Reflection on Project 3

In this post I will answer questions that will help me reflect on Project 3. 

1. I included more of my opinion and more personal pronouns to emphasize the fact that the article is an act of public speech. Also, I wanted to connect to the audience at a personal level and have a conversational tone. I had to make changes in my writing so it was clear that I was proposing a solution to the designer baby debate and that this solution is a good idea. 

2. I changed a lot of my paragraphs around so that the flow of the article made more sense. For example, I saved the rebuttal for the end after I gave my argument. Furthermore I made sure that the purpose of my article was clear at the beginning so I rearranged sentences to do this. I needed it to be clear that I was proposing a solution to the designer baby debate, but without getting too technical with science terms or getting too consumed in the controversy itself.

3. I made these changes because they were brought to my attention during peer review. Peer review was very helpful because it helped me focus on specific things that needed to be changed. I also changed my drafts several times because my purpose and audience both changed throughout the drafting process.

4. These changes strengthened my credibility. Because these changes improved my purpose, audience, and overall rhetorical strategies, my credibility as an authors also improved.

5. The audience that I ended up focusing on is directly related to the argument because they are the people that the solution effects. The audience is more likely to agree with my argument after these changes. 

6. As I read through my drafts I changed any sentence structure or word choice that seemed awkward. This helped the clarity of my article as a whole. Also, I had to change my title because it used humor and this was not consistent with the tone of the rest of my article. 

7.  The audience can focus in easier on the purpose of my argument with these changes and have an easier time siding with my opinion. With local sentence structure and style changes it will be easier to read and understand the article. 

8. I had a very strong sense of the genre of my article so this was one of the few things I did not have to change throughout the drafting process. I tried to replicate an op-ed article that I found on the New York Times online and I was happy with how it turned out. I had to make sure that my captions and citations were consistent with the conventions of the op-ed articles that I found online and had to make some small revisions. 

9. The process of reflection gives me clarity on my identity of a writer. This is not usually something that I put much thought into, so by sitting down and having to answer questions that force me to reflect on my writing is very helpful.

Russill, Nick. "Penguin Reflection." 16 Jan. 2007 via Flickr. Creative Commons.