Reflection paper 1.0

Knowledge is power: A reflection paper after Academic Writing 310
            As an international student, writing in English does not come naturally to me but I have been trying to develop a better writing skill in general and especially since I moved to Santa Barbara two years ago. Back in Sweden I took whatever English class I could find, just to simply work on my English as much as I possibly could. A big part of my decision to move to Santa Barbara and go to school here had to do with the fact that I wanted to improve my communication skills in English, both orally and in writing. The only other class I have taken within writing was my required English 110/120 class last semester at Santa Barbara City College with professor James Ford, a class that I really enjoyed.
            At the beginning of this quarter, my first quarter at Antioch University, the academic writing class was the one I was most nervous about out of the four classes I was taking. “Academic Writing” as a title just makes it sound so serious I guess, and of course it is an important skill and important class in our academic career, but (fortunately) it turned out that I was worrying a little too much.    

            The most important thing I learned in this class was how to let the process help me out. Instead of rushing it, I learned how to let the process guide me and my work for a better end result. Instead of writing multiple, half shitty papers I really like the fact that we put all our effort and focus on writing one good one (or at least a better one) and instead, learned how to do it step by step. I am not going to lie, I have been confused about this assignment a few times and I have doubted that it will ever turn out good. However, it all made sense when I stopped looking too far ahead and put my focus on what I was doing right now. The biggest moment, when this really hit me was when I started to prepare for my interview and I was really worried about things like the thesis statement and the actual argument I was going to make in my paper and I really tried to write questions to make the thesis statement come “easier”. A few other students were thinking in the same direction and you told us to “chill” and let the process figure things out for us. That pretty much goes against everything I have learned so far in my adult life about studying, planning and preparing for things. However, I tried it out and after the interview: I was so much more secure about what I wanted to write about and what angles that would work.
            By doing one step at a time and see each step as an assignment I believe that I really improved my writing skills in general. By viewing each step as an important part of the process I put more effort into each step and made sure to do everything as good as I could. We also got enough time to do each part in a good way. In writing classes before (both in Sweden and in Santa Barbara) we usually get a deadline to finish the assignment and therefore, I usually put my focus and energy on the final result and how many pages I need to write. By making each step of the process a priority I did not really put that much effort on thinking about how many words I have to write each day in order to be done in time. Instead I just finished each assignment on time and the paper built on itself in a way that made it easier to eventually write it, make it better and finish it. Using the artifacts, the interview questions, the notes from the interview, the readings and the assignments in class made everything work together instead of just “writing a paper” and turning it in. So I definitely want to state that writing the paper “in steps” and see writing as a process is where I developed as a writer mostly in this class and I will use this way of thinking in the future as well.
            About the study of writing I really enjoyed the reading “How to read like a writer” and the comic book readings we have had a few times. The “How to read like a writer” article helped me a lot when I was writing my paper and editing my own words. That is also one of the topics that helped me the most I believe and even though I did not include that reading in my finished paper, I still used it “on the side” as a guideline while editing it. The comic book readings “Understanding rhetoric” is another reading I enjoyed and it was one of the few readings (not only in this class) that I did not have to read multiple times for it to “stick in my head”. It was an easier read than in most cases and that made it easier to understand the information provided and then use it “in real life” (= when writing my paper). I really liked the chapter about adapting to your audience and how our appearance and artifacts will say a lot about us as people and how that applies in writing as well, that is something I have not thought about before. By knowing this, it also helps my motivation when I write. Knowing what my writing says about me as a person makes me want to write something better and being motivated is one of the most important parts about doing anything that is tough in life.
            The writing world is important today in so many ways. As I stated in my paper, writing is everywhere without us even realizing it and being a good writer is essential in many fields. By discussing writing as different genres and comparing it to music genres helped me see that it is important to know the rules for each genre instead of just knowing the rules for “writing” and by knowing that I will hopefully develop my writing even more. My educational foundation teacher once told us “the more you know, the more you know about what you don’t know” and I think that applies here as well. By opening our eyes to writing as a process, to different writing genres and to how we can use different moves as writers: I now realize how much I do not know about writing. As with anything else: being aware of what you need to improve is the first step towards new knowledge and improved skills.

