Russell Germain
4/7/13
English 1A
English 1A... An Epic of Learning
English 1A has been a source of both stress and joy for myself. I have learned many things as the result of my education in this class. As well the readings have been very informative and fascinating. One useful piece of information that I've learned in the class is the proper format for the TEA paragraph. Another is the most exquisite way to cite data borrowed from other authors. These tools have significantly increased my prowess as an author.
A TEA paragraph is a paragraph that makes a claim, provides evidence, and then provides analysis and summary for the evidence that supports your claim. For instance if I was writing a paragraph where I claimed that chocolate was considered more delicious than vanilla I would need to provide data to backup my claim. This is because the person who prefers vanilla looks at my claim and thinks, 'I enjoy vanilla much more than chocolate, and being a sane, well-rounded, individual I feel that most others would agree with my opinion.' In order to convince this person that my argument is a sound one I must then provide evidence supporting my claim. Perhaps I will use a quote from a source viewed as reliable that backs up my thesis. Also, I could use facts and figures from some sort of sample polling, provided the source is credible. Using these as evidence I would then explain what the facts and figures meant and why they help attribute to my claims authenticity. Using these methods I now believe I have acquired the ability to write a proper TEA paragraph.
For years I have been citing sources in my writing but apparently I have been doing it half-assed and boringly. Instead of leading into my citation with an action verb that lets my reader know what to expect, which is the proper way of doing it, I would simply throw a citation into my writing and would then neglect to so much as summarize it. This left my reader going "What was that? Was that a citation? I couldn't tell because it was done so improperly. This has left me confused and angry. I now have an overwhelming need to overthrow my government and commit criminal acts." Clearly, my citations did not have the desired affect. Thanks to this class however I can now provide empirical evidence in the form of a quote that leaves my audience well-informed. Now when I am writing an argument I am able to leave my readers well informed and show them that I am getting my information from a reliable source. Without this skill my argument can be as convincing as any other argument but it will fall short because there is no research to go along with my claims. I might as well be trying to convince a someone that the sky is orange. These skills are very prudent in regards to my academic success as well as to my writing on a whole.
