Appiah 1

Chelsea Appiah
Professor David Marado
ENG 313E
26 August 2015
About You
One thing that I can say about myself that helps people get to know me is that I am a big
thinker. I enjoy analyzing things on a large scale, then I like to break them down into smaller
pieces and figure out what I need to do, step-by-step, to come up with the best outcome. I
consider myself to be a creative person, however, I dont like when I am given too much
ambiguity or not enough guidance, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. Usually when I
am given a place to start, I can pick up from that starting point and transition my work into what
I believe is best fit.
As of now, I am looking into higher education graduate programs like I mentioned in
class. However, I am also looking into educational psychology, leadership, or general education
masters programs. Another field Ive always been very interested in is composition and rhetoric.
Rhetoric is my main focus within my Professional Writing major and is something I am quite
passionate about. However, I think a career in higher education is more suitable and tangible for
what I plan for my future to look like.
My goal is to secure an internship by the end of this semester. I was just accepted into an
undergraduate fellowship program that aids students in finding student affairs internships which I
anticpate to be a good opportunity to work with another university. I am also looking into

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internships with Target and Macys. Next semester, I will be starting to prepare for the GRE
through workshops, allocating study time, and working with tutors. I also plan on visiting a
couple graduate schools I am interested in to help solidify which schools I apply to during the
first semester of my senior year.
Even though I am a Professional Writing major, believe it or not, I have not taken a
rigorous writing course since the second semester of my freshman year (ENG 223), which is
quite upsetting. Many of the ENG courses I took my sophomore year were cross listed with IMS
(Interactive Media Studies) so we focused primarily on digital writing which isnt my favorite.
My goal in taking this course is to really learn how to tailor my writing to specific audiences. As
someone who is passionate about rhetoric, rhetorical writing at times can definitely have the
extra materials we briefly discussed in class. While it is useful to have that skill from time to
time, I also think technical writing can be a very useful skill especially for someone like me who
wants to go to graduate school. My goal is to really make my writing more firm. I want it to be
more straight to the point yet purposeful.
I think an activity that would be interesting to do would be to perhaps receive a topic,
write as much info as we can about it, then work with our peers to cut words or phrases yet
still keep the composition understandable and relevant. I think that would be helpful to someone
like me who struggles with wordiness. There arent any writing or learning activities that I would
like to see us avoid. I honestly havent heard much about this course, thus, I have no
preconceived notions to share.
I would definitely say I enjoy rhetorical writing the most. When I first began rhetorical
writing, it was not my favorite writing, at all, however once I took ENG 223 and learned
rhetorical theory and mechanics, I really began to enjoy it. I think my favorite place to write

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would definitely be my blog. I enjoy blog writing because it really allows me to transform
myself into a space where I can express myself through composition. That all may sound very
clich and flowery, but that is genuinely how I feel; I have trouble expressing myself out loud,
thus, I use writing and other artistic forms to do so.
My writing process is pretty traditional. I always like to start with an outline that hits the
main points of what I am attempting to convey and who I am attempting to convey it to. I then
develop a thesis of some kind that way if I feel I am losing sight of what I am supposed to be
writing, I can reread my thesis and be reminded. After I construct my outline, I basically just start
writing based on what I have outlined so far. I write non-stop, whatever comes to my head
without even stopping for spelling mistakes. Once I am on a writers-high, I need to get all my
thoughts and ideas out before it goes away. After Im done, I usually go back and take everything
paragraph by paragraph, step-by-step, and I reconstruct, revise, and reform. I do this about 3
times. Often times I have others look it over, before I can officially submit a final copy.
I think one strength I have as a writer is that everything I write is well-written. Im not
sure exactly what that mean, however, every English teacher or individual who reads my writing
tells me that my compositions are very well-written, thus, Ive decided that this is my strength. I
would definitely like to work on wordiness, as a previously mentioned, because I think, naturally,
as rhetorical and creative writer, wordiness is something that I struggle with. I am very familiar
with Microsoft Word as well as other processing programs.
In a course, I definitely appreciate power points especially because they are easy to go
back to and study/refer to when necessary. I honestly like any material that is helpful to reference
to or study from when needed. Im not a huge fan of lecturing and having students simply write

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down material and making notes from there. I think its clearer when we have more tangible
material.
I like when instructors are clear with me about my work ethic, especially when it comes
to writing. I definitely like when professors are flexible as well and are willing to make time to
meet with students and help them as much as possible. I think that writing is always evolving and
there isnt a level of perfection one can reach when it comes to writing so constant criticism is
very necessary. I think those are some things you can do that can help me learn in this class.