My Theory of Writng

Kevin Pechersky

Professor Von Uhl

May 13, 2020

My theory of writing is the idea that writing must communicate ideas in a clear and concise manner.  Grammatically, a piece of literature must be punctual and correct. Prior to the start of class, my initial impression was that writing must come from the heart, rather than be objective and emotionless. This idea easily dissipated upon finding out how hard it is to write without emotion. It caused many drafts to be written and revised until an acceptable product was reached. 

In the beginning, my grammar was poor. For example, “There are many factors that can contribute to this horrible fact, yet stress can be attributed to being one of the main culprits.” (Pechersky, Memo to President Boudreau)  Instead of using a comma, a semi-colon would have been better served. In this instance, I was not sure of when to use a semicolon and when not to. This changed after Professor Von Uhl handed us a grammar packet, thus aiding my efforts in producing a persuasive piece of writing. She taught us that bad grammar can lower the quality of a paper, resulting in a weaker argument.

I started to use more transition pieces and refrained from using the words “me” and “I” in my writing. For example, “  Although the conclusion is not stated, the discussion portion ends with a summary of the experiment.” (Pechersky, An Extensive Evaluation of Lab Reports)  Here the transition word “although” allows me to tie in the discussion portion to the summary. It also explained how the conclusion standard was met. By doing so, it strengthened my evaluation of the lab reports, allowing my readers to have a better understanding of where I was coming from.

The Technical Description contributed to my theory of writing the most. Being that it was a description, objective writing was a necessity. Otherwise, my writing would sound biased and the readers could not discern for themselves whether or not they agreed with the innovations listed. By being objective, they were able to make that decision for themselves. In addition, I also created a table of contents- something that was new to me.  Evidence was critical in this assignment and that brought about its own challenges. For example, “The first two cameras  are 12 MegaPixel lenses, with a third wide angle camera that has a 16 MegaPixel lens. The major addition here is the 16 MegaPixel lens, as the S9 only has two 12 MegaPixel lenses.” (Pechersky, The Innovation behind the Samsung S10 Plus).  This is an example of paraphrasing- a new method of writing for me. I had to integrate a source without copying word-for-word what they had said. This brought about its own challenges- especially when it came to formatting in  APA Style. 

Since my theory of writing changed, so did the style with which I wrote. In the final project,  writing it felt more fluid than the other projects. It was as if the words were popping into my head as I typed. For example, “ New jobs will be created as a result, a necessity considering the pandemic that is causing unemployment for a majority of NYC residents.” (Pechersky, FINAL PROJECT)  I was able to tie the two concepts of unemployment and job creation into one cohesive sentence- a feat I thought was impressive. I felt this way because I knew that I would not have been able to do so in the beginning of the semester.

As the semester progressed, it prompted me to reflect upon my writing. Two questions appeared, as if they just  materialized out of thin air. The two questions were: “how can I use this for other assignments” and “how can I use this information in life?”. Out of all the possible answers, only one found its way to the top: engineering. I am studying chemical engineering and as a result, I will frequently need to be able to develop lab reports. The lab report assignment, once again, has proven to be very useful in terms of application. For example, “Whilst missing a table of contents, Student and Munster chose to instead label each area of the report. In the abstract, the experiment is explained in adequate detail.” (Pechersky, An Extensive Evaluation of Lab Reports). This is an example of being able to break down each section of a report into small pieces, and then evaluating each piece until a final conclusion is reached. An idiom I overheard assisted me in doing so. It was the statement “do you eat the fish whole, or do you first follow the process?”. It’s a weird saying, but the point it had hit home. I no longer tried to do everything all at once, rather settling for taking it one step at a time. 

In conclusion, I started off as an eager, yet naive student. I thought my writing style was proficient enough for any assignment and when I found out it wasn’t, I came back to earth. These multitude of assignments prompted me to be able to adjust my style and my own definition of writing into a better developed form. I feel more comfortable with writing objective reports or analyzing a piece of writing. This semester has taught me a lot and I am sure to not take it for granted.

 

Sources:

Pechersky, Kevin (May 12, 2020). The Innovation behind the Samsung S 10 Plus

 

Pechersky Kevin (May 13, 2020). Final Project

 

Pechersky, Kevin (May 11, 2020). An Extensive Evaluation of Lab Reports

 

Pechersky, Kevin (February 8, 2020). Memo to President Boudreau