When approaching my narrative essay, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to write about my trip to Poland this past year. To visit a place where members of your own family were systematically murdered takes a lot of courage, but it was a meaningful experience that I am glad I participated in. While in Poland, though each day was very packed and sleep was limited, I made sure to keep a daily journal to record everything I was seeing and hearing. My intention at the time was to have a record that I could reference when sharing stories and experiences with my great-grandmother and other family members. However, in Poland I quickly realized that keeping the journal actually helped to make the trip less stressful. Putting my experiences into words made coming to terms with the horrific and unbelievable things I would hear about and see. Keeping this in mind, I knew that using the trip to write a narrative would really help me to solidify what had happened and internalize it.

Aside from the journal, which was a very useful resource to use when writing the paper, I used a letter that my Bubby had written to me to guide my story and weave the plot together. I really liked this creative technique because she was one of the main reasons I chose to go on the trip in the first place and it was very comforting to feel like she was there with me the whole time.

One of the difficulties that arose during the writing process was to keep my focus on the story itself. I did not want my narrative to be a politically charged story. I just wanted to share a story of loss in my family, granted it was framed by the Holocaust. Due to this, I had to hold myself back from writing anything directly about the Nazis or Hitler and instead focused my attention on writing about how I felt when there. I also knew that my audience would not necessarily be Jewish and refrained from using Jewish words as much as I could without effecting the authenticity of the story or my Bubbie’s letter.

When editing the essay, I looked to keep the story the same but add more visual imagery to try and really flesh out the emotion in the story. I specifically concentrated on creating an extended metaphor about snow that would weave its way throughout the narrative.

 

 

When it came to writing my argumentative essay, the idea of what to write about also came to me relatively early on in the writing process. I have been very involved with pro-Israel advocacy throughout much of my life. I have been involved in Zionist organization, such as Bnei Akiva, and have even lobbied with organizations such as AIPAC on behalf of the state of Israel. When writing my letter, I chose to write to Roger Waters who is a strong supporter of the BDS movement and is very outspoken in his criticism against Israel. I found this to be a very challenging letter to write because of how strong his views opposed mine. However, I think that this is what made the research and writing process so rewarding. I have read several open letters to Waters throughout the years, most of which blatantly call him a hypocrite, if not an anti-Semite. I wanted to use this opportunity to write a letter which he could actually read and agree with. Because of this, I did not write a letter trying to persuade to entirely abandon his views against Israel because I know that this would be an impossible task. Rather, I tried my best to simply show that supporting the BDS movement will hurt Palestinians and inhibit the strides in the peace process that Waters has stated that he desires.

I started my research process by reaching out to pro-Israel orginizations such as StandWithUs for resources. However, I already had access to an abundance of pro-Israel sources. The most difficult aspect of my research was looking into the perspectives that Waters subscribes to. It was a unique opportunity to really look into a side that I am not used to hearing. However, I think that it really benefited my letter as it allowed me to pre-emptively address rebuttals and questions that Waters would have to the best of my ability.

When it came to editing my letter, aside from the basic grammar and structure errors, I focused my attention to try and make sure that I had a reasonable and non-aggressive tone throughout the letter. If is never easy or enjoyable to read a message from somebody who disagrees of criticizes you and I wanted to be completely sure that my letter was coming from a rational and friendly point of view. Other than that, I added a quote against BDS from an outspoken critic of Israel.

 

 

When it came to my exploratory essay, I was initially unsure of what to write about. This essay prompt was the most unique in my eyes, and was unlike any kind of essay I’d had to write before. Moreover, the prompt itself was purposely vague, allowing for the writer’s discretion in how to approach the essay. Eventually, I got the idea of what to write about based on a class I had taken at a Jewish seminary in Israel on happiness. Based on ancient Jewish sources, a Rabbi argued that happiness comes from appreciating what you have. After giving us the hour-long lecture, he gave us all an exercise to try where we would sit down and write as many things in an hour-long session that we were grateful for. Then, every day for a month, we were to re-read our list and add one new thing to the list each day. It quickly became very difficult to think of anything obvious to write down and I soon found myself writing things like, “Hey, sidewalks are amazing! My shoes would get so dirty if I had to walk on muddy dirt and walking on the street could be dangerous!” At the end of the month, having re-read my list for 30 days, I felt like everywhere I looked, I felt like I had so much to be grateful for. To me, the idea behind the class—and ultimately this paper—is very simple. But it is also so far removed from the Western idea of what happiness is. I decided to take the idea from the seminary and write a paper where I discuss what I believe to be common misconceptions for what happiness is.

My research started by contacting the Rabbi from the seminary and asking him for the transcript for the class. However, I found that the transcript did not really help so much since the transcript was full of Jewish sources as foundations to all of the ideas. Since I was writing an essay for all readers, I began to look into more secular and some philosophical sources to back up my argument (though I did end up included one quote from the Talmud, Pirkeir Avot).

In terms of organization, I could not find a clear proof for my definition of happiness. I was able to bring logical supports from rhetoric and a parable that I had heard from a teacher. Due to this difficulty, I spent a large portion of the paper “proving” my definition of happiness but showing that happiness is not what most people think it to be.

When editing this paper, I first went through and fixed any technical errors. I also made sure that the points I was making throughout the paper were always clear. The biggest change to my paper was the addition of a paragraph that shows that my definition of happiness does not contradict a lifestyle of ambition and goal setting.

 

 

From this course, I have already seen my skills as a writer increase. One of the biggest improvements I have seen in my writing, however, has nothing to do with the writing itself. Towards the beginning of the year, we had a session on how to organize and write a paper from the first day of an assignment until the day the final draft is due. Instead of the usual way I used to approach an essay—opening up a Word document and typing right away—I developed an efficient way of writing where I thoroughly plan what I want to write before I even begin to draft. When I started doing this, I initially thought that I would be investing more time into each paper in the hopes of getting a better final product. However, to my surprise, the outlining dramatically cut my writing time too. Knowing exactly what I wanted to say, I was able to write concise paragraphs, already knowing what I would follow up each paragraph with.

Aside from this, I feel like I really gained from the research sessions we had in the library. (Although I was absent for the first one, Robby was gracious enough to show me what I missed.) Having access to the library databases (and actually knowing how to efficiently search through them) made the writing process much simpler than it would have been. It does not matter how sound your argument is. Without solid sources to back up your claims, it becomes very difficult for people to take your arguments seriously.

On that note, one of the skills that I found incredibly beneficial for my writing was the understanding of the rhetorical appeals. Writing the argumentative essay was actually quite enjoyable when I knew how to back up my argument with different persuasive techniques.

Finally, one of the most important lessons I gained from the class was learnt from this very assignment. In creating my portfolio, I had to go back and edit each essay. I feel as though this is a very beneficial tool for students that is seldom utilized. The ability to go back and correct your mistakes is so rewarding and motivating to keep on improving. This is something I hope to take with me in not only my future writings, but to future challenges and tasks in general and is something I am grateful to have learnt.