Portfolio: Reflective Letter

Locating, analyzing and synthesizing information into a cohesive whole was the most difficult stage of the writing process for me to achieve in this class. Although it is a pessimistic statement, and I always try to repeat affirmations, I know I have issues within this initial stage. Numerous times, I have had to establish and reestablish a positive state of mind to attempt the difficult, analytical process. I have continued to have issues, continued to be impeded by my own problematic tendencies, which have stopped me within my tracks as I begin to create some forward momentum. While the subsequent phases of organization, simplification and thorough editing (and re-editing) have their challenges, I can accomplish them if I allow enough time – enough time after locating, analyzing and synthesizing the needed information. At first, I was merely frustrated and confused by my inertia. But the assignments of this writing class have made evident that locating, analyzing and synthesizing are my most prominent challenges. Two of my completed essays helped me become aware of – and mentally articulate – my writing issues. Completed through relentless vigor, these were the assignments about Bacon’s Rebellion and the New Hampshire patriots. Both illustrate my gradual success in identifying and then finding a route around or through my problematic tendencies. Thus, I contend that the assignments of this writing class have helped me identify and begin to resolve my own problematic tendencies as a writer.

Considering that the Bacon’s Rebellion essay needed excessive refining, my New Hampshire essay was the more successful of the two. The New Hampshire essay was, from the beginning, much more direct, organized, simplistic, and effective in conveying the intended message. This greater success may have been because I was in a rush to complete the essay, resulting in me not injecting my tendency toward excessive vocabulary, touch ups, and redundancy. A more likely explanation is that Craig, our writing teacher, gave us a three page limit to the essay. Consequently, I maintained a direct, simplistic use of vocabulary and avoided redundancy. This characteristic of my writing is evident in my thesis for this essay: “As I reflect over the past few years, I can easily and simply conclude: I am a patriot because I philosophically favor political democracy over the monarchical politics of Parliament.” As evident, this thesis is specific, clear, and direct. I presume that, after the readers of this essay see this thesis, they easily comprehend my position. Also, this thesis was well placed, at the end of the first paragraph, in comparison to the Bacon’s Rebellion essay, where I initially placed the thesis in the third paragraph. Above all, though, having the necessary informational resources from the beginning of the process helped me tremendously. I had taken the initiative to go to major libraries in Bellevue and Seattle, to borrow books on New Hampshire during the Revolutionary period. All of my needed source material was available in those books. Nevertheless, the analytical process that followed along with my reading was still very difficult.

While I have learned a lot about libraries this quarter – and improved my online search capability – I am still far from ‘comfortable’ with analysis and synthesis of information. The practice provided by this class has helped, however. I found that the notes I took while reading the New Hampshire material were much more useful than the chaos of my initial Bacon’s rebellion pile of papers. Yes, getting clear, earlier, about what kinds of resources I needed, and forcing myself to find them, allowed a calmer, less panicked mode for reading and writing about New Hampshire. Eventually, I was able to identify what I believed were key political, economic and social aspects of life in New Hampshire that needed to be conveyed for the purposes of this essay. I had dissected the reading material, looking for facts such as “the Congregational Church has been called ‘the mainspring of Revolutionary New Hampshire’” and “the King . . . commanded that white pines of twenty-four inches or more in diameter be emblazoned with his mark, and anyone caught cutting one faces imprisonment and fines.” Next, I was able to begin looking for patterns in the information, meaningful patterns that could fit together into a logical, synthesized and readable whole. I decided to communicate the information as a ‘story’, told in first person from a New Hampshire patriot: “My cousin Bartholomew . . . cannot understand why I am a patriot . . . .”

Once I had the raw material at my side, I was finally able to begin what feels like the true composition part of the essay – playing with the words. I learned from the Bacon essay that even terrific information cannot save an essay if it is not composed clearly, directly, simply and concisely. Given enough time, this part can almost be fun for me. (I must add that time for editing comes in second place for what I have learned, and what I must come to better manage. It is best if I write the essay to the best of my ability, then let it set for awhile before returning with fresh eyes.) But without the foundational facts, well analyzed and synthesized, the finest prose will get me nowhere. Ultimately, the inherent cause of my success in composition is to be proactive and persevere in locating, analyzing and synthesizing appropriate information early in the writing process.