What I Learned in Boating School is…

Writing is a multi-stage, recursive, and social process. It’s the first core value of writing. Until I had written papers for this class, for the most part I would write a paper, turn it in, and be done with it. Before this class I didn’t know how bad my first drafts actually were. I used to feel great about something I had written then to my not so surprised reaction anymore I would get almost double what I wrote back in feedback telling me what I had done wrong. Writing is not a one and done completion; it’s a multi-stage process.  After seeing what I had done wrong, I gradually picked up techniques I should keep, and those I should discontinue. This shows me how writing is recursive. Writing is a very social process because when we write we almost always write for other people to read it. In this class between other people reading my work and reading theirs it helped show me what exactly to do.

The research argument was what showed me core value 3. It states, “Understand how text represents meaning and how the processes of writing and reading create and interpret meaning.” The way this was shown to me was through trying to find a counter argument. When trying to prove something that’s counterintuitive the answer to the counter argument is not going to be right in front of us. The topic its self is not supported greatly so there is a lack of direct support articles. I had to learn to read an article another way. I had to learn to read it for flaws inside itself instead of relying on another article to tell me the flaws. This showed me that writing can be interpreted in various ways and used in just as many ways.

When researching a counterintuitive topic, it’s important to have the “ability to find and use information from external sources in an appropriate manner” (Core Value 5). I learned this from researching my topic of Happiness. The topic is so broad and there are copious amount of sources that mention happiness I could easily get lost in the information. Through searching on Google Scholar and news websites, I was able to find ample sources. With a counterintuitive topic like I had chosen, the sources would not just give me exactly what I needed. I had to pick and pull from many articles to get a pool of information I could use. This taught me how to rely not just on one source and use them properly.

Through writing about ideas that people might not normally write about such as my research argument, “I understand the power and ethical responsibility that comes with the creation of written discourse” (Core Value 7). When writing about something that’s counterintuitive, I wanted to write about something that meant something to me. This is extremely important because this is almost fighting for the belief in something. I wouldn’t want to try and push something into the brain of my reader that I didn’t firmly believe myself. The power of writing is real. The phrase “put it in writing” shows how anything we see in writing we automatically assume it’s creditable. Because of this, I only write about topics I truly believe so I don’t steer the reader onto a path I wouldn’t want to lead them down regardless.

If you don’t understand my title, it is a Spongebob reference.