Process Reflection
By Christine Bedway
Why I Write: This piece is one of my favorite pieces of all time. I am so happy that I was assigned this challenge. I’ve never actually stopped to think about why I love writing as much as I do. It’s been a big part of my life for the past seven or eight years, but I did not realize just how important until sitting down to write this essay. There are two main reasons why I write: A specific situation where a better player made me realize that I was never going to be an elite basketball player and for all of the emotion and peace that writing brings me. One is very concrete and understandable and the other is abstract and personal. The hardest part of this assignment was melding the two ideas together to create a cohesive piece. My feedback group really helped me realize this area to improve on during our group session. I am now very satisfied with my transitions and flow. This assignment also made me realize I need to push myself more as a writer. I sent in what I thought was my final draft of Why I Write to my feedback group. I figured they’d read it and understand it just as the story lives in my head and I wouldn’t have much to change. However, they made me realize that I had more work to do. They pushed me to dig deeper on a few topics and make a few transitions easier for the reader to follow along with. I took their advice and came out with a draft I did not even know was possible. I’m very proud of this piece and the writing process taught me lessons that will be valuable for future pieces.
Repurposed (MIA): This piece was a challenge for me to repurpose. It was originally an argumentative essay about the rapper M.I.A. and her narcissistic tendencies as an artist. In the original essay I used one song, “Amazon,” as my main piece of evidence. When I went to repurpose this piece, my main goal was to take away the academic language and make it more of a colloquial piece. I wanted it to have more of a critic’s review feel instead of a research paper. This was a challenge because I really liked the arguments I made in my first paper, but I had to find ways to rephrase those arguments so that the tone would change as well. From my first draft to second, I found additional ways to help myself achieve my desired tone. I cut some academic parts of my essay out that were well stated, but not critical to my overall argument. I also added a few extra informal paragraphs linking to pop culture in general, not just MIA, as most review writers tend to do. And finally, I chose to incorporate more of MIA’s work so that I had a better pool of evidence. I reference four songs in this second draft instead of just one, and I think it helps my argument immensely. This assignment made me realize a weakness that I have as a writer, taking ideas I once expressed in a certain tone and shifting that tone while keeping the argument. I’m glad it’s something that I’m aware of now and I can look out for in the future.
christine bedway 