Second Rough Draft

Adapt to your readers now or lose them forever
           
In today’s society, writing is everywhere without us even thinking about it. We are writing papers and essays in our classes, we are writing grocery lists and we are sending constant text messages to friends and family. Communication is key: both in business and in relationships and being a good communicator means that you need to be proficient in both oral and written communication. Not only do we use writing because we want to write (text messages, grocery lists, blogs etcetera), we use writing in almost all businesses and professions today. Even the most physical jobs where you spend your days carrying heavy equipment, you still need to work with manuals, communicate with coworkers and maybe keep a log of your hours. After discussing writing with Chad Clark, the area manager at Beach City Apartments we came to the conclusion that writing is everywhere, regardless if you like it or not and being a good writer is essential in order to develop other skills within your field. But what does it mean to be a good writer? As a good writer, the most important skill is your ability to adapt your writing to the audience and the situation that you are facing.

Beach City
Beach City is an apartment complex located in between east and west campus of Santa Barbara City College. The owners, Edward and Claudia St George bought the property in January 2014 and have been working on the construction part since then to make it as fresh and suitable for students as possible. The complex has 97 apartments in different sizes and it holds 450 students at full capacity. The majority of the students are attending SBCC but they also have tenants that are nonstudents. The property consists of four main buildings and three smaller buildings that are called townhouses. Besides the buildings you can also find offices, laundry rooms, a pool area, the Beach Club (playroom and event room), ping pong tables, parking and the “Green Street” which is an area in the center of the property where you cannot drive, it is only made for events, people hanging out and for movie nights. During the summer 2015 the owners of the property hired MMG Housing (a student housing management company) to be in charge of the property and its tenants. Chad Clark is a part of that company and started working as the area manager for Beach City in June this year. As the area manager, Chad said that there is no such thing as a typical day and that all days are different in many ways. He usually goes back and forth between the office located at Beach City and the office located in Isla Vista. He makes sure that the leasing staff knows what to do each day, check their leasing numbers, take care of reports, attends meetings with his manager, the owners, security teams and any other stakeholders that have an interest in the organization. A big portion of the day is spent answering emails and talk to parents of the tenants, answering questions and explaining different processes. I asked how much time he think he spent writing on a normal day and he guessed that he spent 30% of his day writing (mostly emails) and that the majority of his time was spent talking to people (employees, tenants and stakeholders) in person, so oral communication is his strength more so than writing.
            Chad has been working in student housing for 17 years, both at public colleges and universities but also at privately owned student-housing facilities (like Beach City). Besides the interview with Chad Clark I also worked with three writing artifacts that I received from him prior to the actual interview. The first one was the official lease that all tenants have to sign before moving into their apartments, the second artifact was a document explaining the judicial process at Beach City and the last one was an incident report form. I also spent some time looking at their logo and their website to get a better understanding of the company and their way of handling things. 

Audience

In writing, the people who are reading your work are your audience. Adapting to your audience is essential talking about good and efficient writing. Writing an essay about the issues around modern medicine using the same language, as you would in a children’s book will not make you look like a serious writer. On the other hand, using formal language with judicial words and phrases will not work if you are giving out instructions to kids either. When Chad Clark is writing different kinds of documents for his employees at Beach City, he knows what phrases to use and what phrases not to use. When writing an email to his lawyer about the lease he will use words that his leasing staff probably would not understand or know the entire meaning behind.    

            All different departments at Beach City have a different team (the accounting team, the leasing team, the security team and so on) and within those departments they all have their own jargon – different words and phrases that goes along with their responsibilities and positions. When writing different instructions or documents to his employees, he has to think about what department it is going to or if it is going to multiple departments he needs to make sure not to use words that only make sense to one department and not the other. Chad also states that in order to make sure that his writing makes sense he usually have people from different departments reading it if it is an important piece, even if they do not understand every single word they need to get the major points and the big idea of each document. That is a recurrent part of his writing process when he writes anything that is more long-term than an email or just a weekly report.
            When writing the lease (one of the artifacts we discussed) for the new leasing season the process starts with Brent McPherson (Chad’s manager) who is the director of property operations. Brent McPherson will write the lease up discussing it with their lawyer (this process alone is a time consuming one, going back and forth between the two). Then it will go through Chad who will edit the lease and make sure that it makes sense (again, working with their lawyer since it is a formal legal document) and when Chad is done he will pass it on to his leasing manager to proofread it one more time before it is actually considered done and will be used in their leasing process. As we read in chapter seven of “They Say, I Say”, adapting to your audience is mainly about pinpointing who your target is (the reader) and why this piece of writing matters to that person. They talk about how you should ask the question “Who Cares” multiple times when writing something, in order to make sure that you know who your audience is, why they should care and how you should write your piece so that it will make sense to that specific audience. Having an audience reading your piece without knowing why they should care about it or why they should read it will not bring a positive outcome. By showing why and how your piece of writing is relevant to the reader will make that person read it more clearly and with more interest and in order to do so, you need to know who your audience is and how you should adapt your writing so it is as clear as possible to that specific person/group. Having the “Who Cares” question in mind, it makes sense that Chad Clark needs to make sure that the words he is using when addressing his leasing staff, will not be the same words he would use writing something to their lawyer. 

