The Ability to Argue Spurs my Writing

Senior Seminar Blog Post 1

As I look back at my favorite projects throughout by Transy writing career, I find that the projects I was more emotionally involved in, turned out to be more successful. I am a very opinionated person, and my favorite way to share my opinion is via writing and using rhetoric to craft my point perfectly. In addition to projects that I felt very fondly and passionately towards, I also find that my best works revolve around very controversial topics. I suppose I like to stir the pot a tad, but I look at it as sparking a conversation with my opinion. That is ultimately my goal for my senior seminar project.

When I eventually narrow down my ideas and decide on a topic for my project, I want it to be something I am passionate about, and something that is controversial enough to spur some very interesting dialogue. I love when people disagree with what I have written because it challenges me to defend what I believe, and also challenges me to base my opinions on valid arguments. I think it only makes my writing stronger, and I love the conversation and debate that result of a controversial piece.

One of my all time favorite works was actually the project I did for my freshman research seminar with Tim Soulis. Tim and I always have great political conversation because we usually disagree on everything. I decided to focus on politics for my FYRS project because I wanted to see if I could make Tim agree with my opinion, even though we fall on different sides of the aisle. It was an amazing learning experience and was my first taste of producing quality argument driven work. 

As I stated before, my best pieces in my opinion are extremely argument driven, and I enjoy the conversation that follows. For my writerly portfolio, I plan to convene all of these pieces that were the most successful in their argument, and showed progression of my abilities to create an argument throughout my writing career. I plan to use my FRYS research paper, a blog post about southern culture I also wrote in my first year, Rambler OP Ed pieces, and other essays and projects that I feel best display my ability to present an argument, and show that my abilities have progressed throughout my time at Transy.