Lucas Min: WRIT150 Experience

A Retrospective View On WRIT150

I think what I learned most of all from WRIT150 is how to research. Especially on my WP3 and WP4, finding all sorts of sources from interviews, websites, and old newspapers, I learned the best ways to access this information and how to look for specific resources. I learned to search for counterarguments as well as supportive details to my work. For example, my WP3 over the medical inequality of illegal immigrants, I spent a great deal of my time researching. One of the things I had to really dig for were supporting deals for how Medicaid had positive effects on communities and therefore should be instituted in more communities. It was a piece of information I sought out to find after the final writing of my rough draft, and luckily I was able to find a research study on Medicaid expansion into 17 hospitals in underserved areas. Using similar research strategies, I spent a great deal of time first informing myself on the Black Panther Party. It is a bit ironic because I myself had not learned what the Black Panther Party had done throughout our history, and now I was writing an essay about why we should learn about the Panthers. 

The second major takeaway I have from WRIT150 is the long pre-writing and structuring of my essays before I write. While these may have made my writing experiences longer than they had ever been (I do not believe I have ever spent more time on an assignment than WP3), I knew precisely what information and message I wanted to convey to the reader. Prior to this course, in high school, I would focus on speed and would write mainly off the top of my head. But, like most things, coming in with a plan before jumping into action proved to be incredibly beneficial. This is a writing strategy that I will continue to use for the rest of my studies, including when writing informative papers in my future law classes.