writer chooses to implement strategies such as,
forwarding, countering, or the utilization of outside sources, this helps to
expand upon the ideas found at the beginning of a text. I found that in my
essay I chose to use these moves to, not only complicate my writing, but to
insure that I could properly bring some form of cohesiveness to the entirety of
my thought process. The majority of my writing pre-college was made up of a
fairly unorganized string of thoughts with no clear connection which severally
lacked in any obvious developmental processes. However, as I have considered
the many ways in which I could connect thoughts and further complicate my
thinking in my writing I have discovered the correct way to successfully apply
these strategies into a cogent idea path.
In the introduction paragraph of my essay my original
idea for Norman was based around the idea that some of the stories posted to
the online subreddit r/lifeofnorman would be forgotten if a book was
implemented as canon. Though, as I digress we can observe a significant
evolution of my ideas while they still maintain some amount of correlation
between one another. In fact, many of the ideas were formed and concluded from
my original thought process. Similar to what we spoke about in class, the
metaphor of our process and questioning being compared to a river that breaks
into smaller streams. Essentially, I began my thinking by stating the broad
issue of canon and how that relates to Norman’s life. I then sat and questioned
my writing, asking myself the “so what” questions. “So what,” meaning how does
this idea or thought relate to the larger river of ideas, and how might it be
significant. After some thinking, I chose to reference Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
and Bronwen Thomas. I was able to connect their ideas to my own by thinking
about how canonicity within Norman’s world would influence future works. Finally,
I evolved my thought path to question what implication canonicity might have on
the idea of what it means to be normal, and how the people who create Norman
might be limited in the manner to which they express their personal identities.
After hours of work and a newly formed idea of how to
properly maintain a coherent essay I feel satisfied with my learning
experience. Not only will I take from this course the many valuable skill that
can be applicable to all the writing I will have to do for the rest of my
college career, but I have learned how to question and analyze complexities
while simultaneously coming to original conclusions. At last, I can now go
forward in my education with a sense of confidence and certainty that I will
succeed.
