As I revised my essays from Units 1-3, I immediately thought to myself I need to be more detailed and provide more information or examples in my essays. For Unit 1, we wrote an Education Narrative essay. At first, I didn’t know how I should go about with this assignment. Do I write about my education in Bangladesh since I grew up there and I’ve completed my entire education up until University? Do I write about my current education journey since I am continuing my education here? Or do I write about both because they go hand in hand? I decided to talk about both, and write about the difference. However, there was so much to mention and it was difficult to narrow it down to what main points I should focus on. How do I write my whole education on a piece of paper? I wrote about my experience in education, how the transition in my education journey was like from my country to the USA, and I gave an example to readers of how the teaching methods are different. It is obvious education is different in other countries. In my first draft, I didn’t explain the difference enough. I should have provided more examples or situations in my essay. I didn’t have a great thesis statement. From my final essay, I learned how to write a better thesis statement and provided more examples to have a better understanding of how my education journey is. I also specified how the education was different than it is in America.
For Unit 2, I chose obesity as my research topic. I was genuinely curious about obesity from before. I thought I should use this assignment as an opportunity to learn why obesity rates are so high in the US and what is in our food that is making us gain weight. As I revised my essay about obesity, I can see how I made it personal. I should have focused on keeping my essay as a research paper. After all, it is a research paper. I thought maybe by sharing my thoughts in my research paper, it would show the reader the reason I chose obesity and the thoughts I had. I should have provided more facts and statistics of obesity. My essay was also a little all over the place. For example, in my third paragraph, I wanted to explain how the ingredients in food products in America are very different in other countries. I couldn’t find an article to support that enough. Then in my fourth paragraph, I explain how certain foods and/or ingredients are banned in other countries. I also provided the reasons as to why certain foods and/or ingredients are banned.Another thought I had while revising my essay on obesity is that it is similar to writing an article. It did not really feel like I was reading a research paper. However, I did define what obesity was, what the rates were, I provided the percentage of obesity in adults and children, and I answered my research questions. I should have written a stronger thesis statement and connected it with a supporting statement.
For Unit 3, I chose to do a brochure. I initially thought of a short video clip. Nowadays, people watch videos on their social media platforms. There are videos that range from education videos to funny videos. They are very short, simple, and straight to the point. So I thought a short clip would be great to make for this project. But many people tend to skip videos that do not interest them. A brochure was a better idea in my opinion. It would be handed out directly to my audience. I decided to target customers from companies that promote weight loss and sell weight loss products as my audience. People usually read through brochures and ads when they receive packages. So this was a great marketing strategy to get to your audience.
A couple things I learned over this semester are the different kinds of writing, genres, and how to improve my writing. I still have more to learn when it comes to my writing skills. Going forward, I will work on having a strong thesis statement, providing examples, and have supporting statements.
