Final

My Risk Towards Successful Essays

Zamir Asliev

University of Cincinnati Blue Ash

9 April 2018

Introduction - introduce the principles

In the past, I have never liked writing, and I thought that is not important to me. However, that has changed after I moved to America. I learned the importance of writing, and how to write in English in the Fall semester of 2017. Writing is a powerful tool you will need in many aspects of your life. Writing is another way to express yourself, and identify your thoughts. My theory of writing is—having or setting a purpose before writing. It can also be referred as answering to a prompt but, without purpose or prompt, my writing would not belong to a certain category (or style). It would just be a simple descriptive writing like a status that I used to share on my social media sites and etc. Therefore, I always have a purpose or if I do not, I'll set and have that in my mind when I begin the research. While I research, I usually change my direct arguments, in other words, what I'm trying to say or prove, many times, because of the readings that will change my mind of how much I know and learned after reading some articles. This brings up usually many issues (questions) about the topic that I did not know but want to answer in my writing. Then, I will research and read with having those questions in my mind and eventually find answers that will fulfill my purpose. I don't usually go through many drafts. Instead, after finishing a couple of paragraphs, I will go back and revise them as needed. Also, I read my final writing and the sources I used over and over again to ensure if I have achieved to address my purpose well.

How do you decide what to write? – Content, audience

I usually want to write something I have experienced or something that is interesting for me at the time. Therefore, I chose to write about the "Benefits of Multilingualism". While being a multilingual person, I did not know many benefits of multilingualism before moving to America. My purpose to choose this particular topic was to gain more information about myself and other multilinguals as well as teaching them about those benefits. Also, many people are monolingual in America, and I was always asked how many languages I spoke when they detected my accent in English. They usually were surprised with my answer, and I was surprised with their reaction to my ability.

Furthermore, as I was researching I became aware of other new perspectives when I talked to the instructor about my topic. She suggested that multilingualism can be or is challenging/difficult for/in a monolingual country like the United States because, in the US, English is the most spoken language and widely used followed by Spanish. However, as I knew a little bit, many people, especially immigrants, do not utilize their native language to their children at home with a thought of it is difficult for the children to learn two languages at the same time, and it causes language delay, etc. This made me think of other many problems or issues that come along with this type of problem.

After finding more perspectives about my topic, I understood the importance of my topic. For example, why it is important, why people ignore it and don't support the use two languages at an early age for their children, why they should care? Therefore, my job was to find the answers for those questions to prove that it is actually more beneficial for them (parents) and their children. Because language delays are not caused by the use of two or more languages. I also had to use one more source to back up those alternative perspectives in my research project essay.

Additionally, it was very challenging to use those perspectives in my essay. I think, the reason for that is I was not quite sure about the order of my essay. For example, if I had to use evidence (quotes) from the article for every perspective to back up my arguments. Also, I do the same thing with solutions to those perspectives. So, I was confused about what exactly I should add as evidence. Another challenge I had was that my annotations did not quite fit my discussion, and I thought I need to revise those accordingly so they fit my main idea or purpose of my research project. As a result, I made some alterations, and added some more information from the sources I have used in my "Annotated Bibliography" Essay.

Why are you writing? – Purpose

Another reason I want to research and learn more about multilingualism is after moving to America in 2014, I barely understood or spoke English. I knew phrases such as, "Hi, how are you? What's your name?" I was struggling at the beginning of my life in America, but later I was able to speak, work, and feel confident about my English. Now, some people even say that I almost sound like a native English speaker, and that is what influenced me to choose my topic, which is the benefits of multilingualism. Multilingualism is very powerful as it expands your writing, why? Because, if you are multilingual, you can write and think in as many languages as you speak, and that helps to write more, get more ideas, go further. I have written an essay about some of the benefits of multilingualism in the past, so I am familiar with this topic, but I wanted to know more. Being able to learn and speak English fluently has changed my life.

Since I have written a simple descriptive essay about multilingualism, I gained some knowledge about the topic, but in this course, I wanted to learn more and here is the example fo what I was aware of before I finished my research project: Disadvantages of being multilingual? Am I really smarter than monolinguals? Why do I lose my ability to speak English fluently when I am tired? What makes it easier for bilinguals to learn a new language? Another reason I wanted to learn more about this topic is that I want to be able to explain the benefits of multilingualism to my current and future family, and teach or encourage them to learn more than two languages. For example, after moving to America I learned English in depth in order to be successful in the future. In my opinion, I can influence others, especially my future family to learn more than two languages and expand their horizon.

What format to put it in? - Audience, context

The audience is one of most important parts of writing. Therefore, I had to think about the audience I will be writing my essay for, and the tone of the voice should fit that audience. It was somewhat challenging or confusing for me to come up with more than one audience because I did not think about any audience when I wrote my annotations. However, for the research report project, I had to think about the audience, and my audience consisted of parents, bilingual parents, immigrants and their children, but my direct audience was parents and immigrant parents. The reason for that is the type of language format I used in my research report.

Moreover, thinking in many different voices helped to recognize my audience for my Genre Recasting project. As I am a multilingual person, I consistently think in other languages as well to see if it makes sense or change it if does not make a good sense. It helps different audiences to understand the content in the same way. Therefore, it is important to present it in different formats and genres so that it does not interfere with message and purpose of the essay.

