ltello's blog

In my first essay, I chose to critique Michael Pollan’s article “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch.”  I argue in my essay that Pollan’s article should not be included in the academic journal Smart Food.  My main points for my argument are that Pollan’s essay was poorly organized and lacked cohesion, that the article lacked academic evidence and sources, and finally that the article lacked a counterargument. 

There are many revisions that I plan on making to my essay, on top of what revisions are requested from my teacher in my rough draft.  I plan on adding more concrete evidence and quotes from Pollan’s article to back up my claims.  I struggled to do so in my first draft because many of the points I sought to make were difficult to find specific quotes for.  I would also like to check my verb tense in my essay.  I usually struggle with keeping verb tense the same throughout anything I write, since I don’t prewrite very often. 

Mainly when I prewrite I just make a blue print of the main points I plan on discussing in an argument, and when I actually write it, my writing comes out more like my thoughts pouring onto the page.  Since this can come out a bit scatterbrained at times, I usually make many revisions on my papers.  I think that if I made a more detailed outline for future papers, that I would struggle less with verb tense and that my final drafts would be more thorough and well written. 

Writing is important to my future, so I do need to continuously hone my craft.  I’m majoring in Integrated Social Studies education right now, and I plan on either teaching fifth grade or high school social studies after I graduate.  I will need to write letters home to my students and their parents, and if I assign a research report or essay in my classes, I will need to accurately analyze the arguments and ideas presented in my students’ work.  All in all, writing is an important skill to have in life, and I understand that I need to constantly work on becoming a better writer.