Outcome 2 (Integrating Ideas) – Be able to integrate their ideas with others using summary, paraphrase, quotation, analysis, and synthesis of relevant sources.

In my first essay draft I received much critique by Professor Brod about the lack of my own voice after quotations. After seeing where I was failing to provide my own voice, I spent much more time the next 2 essays in making sure I was structuring the quotations around my voice, not the other way around.

This section from essay #1 shows how brief I was in my after-quote explanations, and how much room was left for me to expand on my own voice. I look back at this now and it is clear to me where I needed more of me, yet at the time I didn’t understand how to do that. I believe the transition from my first to second essay was the most transformative, and then the second to third less extreme but still gradual. I think the in-class workshops were very beneficial for me, as I was able to look at other’s work with a different eye than my own, and by doing so I could then take that experience and apply it to my own work.

I think this example from essay #3 was one of the strongest points in my essay, simply for the fact that I didn’t build my argument around the quotation but rather used the quotation to emphasize my own ideas. I am very proud of the work I put in this semester to becoming more confident in using my writer’s voice.