Situation
Not only is it important to adapt your writing to your audience, it is also important to adapt it to the situation you and your audience are in. Chad Clark stated that the major part of his day is spent writing emails and only a small portion of the day will go to write other documents: such as the judicial process or manuals for the resident assistants. He mentions that there are also other types of writing associated with his job, but they are mostly seasonal. The lease and application forms, roommate forms and flyers for advertising are all seasonal documents that will be written or edited at the beginning of each leasing season by him and his leasing staff.                    Discussing writing and how writing is different based on what situation you are in or what context you are facing is essential and that was mentioned multiple times during the interview. Chad explains that writing an email to employees, tenants or parents makes the style of writing is more casual and the language that is used is easier to understand and more casual as well. When writing a document explaining the judicial process on the other hand, the language and style is formal, decisive and forthright. It is all about adapting your writing to match the context and situation that you are in. Writing a lease or a judicial process using casual language and slang would not make a good impression and it would not fill its purpose (inform about something important and bind the tenant to the rules from the landlord).
            In the first chapter of “Understanding Rhetoric”, we can read about how each time your write it will have a different demand, have different expectations and it will need its on ways to make sense of how it should be written. They also state the importance of framing your writing so it make sense with the context using different styles and language. As Chad Clark mentioned during his interview, there is no way to make yourself look presentable if you have a lease with a lot of misspellings and if you are not grammatically correct.
            Reading through the first chapter of “Everything is an Argument” we can also make a clear connection between good writing and adapting to your context. There is a paragraph about considering context and how you cannot write a text in an efficient way if you do not have any information about its context, environment and situation. What is important to keep in mind though is that not only is there a context and situation for your words as the writer, the reader will also interpret your writing differently based on his/hers context and situation. We all have different amount of knowledge prior to the reading, we all have different opinions and we will all imagine the story differently even if we are reading the same words. You have to keep that in mind that no matter how clearly you state something, other people will have their own twist to it when they read it. It is the way we function and there is nothing to do about that. As writers we just have to keep that in mind and try to be as clear and specific as possible to make the best out of our story or information that we are presenting.
            So how do we know that someone is a good writer? Who decides that? Chad Clark stated clearly that he does not enjoy writing and that he is an ok writer but nothing more. He also states that he is better at writing formal documents such as the lease or the judicial process. Does that make him a good or a bad writer in general? As with many other things, enjoying what you are doing will make the outcome better. However, you can absolutely be a good writer even if you do not enjoy it as much as other parts of your everyday work. Great communication, either in person or in writing, requires practice and effort. As a good writer, the most important thing is to make sure that you practice your ability to adapt your writing to your audience and also the situation that you and your audience are facing.

           

Writing and Driving

So this week we only had one reading and it was about quotations and how they can be used in an efficient way, but also giving us a lot of examples on how not to use them. For this weeks reading I actually took my time to go to Starbucks on state and buy myself an ice latte, finding a seat in the corner and study with some music in my headphones – the best way to get some studying out of the way if you ask me!

So this week’s main point in the readings was that in order to become a great writer you need to know the rules and follow them. They compared it with drivers who are in the fast line but they are driving super slow. For many people that is very annoying because it shows that you either don’t know the rules, or that you know them but you don’t care about them. Either way – you lose. Same goes for good writing, you need to know the rules and follow them to satisfy your readers. If you are formatting your paper in the wrong way for instance, your reader will assume that you don’t know what you’re doing or assume that you don’t care about the formatting. It also mentioned that the problematic part about comparing this to the rules when driving is that there are different rules depending on what kind of writing you are doing – and you need to know the ones that are relevant to you and what the purpose of your writing is. A tip that they mentioned that I felt was helpful was that no matter what rule you are not sure about, read your text out loud and if anything feels “difficult to read”, change it! That feels like a good roadmap to follow.

This week’s reading was a little dry, but hey – at least I have my cup of ice latte next to me and some awesome Fall Out Boy tunes in my ears while doing it. I will make sure not to start or end any of my paragraphs with quotations at least – it just feels too risky.

