The College Writing Course Reflection Essay

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Introduction

During the course, we learned that college essay writing is a complex process considering specific aspects and using certain strategies to create an organized, logical, and clear paper. Every essay attempts to explain a specific fact, analyze a phenomenon, or present the author’s view. For this reason, to remain focused, it is critical to develop and support the thesis sentence, introducing the topic of the essay and the author’s perspective on it. It will create the basis for the following discussion. At the same time, it is vital to support the topic sentences with arguments and ensure they help follow the logic and avoid fallacies. Moreover, prewriting, drafting, and revision are essential parts of college writing as they help to reflect on the text and correct mistakes. Additionally, the major assumptions should be supported with evidence from credible sources, meaning their choice is vital for an essay. In such a way, considering all these elements will help to create an excellent and structured essay.

Developing a Thesis

An essential takeaway of the course is that developing a thesis sentence is one of the fundamental and most important parts of college writing. Every essay should focus on a specific aspect or phenomenon a person wants to investigate or present to the audience. Thus, the correctly formulated thesis sentence helps to introduce the central point of the paper and familiarize the readers with the aspects that will be discussed. It will also guarantee their involvement and a better understanding of the discussed aspects. At the same time, a strong thesis should consist of two elements. The first one is the topic itself, which explains the idea of an essay, and the second one is the angle, which makes the paper more personified and illustrates the author’s view on the theme under discussion. The thesis sentence should impact the choice of arguments and their presentation to the audience. In such a way, any essay should start with developing a solid thesis and using it as a guide for further writing.

Prewriting, Drafting, Revising

Moreover, during the course, we learned that writing an essay is a process consisting of several phases. They are needed to ensure the final paper does not have logical fallacies and succeeds in presenting the topic to the audience. For this reason, prewriting, drafting, and revising are fundamental elements of academic writing. The first one starts before the first draft of the planned paper emerges. It implies the process of selecting ideas and how they can be discussed. Brainstorming, or freewriting, can be used to assist in organizing thoughts. Drafting is the next step in working on the essay. It implies structuring the central ideas and creating an outline showing how they will be presented. Following the outline, it is possible to select topic sentences for every paragraph and introduce logical arguments supporting the major assumptions. Finally, the first draft should be revised to ensure there are no mistakes or fallacies deteriorating the understanding of the presented problem. In such a way, a final essay can be considered a result of prewriting, drafting, and revising activities.

Argumentation

Argumentation is another critical aspect of college writing that requires much attention. It implies supporting the major assumptions with credible and clear arguments to ensure readers understand them and the proposed paper remains relevant. In such a way, correctly selected facts and ideas increase the understandability of the paper and make it more interesting for the target audience. However, argumentation should support the thesis sentence and help to present the topic selected by the author and the claim. Otherwise, there is a high risk of mistakes and logical fallacies. Moreover, it is vital that the arguments selected to prove a particular perspective are credible and supported by other writers. It will contribute to the paper’s increased credibility and relevance. In such a way, every essay should have solid argumentation implying the use of logic to support the perspective peculiar to the paper. It will help to show the significance of the discussed aspects and persuade the readers that the position protected by the author might be relevant.

Logical Fallacies

The course also helped to understand the concept of logical fallacies. Reviewing the paper might help to find logical fallacies, deteriorating the power of the used arguments and reducing the paper’s credibility. Thus, it can be determined as the errors in reasoning occurring because of using untrue premises or invalid arguments. In almost all cases, the logical fallacies complicate the understanding of the paper and reduce its value. The inability to organize the essay and present arguments logically indicates the weakness of the thesis, poor selection of claims, or the incorrect use of examples or assumptions to support them. In such a way, every argument used in writing should be evaluated to ensure there are no fallacies. Analyzing the appeal to ethos, logos, or pathos, it is possible to find whether they are reasonable and contribute to the paper’s better understanding. In such a way, reviewing the paper, it is possible to guarantee that it does not have logical fallacies and is understandable for readers. It is one of the critical features of good college writing.

Finding Sources

Finally, every claim made by the author in the essay should be supported with credible arguments. For this reason, working on a thesis requires determining whether it is researchable and can be investigated. It implies finding credible sources and creating a pool of works that can be used to build strong arguments and guarantee the major assumptions are linked to the relevant and up-to-date information offered by reputable authors. At the same time, it is vital to consider that various types of essays require different sources. These include primary, secondary, and tertiary sources linked to the same issue. Primary sources might be viewed as the most valuable and credible ones; however, some arguments might be strengthened by primary works or studies by other authors who summarize information on the discussed topic. At the same time, scholarly and peer-reviewed articles can be considered the most common type of sources used for papers. They can add credibility to essays and make them more relevant. For this reason, when working on the essay, it is important to use various research strategies to investigate databases and find necessary information.

Conclusion

Altogether, the course showed that collect writing is a complex process, and it is vital to consider several essential factors. First, it is fundamental to formulate a strong thesis sentence introducing a topic and the author’s view on it. At the same time, all claims made within the body of the paper should be supported by the arguments. It will help to avoid logical fallacies and increase the relevance of the paper. Moreover, writing an essay is a long process consisting of prewriting, drafting, and revising. These activities are vital for creating the overall image of the would-be essay, drafting an outline, and reading the ready work to find mistakes and logical fallacies. The paper’s credibility can be enhanced if relevant sources, such as peer-reviewed articles, are used. Although it might seem complicated, it is vital to master college writing and learn how to create logical and structured papers. Acquired skills can be used to make other documents, such as business letters, reports, or emails.

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IvyPanda. (2024, January 9). The College Writing Course Reflection. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-college-writing-course-reflection/

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IvyPanda. (2024) 'The College Writing Course Reflection'. 9 January.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "The College Writing Course Reflection." January 9, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-college-writing-course-reflection/.

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