Outcome 1 (Recursive Process) – Demonstrate the ability to approach writing as a recursive process that requires substantial revision of drafts for content, organization, and clarity (global revision), as well as editing and proofreading (local revision).

My ability to approach writing as a recursive process was improved upon this year as the beginning of each essay became a little easier each time. I got into a repetitive rhythm when it came to shaping and developing my essay. I began by first creating connections between the texts we were to use and finding where relationships could be drawn. This gave me a head start for the essay by already providing me with themes and/or messages I could easily refer back to. I then connected these relationships to the prompt as a whole. After, I began my introduction in which I made the correlations clear. My first essay, when I first developed this process was a little shaky in comparison to the 3rd and final essay.

This snippet from my first essay comes from my introduction and serves the purpose of showing how I make a distinct connection between the sources before relating it to a larger essay thesis. Doing this became very important for me later in the semester, especially for essay #3 when I struggled with writer’s block, but as I applied the same introduction format to that essay I was able to create a foundation to work from.

The above image is a section of my essay #3 introduction, where I used the sources available to me to generate a thesis based off the connections between racism and how the sources portrayed it. I believe both examples are very well-written, so while the result itself isn’t much different, the process by which I generated the results had become easier over the semester. While these examples do not come from the same essay, I believe they are proof that I created an introduction format easiest for me to use when it came to integrating 2 sources into an academic essay, and therefore show growth in my ability to treat writing as a recursive process.