Now it’s time to work on my paper instead, three pages written - three to go! 

Shitty Rough Draft

Adapt to your readers now or lose them forever
            In today’s society, writing is everywhere without us even thinking about it. We are writing papers and essays in our classes, we are writing grocery lists and we are sending constant text messages to friends and family. Communication is key: both in business and in relationships and being a good communicator means that you need to be proficient in both oral and written communication. Not only do we use writing because we want to write (text messages, grocery lists, blogs etcetera), we use writing in almost all businesses and professions today. Even the most physical jobs where you spend your days carrying heavy equipment, you still need to work with manuals, communicate with coworkers and maybe keep a log of your hours. After discussing writing with Chad Clark, the area manager at Beach City Apartments we came to the conclusion that writing is everywhere, regardless if you like it or not and being a good writer is essential in order to develop other skills. But what does it mean to be a good writer? As a good writer, the most important skill is your ability to adapt your writing to the audience and the situation that you are facing.

Audience
Adapting to your audience is essential talking about good and efficient writing. Writing an essay about the issues around modern medicine using the same language, as you would in a children’s book will not make you look like a serious writer. On the other hand, using formal language with judicial words and phrases will not work if you are giving out instructions to kids either. When Chad Clark, area manager at Beach City is writing different kinds of documents for his employees, he knows what phrases to use and what phrases not to use. When writing an email to his lawyer about the lease he will use words that his resident assistants probably will not understand or know the entire meaning behind. All different departments at Beach City have a different team (the accounting team, the leasing team, the security team etcetera) and within those departments they all have their own jargon – different words and phrases that goes along with their responsibilities. Chad also states that in order to make sure that his writing makes sense he usually have people from different departments reading it if it is important, even if they do not understand every single word they need to get the major points of each document. That is a part of his writing process when he writes anything that is more long-term than an email or just a report. When writing the lease for the new leasing season the process starts with Brent (Chad’s manager) who is the director of property operations. Brent will write the lease up discussing it with their lawyer. Then it will go through Chad who will edit the lease and make sure that it makes sense (again, working with their lawyer since it is a formal legal document) and when Chad is done he will pass it on to his leasing manager to proofread it one more time before it is actually considered done and will be used in their leasing process. As we read in chapter seven of “They Say, I Say”, adapting to your audience is mainly about pinpointing who your target is (reader) and why this piece of writing matters to that person. They talk about how you should ask the question “Who Cares” multiple times when writing something, in order to make sure that you know who your audience, why they should care and how you should write your piece so that it will make sense to that specific audience. Having an audience reading your piece without knowing why they should care about it or why they should read it will not bring a good outcome. By showing why and how your piece of writing is relevant to the reader will make that person to read it more clearly and with more interest and in order to do so, you need to know who your audience is and how you should adapt your writing so it is as clear as possible to that audience. 

Situation
Chad Clark stated that the major part of his day is spent writing emails and only a small portion of the day will go to write other documents: such as the judicial process or manuals for the resident assistants. There are also other types of writing associated with his job, but they are mostly seasonal. The lease and application forms, roommate forms and flyers for advertising are all seasonal documents that will be written or edited at the beginning of each leasing season. Discussing writing and how writing is different based on what situation you are in or what context you are facing is essential and that was mentioned multiple times during the interview. When writing an email to employees, tenants or parents the style of writing is more casual and the language used is easier to understand and more casual as well. When writing a document explaining the judicial process on the other hand, the language and style is formal, decisive and forthright. It is all about adapting your writing to match the context and situation that you are in. Writing a lease or a judicial process using casual language and slang would not make a good impression and it would not fill its purpose (inform about something important).
            In the first chapter of “Understanding Rhetoric”, we can read about how each time your write it will have a different demand, have different expectations and it will need its on ways to make sense of how it should be written. They also state the importance of framing your writing so it make sense with the context using different styles and language. As Chad Clark mentioned during his interview, there is no way to make yourself look presentable if you have a lease with a lot of misspellings and if you are not grammatically correct. Reading through the first chapter of “Everything is an Argument” we can also make a clear connection between good writing and adapting to your context. There is a paragraph about considering context and how you cannot write a text in an efficient way if you do not have any information about its context, environment and situation. What is important to keep in mind though is that not only is there a context and situation for your words as the writer, the reader will also interpret your writing differently based on his/hers context and situation.