“The heart is the best reflective thinker.” Walter Phillips, an eighteenth century author, wrote. I feel that many people have a hard time altering their writing styles to construct a reflective essay. I, myself, have a hard time reviewing and reflecting instead of just spiting out facts. Being in civil engineering, I spend more time thinking about the facts than I do reflecting on what I have achieved. Helmut Jahn, a German-American architect and inspiration of mine, has said, “Most architects say: 'I want to use this type of glass, even if it's too reflective or doesn't let enough light in.' However, the use of a certain type of glass might change the comfort level.” English, like glass, has many different styles to choose from, even if we only stay with one type. Even though most english writings we write or read today are centered around research and theories, I have come to realize that reflective essays are more like personal, yet still professional, journal entries. While this style of writing is more of a compilation of thoughts, feelings, and memories; it can also be a great way to review one's personal achievements. Even in the short time that I've been in this college english class, I can reflect on my knowledge and writing style when I first stepped foot into this class, to now.
When I first started writing blogs for this class, I was very optimistic and even gullible to the point that all I was doing was spitting out facts onto paper. I never thought that maybe the information I was receiving might have been bias or even incorrect. My first blog was very obvious of this; I was just writing the facts and letting them talk. After reviewing my blog entry, Riley hit the nail on the head when she said, “...it would also be good to add your own voice throughout the Bibliography entry instead of just at the end. This way it is more personal and gives us a better idea of how you personally interpreted the source.” When I read this, it hit me that I should become a little more passionate about my writings instead of trying to impress others with the amount of facts I can provide. I've found that speaking my mind and being myself in my writings is far more essential to me than using bigger words to try to impress and build myself up. I don't think that I would be wrong in saying that writing english is different than speaking english, and even speaking english can be different depending on where you are. When I lived in Calgary, Canada a few years back, I found it hard to follow some people's conversations. True that they spoke english, but throw a few words that only imply to that geographic area and you can end up with a headache. When they say chesterfield, you are supposed to think couch; similarly when they say toque, you are to think beanie or hat. Remembering these difficulties I've had in Canada has helped to improve my writing style from a gullible sense to a more questioning style.
Along the same lines as putting my own voice in my writings, I also had to start thinking outside the perimeters of my own box. Even though I might have fixed my problem of balancing facts and opinions, I was only writing/thinking from my own perspective instead of from those whom I am writing about. My writings made me look like I was a member of Head Start and had their bias opinions. Actually, one of the comments that Riley sent me about my first blog was that it looked like “...at one point [I] started writing like [I was] one of the people doing the study. [I should] try to step back and look at it from an outsider point of view.” I have to say that putting myself in others shoes has been quite difficult. I think back to all the other english classes that I've taken and remember that most, if not all, of my papers were all facts. Looking back again at my first blog and some of my previous classes writings, I very rarely incorporated my own thoughts and outside perspective into the paper. One of the paragraphs in my first blog reads, ”A study has been conducted by congress to find the effectiveness of Head Start. Wikipedia tells us that this study consisted of a target population of 5000 3 to 4 year old children. The study began in 2002 where these selected children were implemented into the Head Start program or other parent-selected community programs for one year. With the children being dispersed to various programs, including Head Start, we were able to see how effective the Head Start program really was. We are told by Wikipedia that of the control group, 60% were placed in school programs other than head Start. Further more, we have concluded that those children who were implemented into the Head Start program began to have an advantage over those who were in other programs.” Did you once hear my voice or opinion in there? Me either. I thought about this a lot and the questions, “what would it be like if I was a head start child? What if I had the background some of these children had?” To me, these questions have helped to further my research and generate new topics for me to look into. Still, even thinking about how life would be like in someone else shoes, I find, however, that writing from an outside perspective really has helped my understanding of research and the importance of asking questions.
Even though my knowledge of writing has improved a lot in the short time I have been in this class, I have had the hardest time asking questions and being a little more skeptic of my sources. What I've learned most from this class, thus far, is that writing something interesting cannot be achieved unless you make it come to life. By this I mean that you should make the reader think about what they are reading instead of having them just skim it and never pick it up again. I have come to stand strongly by the belief that asking questions is the best way find more and more answers that you or your reader might have. I ran into this problem a lot with my writings. On one of the blogs I had done, I wrote, “This program has now become a saving grace for those who have a low income budget and may not be able to afford school otherwise.” I never explained or questioned why it was a “saving grace” for children. In my later blogs, I went back and touched on why I thought this. If I had simply just took the time to stop and ask myself, “why?” I could have made that particular blog more appealing to the reader. To me, as I write, I have found that I need to be more skeptical. I need to test the waters and question the sources that I find. I need to continue to find new research and not be complacent with what I've already found. Looking back, I've begun to do just that. It takes a lot more time and energy than it used to to write a paper, but I can already see that my writing has improved.
I would have to say that the one thing that has improved the most has definitely been the way I research. I used to find just a couple of sources and just stick with those ones. As I have been asking more questions and looking from an outside perspective, I have needed to find additional sources. My original sources weren't providing me with all the information I required to adequately write a good paper. Similarly, I have found that the original two of three sources I would normally stick with were all saying the same thing, just regurgitated differently. I've also found that as I have been writing for a more broader audience, my writing style has changed to fit their needs. I'm not writing these blogs and papers for a board of directors, I'm writing to help educate not only myself, but those around me. I believe that writing has actually become much easier to do. I find that I'm not running out of topics, per say, but more space. In researching information about Head Start, for example, I started with Wikipedia on the internet. The internet is a fast and reliable tool yes, but it can only give us so much, unless you want to pay loads of money to read books online. Then after I found all the information I could from different websites, I needed to go to the library to find answers to additional questions I had formulated along the way. I soon found books that answered the major questions I had had about Head Start. This in turn made it very easy to write about. I have found though that the more information I gather, the more questions I form. From this I have from yet another question, “when will I find an end?” I have actually thought about an answer to that. I don't believe that you could ever stop researching one topic. This, to me, has been something I have greatly appreciated taking away from this english class; you can research and research and never find all the answers. I think that makes life even more rewarding though; that we can always find new information about any given topic at any time.
For me, this is what I've been reflecting on about this class. It's been a true eye opener, not just to how I'm going to continue to write, but also about how I should go about life. I think that asking questions, putting yourself in others shoes, and researching are a part of life itself. Gandhi said it perfectly about life, much less writing, when he said, “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.”
