Projects!

During my English 200 class, I wrote a paper that was a struggle to write, but ultimately taught me something valuable. For this paper, the professor wanted us to write a paper that had a specific, debatable argument with detailed evidence, and for our analysis to reflect keen observations, showing our ability to do close reading and synthesis passages. My struggles with this paper came when I was looking for my evidence and analyzing the evidence/passages I found. This was because I kept coming across evidence that could be used to support the opposing argument. This led me to scrap the work I had originally done and begin writing a paper for the opposing argument. But I still struggled to write that version of the paper because there weren’t as many passages and pieces of evidence to analyze, and I agreed more with my first argument, and those pieces of evidence kept circulating in the back of my mind. This led me to again scrap my paper and go back to my original argument. And though I had the same struggle as before, I pushed through and wrote a great argumentative paper!

I wanted this paper to have a strong argument and to show I was able to look at a text through a critical lens. And I do believe I was able to accomplish that and would even argue that switching my argument and then switching it back actually benefited my final paper and taught me something valuable. I was able to see both sides of the argument I was making and could argue both sides to some extent. I also realized through this experience that there is not always one correct answer, but sometimes multiple. This is a skill that I believe is valuable in not only writing argumentative papers but also in relationships, group projects, and many other areas within my academic, personal, and eventually professional life. 

In both academic spaces and in my personal life, I now view situations from multiple angles, whether it's me trying to figure out how to solve a situation or problem, or understanding things going on in the world. I definitely think viewing something from all angles has allowed me to become a more critical thinker, and that stems a lot from writing this paper!