20. Conclusion

This writing class has been productive for me moving forward as a writer and educated individual. Despite wiritng thorughout my life, I have learned a few things in this class that have stuck with me more than any other English class I have taken before. Of these things are the importance of topic sentences and conclusions, the power of skim reading, and visual rhetoric through maintaining this blog.

As I wrote my rhetorical analysis paper, I quickly realized that the things I write make sense in my mind but don't always come across that way. I have the tendency to overcomplicate my writing so I have learned the power of being concise. My topic sentences did not appeal to my thesis statements but would rather feel like a new introduction every paragraph. Therefore, my concluding sentences did not tie back to the topic sentence and thesis in a way that gave logical flow. In short, my point was not coming across. Now, I have learned how to use my thesis to shape those sentences instead of writing on a blank canvas every time.

The first thing we did in this class was learn the power of skimming. I would have never only read the introduction and conclusion before the middle on my own, so learning that has been huge for he in quickly comprehending passages that I must read in my school work. Without that, I would waste a lot of time still in reading complete passages, only to forgot much and retain little. That initial moment in the class proved to me that I would learn many important things needed to become a better reader and writer.

Lastly, this blog has helped me in conveying my own thoughts and insights in a rhetorical way visually. I hadn't thought it much before, other than on social media, but reading something bare is much more unappealing that reading something with illustration or images complementing it. I think about being a kid and loving to read picture books instead of soup labels. I think the same rule applies. Visual rhetoric is important in English but also in appearance through things like body language and polite gesturing. That's something I have learned from simply maintaining this blog and applying it to everyday life.

In conclusion, this writing class has helped me to learn things on my own as well as through a great instructor and peers. Writing has always been a strength of mine so I haven't consciously focused on improving it very much. Doing so now has proved very beneficial moving forward and I continue to be grateful for it every day.