When I came into this class, I came in with an unorganized method of writing. Whenever I was assigned to write a research paper or any paper where I would have to take a stand, I would always write vague thesis and arguments. My plan would be as I argue for my vague arguments, would find strong articles that I could use to specify my arguments and therefore strengthen them. However, oftentimes, I found that this method caused me a lot of trouble as I would find many sources with different viewpoints, and so when I tried to make my arguments specific, I would fail to do so in a convincing manner. This would lead to me doing last-minute research and having to take long breaks from writing just to find evidence for the assumption-based thesis I came up with just from skimming sources on Google and YouTube.

At first, when I had to prepare my technical description, I watched YouTube videos on my object, the Parker Fountain Pen, however, as I was writing descriptions for each of the parts, I realized my descriptions were quite vague and uninteresting. I realized I was describing the shape of the pen, but I couldn’t explain why that specific shape was being used. This is when I realized I should have done research beforehand from trusted and established databases so that I would be able to describe the pen in a more detailed manner. When I did research on Jstor, I was able to specifically state in my introduction that the Parker Pen fountain pen was able to be made through the invention of the “Lucky Curve System.” This addition made my introduction more informative and made me, the author, seem more knowledgeable to the audience. 

Therefore, my approach to writing changed in the next research papers such as the technical description and the position paper, through course learning outcome 7 which was to practice using various library sources, online databases, and the internet to locate sources. Through these resources, I was able to read on my topic and get a general idea of the thesis I would be making as once I wrote those assignments, I was able to make a clear thesis as I had researched sources beforehand.

Structured research also helped me accomplish course learning outcome 6 which was to formulate and articulate a stance through and in my writing. Due to the ample amount of research, I had done at databases such as Jstor, I was able to confidently make a thesis for my position paper and the technical innovation proposal paper. For example, for my thesis, I was able to bring up the statistic that “between 1996 to 2005, there were 225 bicyclist deaths and 3462 serious injuries” in New York City. This allowed me to easily state that bike lanes bring much-needed safety to our streets hence why we need them. It’s surprising how easy researching and picking sources beforehand makes writing a well-flowing and informative research paper. 

Last but not least, one significant way my theory of writing has changed is my perception of the best writing being done in anti-social settings. I used to think the best pieces of writing were ones where the writer writes by themselves so that it comes out with a monotone style as the writing is most likely to flow better. However, the technical innovation proposal changed my mind. Since the proposal was a huge writing task, and my group divided the paragraphs evenly, it was great to see how they built off of each other’s paragraphs. This allowed me to accomplish course outcome 4, which was to develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. 

Though my theory of writing has changed vastly, one-course learning outcome that I feel I have not accomplished is course learning outcome 5, which was to engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond. In this class, I feel we have not done any genre other than non-fiction, so this learning outcome is obsolete when it comes to my learning outcome in this class.

Overall, my theory of writing has changed from being a very unorganized and unprepared method, to a social, organized, and research-based approach which has led to me writing better papers with more ease than ever before. I hope to use my newfound theory in the various papers I will do in my college career in engineering classes, and even in my Civil Engineering career, where I am sure I will have to make well-researched proposals.