Source Summary
In “Late Nights, Last Rites, and the Rain-Slick Road to Self-Destruction”, Thomas Osborne writes to explain and elaborate on the series of events that lead to his personal struggles, insecurities, and self-reflection of his own writers block. Osborne begins with a narration of his own frustrating attempt at developing a well written essay as he had been working on it for 8 hours straight. After a long and excruciating period of heavy self-reflecting and staring at the same paper wondering just what it was that made his essay unsatisfactory, Osborne starts opening up to other sources of inspiration that lead him to changing his writing technique. A memorandum of the past brings to life his passion for writing and becomes the central idea of a new essay, one with funk and genuineness.
Character development becomes apparent, as his attitude and tone begins to alter into one with confidence. Osborne is reminded of why he puts his thoughts on paper and is more secure in himself. He learns not to compare himself with others, but to lift himself up. Osborne’s experience is a relatable one that emphasizes the notion that one’s writing skills evolve. Osborn concludes stating that the profound process of writing is one that carries uncertainty, it won't always be perfect.
Presentation Slides
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tarjw0Mgoub8ySPawKebeDhMdmfj6sDK8ChM-6ZvQ8Q/edit?ts=5c587672#slide=id.p
Unit 1 Reflection
In the group project pertaining to Thomas Osborne’s narrative story, “Late Nights, Last Rites, and the Rain-Slickered Road to Self-Destruction”, I gained a new perspective on the writing process and learned strategies to improve my own deliberation of thoughts with others to create a solid piece. Osborne is a college student taking ENC1101 who encounters writers block.This scenario is relatable to many, if not all students at some point in their academic years. In Osborne’s self reflection, we see that he is experiencing many ups and downs while writing an essay and comes up blank. Character development is a prominent message in this literary piece as we see through his eyes, the hardships he faced while writing an essay.
My primary role in this project was to draft the summary and create the ethos and pathos slides in our presentation. I believe I was very proactive in assessing the workload to each member in the group, constantly keeping up with everyone making sure slides were done in a timely fashion. It was essential to collect my teammates input before writing the summary in order to adequately capture different aspects of Osborne’s message through distinct eyes. I completed the rough draft of the summary, briefly informing the readers about “Late Nights, Last Rites, and the Rain-Slickered Road to Self-Destruction”. After my teammates added their own views, I expanded on what was written. The conference was very helpful and made me realize that I was delving too much into the analytical aspect of the essay rather than only giving the reader a brief idea of the text. It was difficult to effectively write the summary because I felt that it was not enough information, but the feedback of my group members and collaboration helped to write the ideal amount. The ethos and pathos slides served as a great way to share my insight and analytical viewpoints on Osborne’s story. I read Osborne’s essay and began writing out the rhetorical devices used and an example to share with the group in order to help analyze his message. In order to fully develop the ethos with proper evidence, I read the text about three more times and wrote down certain quotes where he stated his own roles as a student. I also noticed that under his name, a description of himself is provided in order for readers to know what angle of vision to focus on. As I was creating the ethos slide, I noticed how much evidence he provided in his text to validate his roles as a student and what kind of student he aspires to be. I could have provided five examples of Osborne showcasing his credibility, but I chose the two best sources of evidence. I felt that the pathos slide came natural to me because the first thing I do after reading any text is grasping the overall message and thinking profoundly on the theme the author wants to express. For this slide, I also jotted down examples of pathos such as : tone, diction, metaphors/similes, and relatable events. With this information, I created a chart with the example and evidence for each. This helps to organize my ideas in a structured form. I enjoyed this slide the most because my thinking process was developing and expanding as I wrote it out in words. I discovered more depth and applications of my own past experiences like that of Osborne’s while writing an essay. My collaboration in this project helped keep everyone informed and in sync for a great powerpoint addressing Osborne’s concerns.
Reading Osborne’s reflective essay taught me the importance of quality over quantity. Admirable writing is a product of dedication and deep thinking where one’s thoughts are being articulated in words. In the way Osborne projects himself, it is safe to say that he is an extremely dedicated and persistent student. As we learned in Unit 1, Osborne is a combination of a heavy planner and heavy reviser. Because I am the same way, this essay was comforting, reminding me I am not alone. Osborne speaks in a conversational and casual tone because the target audience is young college students. This tactic creates a relevant voice for the audience members to connect in a more personal way. Osborne’s, “Late Nights, Last Rites, and the Rain-Slickered Road to Self-Destruction”, sheds light into the long and strenuous process of writing. At many points of the essay, readers can feel his moments of self-doubt, harsh criticism, and negativity towards the process. Osborne compares himself to others, often feeling like he is not good enough. This is yet another scenario that embodies many students’ internal frustrations when developing thoughts.
All in all, from reading Osborne’s strategies to write an essay, I can see what worked for him and what did not. This observation inspires me to dabble in different writing techniques to see what works best for me. I feel that I am developing as a writer because I am more focused on expressing my thoughts with detailed elaborations rather than just meeting the word count requirement as it was imposed in high school. Interpreting significant messages, for example Osborne’s character development, can help to grasp the big picture and apply it to future scenarios.
Works Cited
Thomas Osborne’s Late Nights, Last Rites, and the Rain-Slickered Road to Self-Destruction
“Texts for Analysis and Synthesis.” Google Drive, Google, drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lv_Aw00YobUWjHyLgwxg2GYaZfA8-ZN2.