Reflective Introduction (Video Game Overview)

            I always thought I had reached my full potential as a writer but that was until I came to college and started taking writing. I went into the writing series with no idea of what to expect and thinking it was not going to be too hard. However, I was mistaken because writing is a lot more complex than I had thought. For example, in writing 39B I struggled in understanding how to properly write a rhetorical essay but I was able to do it with the guidance of my professor. At that point I thought I was done with the hardest part and that was transitioning from high school writing to college writing, but it was only the start of my journey in writing. Writing 39C was a brand new obstacle that I had to overcome. Personally, I am proud of my improvement in writing 39C because I never knew I was capable of improving this much. I am very content in what I have learned because I know it has strengthened my writing.

            When students said writing 39C was based on research, I was unaware of how much work it was going to take.  It could be that I knew nothing about video games or that I did not know how to gather research and organize it into an argument; but regardless the class was not as simple as I had thought. This has led me to learn many things about the process of generating research-based compositions. It all started with that presentation we had where they taught us how to find research and use Google Scholarly and online libraries that gave us access to millions of sources. This was extremely helpful because I had no idea all these scholarly websites existed. Also it was not just about finding articles but finding the correct articles that could support your argument. Figuratively speaking , I learned that when writing a research-based composition it is important not to have any gaps in your work. Meaning that there should not be any room for the reader to contradict or question the information that is gathered by adding credibility and counterarguents.

           When I first started my Historical Conversations Project I did not realize it consisted of a lot research. I needed to state a problem, talk about the history, evaluate debates, and have at least 2 pieces of evidence, 1 from the past and 1 from the present. I thought that doing minimal amount of research was going to allow me to get by but it only made my writing process more difficult. As I look back at my HCP, I was lost compared to when I wrote my AP. In my HCP, my drafts did not show much improvement, my source evaluations and my annotations were weak. I think it was because I felt very overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to do that I was unable to really grasp the understanding of writing the HCP. Every time I thought I had it figured out, there was something else I had to fix. It was hard at first but once I was in my final draft I finally got a clear picture of the HCP's purpose.

        I learned a lot from my HCP because it was the first research-based paper I had done with multi-modality. One thing I struggled with in my HCP was finding information about video game addiction in the past and I believe it was because I was not very good at researching and tying the past with the present. Another thing I struggled with were finding artifacts because I had never worked multi-modality. In my HCP I provided pictures of one of the first game consoles, data, and photos of boys playing video games in the past and present. As I was composing my HCP I did not really understand the point of adding images to the essay. I thought it was just pictures of anything related to video games that I could add but it was more than that; it was about adding images that supported and made my argument stronger.

              My Historical Conversation Project did improve from the rough draft to the final draft but where I felt I made the most improvement was in my Advocacy Project. When I started my AP I knew I was going to focus on therapy as a solution for video games but I did not have an idea on how to approach my essay. I slowly tackled this problem by talking to Annie about the AP prompt so that I could understand it better. Even after I understood the prompt, I sill had trouble addressing the prompt. However, meeting up with Annie always steered me in the right direction on how to improve my essay.This is when I decided to use a hard copy to edit my essay, so that I could write down crucial points. I was able to write little notes near sentences and paragraphs and know exactly where to make the changes unlike in my HCP. This changed the way I revised my drafts. Iy may not seem like a big deal but revising on a hard copy helped me better understand my errors and what to do to improve. For example, I noticed that in my first rough draft I lacked research in the history part and research on evidence to support my solution. 

             My second AP rough draft was better cleaned up than my first draft but still not at its peak. I made to sure to correct my errors from the first draft but there were still more areas that my essay needed improvement in. For example, I had to add a counterargument to my solution and how to overcome those problems. I also had to find anecdotes that would support my solution so that the audience could be convinced that therapy is the best solution to video game addiction. I had to add more images in the beginning of my essay and add stronger sources that could better support my information. In addition to all these changes, I had to reorganize my paragraphs because the way I had it formatted was not doing my argument any favors. My writing instructor made me realize that in order for my argument to be effective I had to strategize on how to deliver it. With this being said, I changed my paragraphs to: counterargument for medication, stating how therapy is better than medication, why it is better, counterargument for therapy, solution to counterargument, and anecdotes to support my solution. Even though this change was not difficult, I feel like it made my essay stronger. This is something I should have done in my HCP but I did not how to reorganize my paragraphs until now.  I wish I knew all this back when I was writing my HCP so that I could have earned a higher grade, but this is all part of the learning process. I had to struggle and make mistakes so that I could become a better writer. 

LEVEL 1: Composing Process

My composing process was messy in my HCP because I did not think about the prompt clearly and ways I was going to address it. I thought I was going to be able to just jump into writing my essay and hit all the points I needed to address but I soon learned that this was not an effective way to write. When it came down to composing my essay I struggled due to the fact that I did not have an outline to base my essay off. 

The HCP Proposal was the only thing I had done prior to actually writing my HCP and while it did help me know about video game addiction, it still lacked on how how I should format my writing. I did not know in what order I should address my argument that video game addiction is as serious as any other addiction. It was easy to write out information I had researched but formatting it into a strong essay was difficult. In office hours, I learned that arranging the elements of my essay was important. If I started with strong research about the history of video game addiction then it would make it easier for me to work my way in talking about present day video game addiction. This is why my essay's format was weak because the beginning of it failed to do its job. Since I struggled in finding information about the history of video game addiction, I was not able to connect the history with the present. Because of this, I had to reformulate my research strategies. I had to learn how to use google scholarly more efficiently in a way I could find more sources. 

