After completing my first article, I learned a lot about the writing process and how much time goes into building an article with a variety of sources. For my first article, I wrote about the devastating flooding in Pakistan with the goal of informing my audience about the effects of the flood on the people and the country as a whole.
When constructing this article, I put the most effort into gathering information from other credible sources. I thought that this was one of the most important steps in the writing process. I wanted to make sure my article was full of important facts that interested the audience but were also credible and relevant. I think that this part of the process went very smoothly, but was the most time consuming of all.
However, I do wish that I spent more time prior to starting my article on becoming more familiar with the style of writing that was expected. I think I did well when it came to learning how to write leads and keeping my paragraphs short and to the point, but I struggled with incorporating the source I used into my sentences. Looking back on the assignment, I would have liked to prepare the format more before starting to write the article.
The most difficult part of writing this paper was trying to keep an unbiased voice and not sound too repetitive with the information I was presenting. I wanted to provide information about the flooding through various different lenses, for example, how the floods affected certain parts of Pakistan and how they affected the country’s crop output. I struggled with not repeating the same type of information and sentences, because while there were different lenses to look through, most of the news about the flooding was the same. I think I did well in overcoming this struggle, but it was something that I was concerned with when writing the first draft.
Other than trying to avoid sounding repetitive, the biggest problem that I encountered with writing this paper was properly incorporating the sources I used into my sentences. I had never written in this style before, so it was uncomfortable to try in the beginning. To overcome this problem, I split my article into sections by separating each source I used. After having all of this information in one group, I looked for places to incorporate the source name in a way that wasn’t repetitive and overwhelming, but still gave credit where credit was due. After revising my article, I had named each source that I used for information at least once, ensuring that credit was given.
Overall, I think I learned a lot from this assignment. I now know which areas of the writing process I need to spend a little more time on, and which areas I excel in. I think this first assignment has taught me valuable information that can continue to apply in the future.