I noted also how hard work pays off: which is the central idea or thesis of the narrative essay. Because a narrative essay is by definition less formal than an expository one, the baseball scholarship piece is not as structured or divided into sub-sections. However, I do use transitions between paragraphs in the form of clauses like "Before I stepped up my training..." Those clauses helped enhance the flow of the narrative in the same way transitional words and phrases helped the flow of writing in the vitamin essay.
In the sports narrative, I also employed stylistic techniques that would have not worked in an academic essay like the one on vitamins and health. For example, in one paragraph I used a series of parallelisms that serve as a literary device such as those used by poets: "I started to lift weights and train rigorously. I watched what I ate. I also watched my favorite pitchers for inspiration, tips, and ideas. I read about baseball. I threw and threw until my arm hurt. I caught and caught. I worked out daily and practiced incessantly. I was obsessed and to a great degree, I still am." The repetition of the word "I" at the start of each sentence in that paragraph emphasizes the subject matter in that passage and changes the rhythm of the writing. To include such stylistic elements into an academic essay like the one on vitamins would have been inappropriate. Instead, the vitamin essay must be purely factual, slightly dry but still interesting...
The writing process is, however, similar for any piece of material. All writing starts with a basic idea, a foundation on which all the information contained in the piece is built. A central idea or thesis statement aids writers in organizing stray ideas and thoughts. Moreover, I learned how to use outlines to my advantage. Even a rough outline with a sketch of how I intend to organize my ideas proved helpful when writing both the narrative and the persuasive essay. Keeping in mind the purpose of the paper and my intended audience helped me to develop a specific tone and style that suited each essay.
As I assess my strengths and weaknesses based on the two samples of writing, I can see that my persuasive skills need some improvement. The essay on vitamins was intended to be persuasive. Although I did have a clear thesis, backed by scientific reports and factual data, the essay is more informative than persuasive. I needed to argue the case for taking daily vitamin supplements better by bolstering the paper with my voice. By injecting the personal voice used in the narrative essay into the informative piece, I could make the essay on vitamins stronger and more persuasive. Even so, the presentation of material in both essays is well-organized and for the most part, grammatically sound.