As for my AP, my composing process improved a lot because I knew what areas I needed to work on, which was research and format. One thing I struggled in the composing part AP essay  was understanding that I was only supposed to focus on the solution for video games. Even when I would read the prompts, I would still have doubts on what the essay was composed of. Other things I had to work on in my AP were drafts, source evaluations, and annotations because my HCP was insufficient in these areas. I took more time in the draft process with my AP because I wanted to apply what I had learned form my HCP to my AP. 

The image above were notes I had written down when I first met with Annie and we discussed my AP. Excuse the sloppiness, but other than that these little notes me were reminders on the improvements I needed to make in my AP. As you can she, she even helped me with key words in finding more research so that I could add more sources. After I met with Annie, I also had a "light bulb" moment because talking to her made me understand my essay more. I know it may sound strange but even though I had good information, I was still not headed toward the right direction of composing my AP, so that is where Annie came in and steered me to a clear path. She helped me realize that my AP is based on me arguing about therapy being the best solution and adding credibility. In order to achieve this I was going to have to add information such as debates and research, along with editing my thesis so that my argument could be stronger.  Regardless of the obstacles I went through in my composing process, I was able to overcome with a lot of hard work and Annie's help.

LEVEL 2: Rhetoric, Argumentation, & Multi-modal Communication

I have learned a lot about argumentation and persuasion in generating my two multi-modal compositions. First off, I had no idea that adding images and graphs could help strengthen an argument in an essay. So it was something very new to me that I had to learn how to do. I thought to myself how hard could adding pictures to an essay be and I soon realized that it was a lot harder than it seemed. After I had turned in my final HCP I thought I had done a decent job in adding images, but I look now and realize it was not as good as I had thought. At the time I thought that adding images to my HCP was not important and it was just about adding visuals. It was not until my AP that I realized that these images are supposed to go hand in hand with my argument. It should strengthen, prove, and add credibility to my argument. 

The two pictures above are from my HCP and my AP. The first photo was in my HP and I did not embed it properly into my essay. The format was not correct, there was no caption, nor figure number. It was a good chart but I did not use it correctly so that it could support my argument. On the other hand, the pie graph that I used for my AP was better formatted because it had a caption. Also, in my HCP essay I only used 3 images versus in my AP I used 6 and it made my argument a lot better. These images allow me to add more credibility so that the reader could see all the statistics I talked about. I did a lot better in my arguments and counterarguments in my AP than in my HCP. In my HCP I made my argument about video games being an addiction, then I talked about my counterargument, and then I went back to my argument. I thought this was fine until I learned that there is a more effective way I can arrange my paragraphs. In my AP, I stated my argument, talked about the counterargument (medication as a solution), and then talked about why my argument (therapy for video games) was the best option. 

LEVEL 3: Revision 

 My process of revision changed from when I revised my HCP to when I revised my AP. In my HCP I simply went on canvas and looked at the comments Annie had made and then attempted to understand them and fix them somehow. In my AP however, I decided to change my revision process. One thing I did was get over my fear in asking Annie for help on revising my essay when I could not understand the mistakes would make. I would write down all the tips and suggestions she would give me so that I could back later and fix them. I really felt like this was more effective because it made it clearer to me on how to fix my paper. 

The images above are my drafts that I annotated and revised for my 2 AP drafts. On the left hand you can see my second rough draft and on the right you can see my first rough draft. One thing you can notice is that I revised my essay more efficiently in my second draft than my first. In the first one it is mostly what my peer wrote about what my paragraphs were each about. Then in my second I wrote down Annie's comments and and things I needed to change. Comparing these drafts to my HCP, I did revise it but I made the mistake of not being organized and properly taking the time to scrutinize every error I made. At the time I was doing my best in editing my essay but I had no idea that taking the time to write on a hard copy would help me. I benefitted from writing multiple drafts because in each one I was able to make even more improvements. Once I fixed something, I could focus on the next thing. So if I lacked in adding history about video game addiction then in the next draft I could add to it. I reworded a lot of my topic sentences so that it could better introduce my sentences. I reorganized my paragraphs as well so I could put my counterargument first and then discuss my argument. One specific example is I talked about the negative reasons as to why medication is not the best solution to video game addiction and then I argued that therapy is better and why.  

LEVEL 4: Transfer

My college writing experience has definitely shaped me into a better writer, researcher, and thinker. I came into the writing series thinking that I had learned everything I needed to know to be a good writer but the truth is, there is always room for improvement. My writing and research habits have really improved from the first day I googled "video game addiction" to the last day I looked for studies on the effectiveness of therapy. I have learned that in order to write an excellent paper, it is important to start strong with background research and an outline. I was always used to getting away with writing whatever came to mind but that has not gotten me to an A grade in college, so I knew I had to make changes. Now that I have learned to properly research and organize essays, then I know I can write an argumentative essay on anything! I have not yet had the chance to show off my writing skills that I have gained in other classes because of the classes I am taking. I am mostly taking biology and chemistry where I do little writing and more memorization. However, I know that in the future classes I take or jobs I work at, I will be able to apply my new knowledge. I am aware that I am not the best writer with the best essays but I know my hard work and dedication will eventually get me there. I am the type of person that believes in growth and achievement. The fact that I have developed such strong writing and researching skills, compared to the begining of the quarter, makes me feel content that this class has been a lot more helpful than I could have ever imagined.