Roberts did a great job of addressing all the issues and problems with the content of student’s writing. As I was reading the article I found myself guilty of every single mistake writers make. I realized that I always choose the easy side of the argument, which leaves my papers uninteresting. He pointed out that most students pick the most common topic or the one that seems to have the most supporting evidence. I found it interesting that Roberts suggested writing down all the obvious reasons then completely ignoring them and creating abstract ideas. I’ve always been a little weary of straying from the normal, but apparently in writing it is much better to have original thoughts than common ideas. I learned that it is better to choose the most unusual of the choices in order to make your paper different from the other students so that your teacher doesn’t get tired of hearing the same thing and you will not receive a low grade. Another error I was reminded of when reading Robert’s argument, was my overuse of what he calls “padding”. I tend to use extra words that have no content and only add to the length of the sentence. I was aware that I often use extra words and it was an actual tactic I have always used when writing papers that I thought I could not make long enough to meet the length requirement. I also am guilty of using colorful words in situation where they do not belong. I know that I sometimes add words just to make my sentences more interesting, but in reality I am not helping my cause. I found the whole article very helpful and I especially liked the section where he discussed certain words that have positive and negative associations. I never actually thought that in depth about how the readers may react to different words and i found it interesting. Overall I learned quite a bit from this informative article and found each section to hold very useful information that I will use in future papers.
I'm glad the essay resonated with you. I think that in some cases — like when you get to pick your own topic — straying from the typical or obvious isn't that big of a deal. When you're assigned a topic, and everyone makes the same argument for it, that's when it's a good idea to argue against it. You'll read like a breath of fresh air when your instructor comes to your assignment.
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