Thoughtfulness, Persuasiveness, and Analysis Are the Key to Making a Good Writer

I arrived at the University of Arizona after completing high school at a private Catholic school that I assumed would prepare myself for the hard, analytical, and lengthy essays, projects, and assignments that I would face in college. Diving into higher education English, I was presented with multiple writing assignments that would test my competence in the class. Not only did I learn that my writing was sub par, but also that my habit of procrastinating would serve me more harm than good. Immediately, I understood that I would need to master the art of persuasion, whether is was used as a method of appeals or to model my argument.

Throughout my journey to writing self-discovery, I used methods of appeal such as ethos, pathos, and logos. I found that I was better at using some appeals in my arguments rather than others. Through higher education English, I discovered how to persuade my audience and develop my arguments in an articulate way. By learning how to effectively combine writing techniques such as ethos, pathos, and logos, I dove into an entirely different world of communication. When first learning these techniques, my form and execution was sloppy. In my first essay "Are colleges turning into a business?", I tested these methods of persuasion. By analyzing the persuasive writing techniques that Michelle Goldberg used, I was using those techniques as well. By using sentences such as, "Michelle Goldberg effectively critiques the horrors of the inefficient budget cuts that public universities are making through person narrative and comparative analysis of other universities," I appealed to my reader's emotions by using words such as "horrors" which gives an immediate indication of what my essay will entail. My assignment was to rhetorically analyze the methods of persuasion that Goldberg used, by using my own individual methods. Although this essay was insightful, it was jumbled and often times confusing because of my inability to organize and transition properly. With each essay I wrote, I discovered how to plan and effectively execute my thoughts and ideas onto paper in a persuasive manner.

Although my writing style took two semesters to develop, I learned how to toy and fix my thoughts depending on my audience. In my written public argument, I used components of a blog post to appeal to the type of audience I desired for my specific topic that I was elaborating on. I asked rhetorical questions that allowed my writing to capture the audience in an emotional and personal way. Without outwardly expressing the point behind my argument, I created a personal narrative that encapsulated the personality of it. My goal was to be casual, blunt, but also inspiring. I realized I did not need words that tried to make me sound articulate. Instead I used slang, abbreviations, and common phrases because my desired audience were teenagers, who use this type of language every day.

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The appeal I used that helped me build off of one idea to the next was ethos. I created and eliminated contradictions by asking a question or stating a claim that I knew my audience would be able to relate to. By stating that, "You and I both know that we sit on social media for hours, wondering how it is possible to obtain a body like Alexis Ren or a face like any of the Victoria's Secret Angels or even how Thomas Rhett and his wife are so bae goals," I was able to influence the audience's emotions and appeal to their ethos because I was telling the audience how they should have felt. I appealed to the audience's logos by using manipulative techniques to persuade my audience such as providing proven research that directly correlates to depression, loneliness, jealousy, and psychological disorders that occur when using social media and cell phones. The strategies I used were effective in persuading my audience to cut back on their use of social media, but my strategies in my visual public argument were not as effective.

I believe that my argument and the way I chose to portray it in my written public argument was strong and effective because of my ability to persuasively write and give examples of ethos, pathos, and logos. In my visual public argument, I believe it was much less effective than my written argument. I tried to include bits and pieces of my written argument, which came across as sloppy and jumbled to my audience because there were no clear transitions between the factual information that I was providing and the emotional appeals I was trying to create. Although some aspects of my visual public argument were not as effective and strong as my written public argument, the argument did not change. One strategy that I used to visually persuade my audience consisted of an inspiring You Tube video that used rhythm, downbeat music, and a hopeless sounding voice to appeal to the viewer's emotions. Another strategy I used were photos that visually encapsulated straightforward data and information. These strategies allowed for me to visually explain my argument without having to say what side of the argument I believed to be true. By using different strategies in my written and visual argument, I was allowed to control what I wanted my audience to believe, read, and see.

By continuously editing and developing my public arguments, the type of writer that I have become was apparent. Although I occasionally procrastinate and sloppily finish assignments, I use a great deal of personal narrative and emotional claims to draw in my reader. If I allowed my ideas to develop, my writing would be buoyant. Through trial and error, I have discovered what makes a writer great. Thoughtfulness, persuasiveness, and analysis are the key.

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