We often wonder about how to write about all the things we want to include into our writings. It can be just a little bit difficult but at the same time if you have the right resources, it will help your paper in so many ways. In my English 1110.03 class we got to read “What Should Colleges Teach?” By Stanley Fish. He mentioned how middle schools and high schools aren’t preparing students to write effectively. I do agree with this fact because as students prepare for writing in college they need the skills on how to focus with the evidence they have. When all your organized thoughts and ideas are set and ready to go it will help you not get sidetracked when you write, because that is what tends to happen when students are writing. Having a big focus on your research is key as well, because when you don’t have that it will be a waste of time and you’ll have unnecessary information to focus upon. This will then may lead to having you change your topic unintentionally of you aren’t focused.
Besides all that you are still asking why? As mentioned before above, Stanley Fish went into depth on how high schools and middle schools don’t prepare you to write effectively and it all starts with on how to properly locate and use your resources. He explains how you won’t be able to change what you have if you don’t have the tools to correct. I do agree with him on this but I also think that most students out of high school are prepared for the writing in college. They may not be fully prepared, but in my opinion I feel that students still have potential to write what they can in college. Students are prepared for the basic needs when it comes to writing and come with enough to help them write to their best and full potential.
You may have that though where you're wondering on what to put down to make it even stronger. As we all know, having strong evidence and detail to back up your point and to make your writing better is well needed, but you also need something else and that is focus. Always focusing upon your topic and your main points and ideas along with your evidence will help to strengthen your writing, and then in the end you will come to the conclusion on why focusing on all these key thing is so important. I have had many experiences, (and still sometimes do) where I lose track of my topic throughout the paper and just don't know what I'm writing or what to write. I realized that it was because most of the time I did not have the important information or just enough to express what I am trying to get across so that my audience will understand rather than dragging the whole thing.
In my English 1110.03 class we had the opportunity to do data gathering assignments which included a survey, an observation between a PWC and a student, a teacher interview, and a PWC interview. I got to interview PWC Maddie from the Writers Studio at The Ohio State University at Newark https://newark.osu.edu/students/support-services/the-writers-studio/. When I got to observe her and the student that she was working with, they were working on a project proposal that was focused upon the analysis of a place and throughout it Maddie mentioned a lot about detail/being brief. While interviewing her I asked why she though that was so important and she went on to say how the detail the student had needed to be clear/concise so that the reader won't get confused with also the prompt they were referring to for evidence needing to be brief because the main focus was the analysis.
She explained to me how most first year writing courses have a focus on analysis of repetitions, binaries, and detail. This really stood out to me because these are things that have a big focus but is something we tend to leave out and not think about. I believe that when you do not have the right amount of detail to explain your argument is when it starts to go downhill. In order to have a proper formatted paper you need to follow step by step instructions to come to a conclusion. Start off by gathering the most relevant information and organize them for each paragraph and then explain what it all means. By having that strong evidence helps to boost the main idea of your whole paper.
When it comes to your analysis, that is also one of the key things to focus on as well. Many writers have a concern over this because sometimes they feel as if they don't have as much or have too little. The main thing when it comes to analysis is to think about your audience. You should focus on how much to explain, and think about what you'd do if you were the reader. According to the https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/audience/ this helps a lot with audience and will help to guide you on how to sum it all up. Narrowing down your focus helps your paper as well. You want to try and have not too much or not too little of information to come to your main idea. Having too much overwhelms the reader and having too little confuses them. It's kind've like a recipe, you want to add the right amount of an ingredient to get the right amount flavor.
Even though Stanley Fish had great points on how students are not prepared for the writing in college, I believe that students are somewhat prepared for it. From the research that I did I came to the conclusion that there are so many steps to take when it comes to the focus of your writing. From my own experiences I've had so many situations where I didn't know how to focus upon my topic and would get sidetracked. By hearing about others' experiences and and understanding what needs to be put into a writing to make it strong has helped me to realize the importance of focus.
You may have that though where you're wondering on what to put down to make it even stronger. As we all know, having strong evidence and detail to back up your point and to make your writing better is well needed, but you also need something else and that is focus. Always focusing upon your topic and your main points and ideas along with your evidence will help to strengthen your writing, and then in the end you will come to the conclusion on why focusing on all these key thing is so important. I have had many experiences, (and still sometimes do) where I lose track of my topic throughout the paper and just don't know what I'm writing or what to write. I realized that it was because most of the time I did not have the important information or just enough to express what I am trying to get across so that my audience will understand rather than dragging the whole thing.
In my English 1110.03 class we had the opportunity to do data gathering assignments which included a survey, an observation between a PWC and a student, a teacher interview, and a PWC interview. I got to interview PWC Maddie from the Writers Studio at The Ohio State University at Newark https://newark.osu.edu/students/support-services/the-writers-studio/. When I got to observe her and the student that she was working with, they were working on a project proposal that was focused upon the analysis of a place and throughout it Maddie mentioned a lot about detail/being brief. While interviewing her I asked why she though that was so important and she went on to say how the detail the student had needed to be clear/concise so that the reader won't get confused with also the prompt they were referring to for evidence needing to be brief because the main focus was the analysis.
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She explained to me how most first year writing courses have a focus on analysis of repetitions, binaries, and detail. This really stood out to me because these are things that have a big focus but is something we tend to leave out and not think about. I believe that when you do not have the right amount of detail to explain your argument is when it starts to go downhill. In order to have a proper formatted paper you need to follow step by step instructions to come to a conclusion. Start off by gathering the most relevant information and organize them for each paragraph and then explain what it all means. By having that strong evidence helps to boost the main idea of your whole paper.
When it comes to your analysis, that is also one of the key things to focus on as well. Many writers have a concern over this because sometimes they feel as if they don't have as much or have too little. The main thing when it comes to analysis is to think about your audience. You should focus on how much to explain, and think about what you'd do if you were the reader. According to the https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/audience/ this helps a lot with audience and will help to guide you on how to sum it all up. Narrowing down your focus helps your paper as well. You want to try and have not too much or not too little of information to come to your main idea. Having too much overwhelms the reader and having too little confuses them. It's kind've like a recipe, you want to add the right amount of an ingredient to get the right amount flavor.
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| When you just know it's too much and that you don't know what you just read. |
Even though Stanley Fish had great points on how students are not prepared for the writing in college, I believe that students are somewhat prepared for it. From the research that I did I came to the conclusion that there are so many steps to take when it comes to the focus of your writing. From my own experiences I've had so many situations where I didn't know how to focus upon my topic and would get sidetracked. By hearing about others' experiences and and understanding what needs to be put into a writing to make it strong has helped me to realize the importance of focus.
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