CHAPTERS 1 & 45

You can learn a lot by the way someone writes. In class, we took a trip outside and were told to describe something in full detail. We could pick whatever caught our interest. I picked a family of ducks I saw playing in a puddle. I wrote down as many descriptive words I could think of while watching them. When we went back in the classroom, we were told our homework would be to write an essay on what we chose outside. Everyone in class may have picked the same thing, but in our essays they will seem completely different. Everyone will have their own opinion and this will show in their writing. In chapter one of The Little, Brown Handbook, it discusses the writing process. "There is no one writing process; no two writers proceed in the same way and even an individual writer adapts his or her process to the task at hand." ( Fowler and Aaron 10)

 There are so many elements in how you write. So many factors play into why you write, like the subject, your purpose, the audience, and the genre. These are some of the elements of the writing situation that chapter one goes over. All of these are necessary to go over before starting a paper. The purpose of the paper is important to the audience reading the paper."Sometimes you may not discover your purpose until you begin drafting, or you may find that your initial sense of purpose changes as you move through the writing process." ( Fowler and Aaron 19) Your audience will be the ones reading the paper and judge how well its written. Chapter one was very detailed on writers knowing what the audience expects from the paper. The chapter also went over how to bring out you individual voice in writing. "Your voice conveys your sense of the world as it applies to the particular writing situation, this subject, this purpose, this audience." ( Fowler and Aaron 22) I didn't even know your voice really mattered until after reading chapter one. I now understand how writing can be different not only by opinions of the writer, but by the tone as well. "Like anything worth-while, writing well takes hard work." ( Fowler and Aaron 10) I believe I can achieve my goal of being a good writer using all these tips.

 Chapter forty-five in The Little, Brown Handbook goes over how to start your paper and the importance of drafting and proof reading. The first thing explained in this section was how to write a thesis statement. "Drafting a thesis statement will help you see the overall picture and organize your notes." ( Fowler and Aaron 658) This will definitely help me with my first essay due to all the notes I scribbled on paper. Some of the notes I wrote may not be needed in my paper. Writing an outline will help determine any excess information. There are two types of outlines, a formal and an informal. After reading about both types of outlines, I think I am more comfortable writing an informal outline. "Because of its informality, such an outline can help you try out different arrangements of material, even fairly early in the research process." ( Fowler and Aaron 661) I usually can look at the word and remember what details will follow that idea. Section 45c gave some great tips for drafting. "Start with the section of the paper you feel most confident about." ( Fowler and Aaron 663) I believe if I follow this tip everything else will come easily. After writing the draft, the most important thing is to revise and edit your paper."Look for lapses in sense, awkward passages, wordiness, poor transitions between ideas and evidence, unnecessary repetition, wrong or misspelled works, errors in grammar; punctuation, or mechanics-in short, anything that is likely to interfere with a reader's understanding of your meaning." ( Fowler and Aaron 665)

The readers understanding of my paper will help boost my confidence in how well I wrote the paper. I want my diagnostic essay to be very well written. I want to include everything I've learned from both chapters. I have confidence that I have the tools I need to write this paper.