Also, I speak differently in English and especially talking to native English speakers. I will try to be as much as clear and slow so that they could understand me with my accent. I try to stay private when talking to my coworkers because I don't want them to know what I'm going to do after work. In online courses or just in online communication, for example when writing e-mails, I always greet at the top and my question in the middle, then my name. I think it is a bit harder to explain something that is a little complicated online because it might interfere with the meaning of your message. It can be like writing an essay and going through many drafts and improving it which also might get complicated with it being too formal or informal.

What kind of language to put it in? - Formal/Informal/Personal

In this course, we have done research report genre recasting where the intended audience was the same but separated as formal and informal audiences. In research report or Rogerian argument, we were supposed the present a topic, its problem, solution, its benefits and give suggestion with the conclusion to persuade the audience to adapt our position. In the past, when I was not familiar with the topic I used to read a lot and read over and over again to understand the content better. However, in this semester I researched about the topic I was somewhat familiar with, which was actually a bit easier to write an essay about it, whereas I struggled if the topic was unfamiliar. Therefore, risk-taking was not too risky in this semester at it was in the last, it may also be because I was new to the American college environment, and I am a risk taker, like really big one. I even risked my knowledge to take this class, but so far it turned out well, and I think, my risk-taking ability helped to cross over the challenges I have faced throughout this course as well as the semester. As a result, I learned many more things and skills about college writing and writing in general. Therefore, I think risk-taking is crucial when you are somewhat sure about the successful ending, especially in your education.

Process

My writing process consists of checking the rubric, setting a purpose, find questions, research, evaluate sources, annotate sources, peer review, and reflection. I think, writing without purpose is waste of time, and that is why I always set a purpose before writing my essays. Having a purpose to fulfill makes writing a lot easier. In this course, quizzes were very helpful to understand the rubric and the instructions of the assignments as they differed from one another. For example, in the research report, we needed to represent multiple perspectives to make a Rogerian argument, and the quizzes helped to think about the perspectives. Additionally, doing peer reviews helped to understand what my audience is thinking about when they are reading my essays, and they suggested what I could change or improve in my essay. Journals are also very interesting and helpful. Looking back in Journal 2 where I did sort of a reflection of why I chose my research project topic, it made me realize more about myself, and what I did not know about myself. Feedbacks from the instructor were also important and very helpful as they contributed toward improving my essays. I have never used these concepts in my other courses in college because I do not have any similar class to ENGL1001 in this semester. However, in general, these concepts are very helpful in this course as well as other activities we do. For example, blogs and reflections. Blogs help to understand the assignment better and could be an answer in the essay. Reflections help to recognize our new skills from the assignment.

Moreover, in the previous English (0097) class, I have learned how to summarize and come up with at least one question about the article, and this technique was very helpful in this (ENGL1001) course. It helped to broaden my paragraphs and make the essay more entertaining. I really like this technique because, I always ask questions as I read a new article, and I thought that many other people may also ask the same questions I ask. Therefore, I answer some questions in my essays.

Conclusion

If you knew me, you would know that I am foreign to this country, I came four years ago and have been very strong to stay. So, I am still living here in Cincinnati, and I have faced many challenges throughout these four years, such as struggling with English and having to work full time surrounded by English speakers. It was very hard in the first few months. Later, I started to feel more confident, and I was not shy anymore. I could speak up and explain what I would try to say. My parents helped me or pushed me to not feel embarrassed to speak with confidence. That's how I started speaking English when I came to America. I started attending English classes for speakers of other languages at Great Oaks. I was almost fluent in speaking English in a year. Now, I see myself as an American because I have heard many times that I have a very light to no accent, and I think that makes me feel like an American. I am sure that my friends and my family would agree to this because I am a successful student with excellent grades at UCBA. I am proud of being a successful student at UCBA because not everyone can persist the challenges that they might face. This part of my personality proves that I am a strong minded and willing to put an effort into my education path to brighten my future life, especially in America. My successfulness can help to plan my study in college well because in the first semester I was very successful and independent. I did not meet nor have to take any CPAS courses (I dropped out of that class because it was boring, and I had academic experience). Nevertheless, I finished my first semester with excellent grades. My About Me page on my portfolio made me think that I have gone through many challenges in my American life. It ensured that I am a very strong person in general. I had an opportunity to share a bit of my story with the rest of the people in the world to possibly influence them that they are capable of doing amazing things.

When I think about the topic I'm writing about, I'll assume I know a lot about that topic. However, during research, I usually find a lot more information and develop my background knowledge about that topic, and it will change the way I look at the topic. When speaking, I will have more facts and information to prove that I know a lot about the topic. It helps me to retain the information better because my writing equals my knowledge and thought. Writing and reading are considered as active ways of perceiving information. Therefore, reading and writing help to retain the information better and recall.

Finally, I have learned how to introduce the topic with a thesis statement, and have an audience in mind. My theory is to have a purpose for the writing as it expands and improves your writing; the more you write, the more you learn. You will identify your thought much better if you just write them down.