The college writing classes that I have taken at LSC have been detrimental to my writing skills. This knowledge of how to construct proper compositions and back them up with hard facts will benefit me into my future college years, and also my job field. Writing skills will help you be more professional in your career and in everyday life because they are used all the time. Peter Elbow writes, “Try hard to find good arguments for your position, but then try even harder to find arguments to refute yours.��? I think this is an excellent quote because if you follow this structure or idea, your paper can be rock solid. This quote is generally steered towards research papers however. Proper use of writing skills is important because it will expand your thinking range, make you more credible in your job field, and help to improve your professionalism.
When Peter Elbow writes about finding arguments to refute your own, he is implying that in order to produce a good research paper, your arguments need to be unwaveringly rock solid. This means coming up with arguments, and then doing research in an effort to prove yourself wrong. This can be somewhat tedious but its importance is huge, especially in a professional job field. When I was writing my huge research paper on global warming I spent a ton of time researching and building what I thought were three solid points. I was arguing that factories need to clean up their act in an effort to save our future planet. I found what I thought to be three excellent and fool-proof ideas that would provide plans for factories to improve. By the time I had conducted my personal interview and written most of my paper, I realized that one of my ideas, networking synthesis, was not widely used and seemed to be a failed plan. I was a little too late and I ended up cramming it into my essay anyway. I did, however, make it known that the idea of networking synthesis didn’t work but could be a possibility for a handful of factories in world. This arguing with myself about my own arguments led to a good research paper. I didn’t try to lie and say, “Networking synthesis is the future of counter global warming strategies.��? I kept it real, and this refuting of my own arguments was to my benefit.
Through the course of my college writing classes, I have learned what it takes to write excellent papers. It is by no means easy, but it takes time. If you are writing a paper on personal experience or a personal story, then take time to think of the best possible stories or details to make for an interesting paper. For research papers, having a large number or sources and taking the time to find accurate information will benefit future college English students.