Steven Pereda

English 11000

Professor Wiggins

December 7, 2022

Reason to Write

I always believed that I would never get involved when it comes to writing, primarily because I disliked reading as a kid. At some point, I started to personally use my ability to write for the simple reason of entertainment. Writing to me now is something capable of conveying vivid ideas that can be profound to the reader. Writing is a valuable skill that also requires practice as one would practice for any other skill, such as drawing. During this course, I have practiced methods of writing that I don’t normally use for multiple assignments. Writing for these assignments was a new experience, showed me what I know and how much I can improve with writing and that there are plenty of reasons why people write.

During my research essay, I practiced my ability to “compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources”. I “went through the internet and evaluated multiple statistics from different organizations for credibility, accuracy, timelines and bias”. These studies covered the population of the homeless in the United States, which is why I primarily focused on getting the most recent data, since something from several years ago is less reliable to use as a source. One study I used was The 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, where I read through many statistics covering multiple criterias such as population based on sex, race and concentration percentage in different states. I “used strategies such as analyzing, summarizing, synthesizing” and “practice systematic application of citation conventions” to incorporate the information from the featured sources to persuade the reader that out of the homeless population, men are disproportionately affected more than women. The statistic describes a proportional rate of men and women being taken in by homeless shelters alone, roughly a 3:2 ratio given the demographic of the homeless population (19). However, when in families with children, men are less likely to receive help, while women are more likely to be taken in, where men make up 38.7% and women make up 61.1% of the homeless population with children (31). I then interpreted what this information means or what can be inferred, in particular, men are less likely to receive help, even if they have children with them.

In my rhetorical essay, I “examined how attitudes toward linguistic standards empower and oppress language users”, by analyzing and interpreting the text Mother Tongue by Amy Tan. Essentially, being able to communicate effectively is very important, and failing to meet such standards leads to problems in life that can be life changing. During this assignment, I “refined and developed strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising and editing”. This was due to the amount of times I needed to refine my writing, to properly portray my thoughts as clearly as possible to the reader. In doing so, I find quotes that have value to my assertion that people value the ability to communicate, because not being able to do as such leaves those struggling with a language at a disadvantage. In the text, it states , “My mother had long since realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even complain and yell at people who have been rude to her.”(2). After citing this line from the text, I analyzed the line on what it implies for those struggling with language barriers, and who cannot communicate effectively with the general population. I inferred that because of the quality of the person’s ability to speak a given language, it makes a sort of disparity in the conveying of ideas that the other party cannot understand. As such, people tend to treat those who can’t communicate efficiently differently, which is where situations where foreigners are treated badly in a country occur. 

In my literacy narrative essay, I “recognized and practiced key rhetorical terms and strategies”. When I was writing, I attempted to make my writing intriguing, yet easy to follow. For example, as I was writing this assignment, I compared my preferences for reading out of entertainment than for work. In the text, it states “…I was captivated by the way the story was written. The characters were all unique, and had aspects about them that made me think they were more human, for the lack of a better term. They had aspirations, hopes, fears, emotions, aspects of people that normally wouldn’t be expressed in literature that I read for class… the story took liberties, willing to put more emphasis on the characters than the ‘lesson’ books that I’ve read before..” I’ve used hyperbole to emphasize my dislike for reading literature for any other reason that is not entertainment. This was done as to both explain an idea that I had easily to the reader and make the writing itself more interesting to keep the reader’s attention. During this assignment, I also “understood and used technologies to address a range of audiences”. I soon placed this essay on CUNY commons for people to view publicly, and did it for both my assignment, but also because I believe that people can resonate with an opinion of reading literature, and derive their own feelings towards reading.

From the beginning to the end of this course, I have evolved and developed my writing techniques to further improve my way of writing. Although I like to write for personal reasons, and still dislike doing so for any other reason, I find this course to be a good experience for me. Developing techniques for writing that can help me convey my thoughts, citing information for future research that I may be involved in and refining my word choice to efficiently convey the concepts I cover in my writing.

Meghan H., Tanya D. Sousa, Caroline R., Swati G., and Thomas J. Bednar, The 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, January 2021, 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress (huduser.gov). Accessed December 7, 2022

Amy Tan, Mother Tongue Accessed December 7, 2022