Last quarter, in my EDTE 150 Intro. to Education class, we wrote a dreaded final paper...mine ended up being about 25 pages. I picked this paper to describe for multiple reasons. First of all, it's recent and fresh in my mind (I don't remember many specific papers from high school!). Additionally, as it was our final paper, in it I summed up essentially everything I had learned throughout the quarter. This included materials and concepts directly from the textbook, as well as inferences and conclusions I came to myself throughout the course. I thoroughly described and made conclusions as to what I personally believed characterized a teacher as "good" as well as delved deeper into the upcoming challenges and obstacles I will face while pursuing my career. This particular paper really engaged me as I, for once, was writing about a topic that affected and related to me, something I will actually do!
As this final paper was broken up into sections, parts were completely closed form, others more on the open form end of the spectrum, and some parts in between. For example, a section of the paper included direct research and summaries from the textbook. I wrote this section in a standard, 5 paragraph, closed form essay. On the other hand, the section in which I identified positive characteristics and qualities of a teacher, falls more in the middle of the spectrum. While I had specific points I touched across, I also delved into deeper questions of what exactly was the overall personality of a good teacher which furthermore develops their qualities and characteristics. Additionally, this section did not limit the answers to the question to simply what I put in my paper. Finally, at the end of the paper, I wrote a self assessment of my own path towards becoming a teacher, what I prepared myself for the obstacles ahead of me, and deciding which particular branch of education I want to go into. This final section definitely would be characterized as an open form writing style as a definite conclusion was not met, but merely discussed and questioned.
Essentially, the question mothering the whole final paper was "Am I suitable and called to become a teacher?" While writing about multiple aspects of the teaching career, including everything from qualities of a teacher to challenges a teacher faces to different networking opportunities teachers have, each and every section had the underlying personal assessment. All together, this paper definitely had a meaningful question behind it.
While writing this paper, I definitely kept purpose in mind. The purpose of the paper was to summarize the past quarter and look into the future. Additionally, I kept genre in mind as I was writing a formal assessment to be turned into a teacher. Finally, I probably did not consider the audience as much as the other two while writing. Only the professor read my paper, and for him, it was a tool of assessment of my own benefit from his class. I guess, actually, that I subconsciously took the audience into consideration as I wrote to please the teacher (a skill a student develops early in school!).
Although throughout my final EDTE 150 paper I used both open and closed forms, answered a meaningful question, and kept purpose, audience, and genre in mind, I did so subconsciously. While reading this chapter I not only learned to label the techniques I used in my paper but also the importance and significance of each. Additionally, I realized that these aspects of writing open up multiple new doors for my future writing assignments and pieces.
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