Meta Post: My Favorite Blog Post

            My favorite blog post of the semester was Good Enough? This post showed my growth as a writer, as well as my ability to tie my writing to a text without it actually revolving around that text, which was something I struggled with all year. When writing a paper or blog, I would find an article, a book, a video, etc. that I found interesting and become very attached to it. However, instead of analyzing the most relevant parts of that source to my topic, I would try to steer my topic towards the source, making my argument much too general. For instance, in my junior theme, I relied much to heavily on sources from Michael Pollan, making my paper “as broad as a newpaper editorial” (Mr. Bolos). What Mr. Bolos was trying to tell me was that I was tying my argument too much to someone else’s, therefore pulling me away from my own thesis, and making my paper far too broad.

            In Good Enough? I improved in effectively using evidence to strengthen my argument. Instead of centering my argument around a specific source, I actually structured my argument around a question (sort of like junior theme) and found a source that would answer that question. This was much more effective because my argument was based off my own inquiries instead of a source that I simply found interesting. In this specific blog post, I wanted to figure out why so many kids at New Trier were unhappy with their ACT scores. I then read an article by The Chicago Tribune, which contained many different statistics about ACT scores and demographics, specifically analyzing scores from New Trier High School. However, instead of analyzing the entire article, I used two statistics to strengthen my argument. I stated that “the average ACT score at New Trier is a 27.5,” and “the state average is a 20.6.” In making these two brief statements, I added powerful evidence to my argument without doing an exhaustive analysis of the entire article.

            In order to give my argument a new dimension, I decided to use the ACT website as another source. I knew that the information I wanted was there, so all I needed to do was get that one piece of evidence and analyze it. By searching through the website with a specific question in mind, I was able to find exactly what I was looking for. I needed to know what percentile a student getting a 28 on their ACT would rank in, and by looking at one chart, I was able to state, “they would place in the 91^st percentile.” This gave an interesting twist to my argument by saying that the average student at New Trier actually ranks in the top nine percent of students in the nation.

            In summary, this blog post would not have been effective had I analyzed the entirety of the two sources I used. By using small snapshots of evidence, I was able to effectively argue my point, as well as find an answer to the question I posed. This post is an obvious choice for my favorite post because it was a great example of the growth I have shown over this year as a writer.