[Tyr Zalo Hawk]: 712.Essays.Reality vs FFF.THRAHOE

So, you caught me red-handed, I wrote these papers. Now, I know what you’re going to say: “Tyr, we both already knew that, get to the point.” Well, I hear you, but the point is that I still can’t believe that I wrote these essays the way I did. Of course, I have my reasons for doing the things I did, or else I would’ve driven myself mad and just dribbled all over the pages and hoped that would work, but that doesn’t mean I’m necessarily happy with them. Writing them was, most certainly, an interesting way to spend a few stressful days of my life. We’re not here to talk about me though, or at least I’m not, so let’s get onto the essays, no?
First of all, I’m rather proud of my Psych essay in every way but one. I relied far too heavily on Schlosser for my tastes. I wanted to seem credible, and he obviously had a lot of information that he did massive amounts of research on, but constantly going back to quoting his book made me feel like such a narrow-minded educator. I wrote this essay in hopes of sounding professional. I wanted to base everything in an ethos created by having multiple sources to back myself up with. Instead, I ended up throwing forth one man’s opinion for most of 3 pages, research based as it was. It felt disappointing. No matter how good of a source he is, the singularity of my source took away from my professionalism, and my ability to seem unbiased. Otherwise, I believe that I did a great job in keeping a formal enough voice to command my audiences attention, while throwing in a few jokes or light-hearted moments so that they wouldn’t feel lectured to. College students are really just high school students with a diploma, after all. They like being given a direction to think and the information to get them going, but if it’s not interesting in some way, then they just lose all interest.
In other news, the MOPS essay challenged me to write simply, yet pathosily (New word, I know, but I think you can manage) for a change. I felt almost more like I was writing a story for them, or just having a conversation. I tried to give normal, everyday examples that they could relate to no matter what walk of life they were from. The mothers don’t need the scientific names for food ingredients to know what I was talking about. They don’t need big words that make me seem pretentious and preachy because they know that simple communication is oftentimes the quickest and best route to getting information across to someone. I established ethos by giving them common examples of things that they knew about, like perfumes and even kids. I could’ve tried to use God, but I don’t remember reading the chapter in Revelations where he mentioned fast food and placebos. Besides, I’m pretty sure they know the Bible better than me, and striking up a controversy because of a single misplaced or misread quote could’ve killed the rest of the essay.
Still, as differently as I feel about the essays, they had their common points. I used a lot of the same evidence in both essays, but that worked for me because I was proving most of the same points to the two groups, just wording them a bit differently. The evidence was solid and strong. Far be it from me, a mere college English student, to disagree with what has already been published. They were also both extremely time consuming, and therefore rather bothersome when reflected upon. But, you win some, you lose some.
So, where does that leave us? The challenge to write to two completely groups turned out to be a long, yet fun process. I had my triumphs, my disappointments, and several long nights that really didn’t help these papers at all. Either way, I look forward to doing it again sometime, because I now have the experience to brainwash a larger number of people. Mufufufufufu.

© Tyr Hawkaluk (2004-Present)