Communication Reflection

This class has been a big eye opener for me and I will be taking a lot of this information with me as I continue to complete other courses. What I have learned the most would be dealing with time-management and how to improve my essays by improving my writing skills. It is important to me to continue to improve on my writing as will help me become a better writer in the future.

Throughout the course of this semester, I have continuously grown as a writer. Prior to taking this course, I had little experience or knowledge when it came to writing. I used to struggle with forming my thoughts into writing, let alone a paper. I was never confident with what I wrote. My writing had no greater purpose other than the assignment. My writing process included: writing my paper, proofreading it, and turning it in. Once the paper left my hands, it also left my mind. Throughout this course we worked with others, visited the writing lab, wrote critiques, and we were able to revise our papers. I believe that all of this is has caused me to grow greatly as a writer.

At the start of this course, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had a goal for myself to improve and learn skills that would make writing less daunting for me. I have learned so many things about my writing that I didn’t think much about before. Another goal I had was to break the cookie-cutter mold that was set upon me throughout high school. During the process of revision, I discovered many things about myself as a writer and techniques that have been effective for me in the writing process.

This course was comprised of many learning activities; each was designed to help me achieve the course learning outcomes. I have taken two college English classes in the past; however, it has been several years since my last college class. I have some experience in writing and this class definitely helped me get back into writing. I often have trouble brainstorming and capturing the subject I need to write about. This class definitely helped me overcome the challenges I faced in writing and being able to effectively express my ideas in a clear and concise manner. Not to mention, it definitely helped build my writing foundation through a step by step approach to each assignment. Therefore, this class bolstered my writing and communication skills.

Over the past four months, I have made great strides as a writer. The area where I have seen the most growth is in my use of the writing process. Prior to my enrollment in this course, I would sit down and write all my papers in one sitting. This class has taught me how to lay out a plan for my papers. I have learned how to effectively brainstorm/research, draft, and revise my writings before I complete them. Also I have learned to not just stop there, instead I am now going back and reflecting on my work after I complete it. This allows me to identify where I prospered and also where my downfalls may have been. With this information, I am able to apply this to future writings of mine; lessons that will stay with me forever.

Coming into this class, I wasn't sure what to expect. Of course,I expected to be writing a lot but was unsure of the type of writing and the style. I was looking forward to writing challenging pieces that stretching me creatively as a writer. I wanted to explore how to express myself in my writing because it had been a long time since I'd written a creative essay. One of my main hopes for this class was challenging myself to become a better editor of my own papers. I often find it a tedious and laborious process to find and edit the grammatical errors in my papers. However, this is an important skill that I need to develop for my future as a successful writer.

Over the course of this semester, I have learned many things to improve my writing. Having taken the course before, this semester has been an excellent opportunity to expand on my existing knowledge. Although I had written many essays before, there is still much to be learned and improved. Two factors of writing that I had learned or improved on this semester were transitions/topic sentences and how to properly structure a conclusion paragraph.

The assignments in this class have shown me that I’m a better writer than I initially thought. The assignments have where I have improved, areas where I still need to improve, and how skills developed here can transfer into other courses.

When writing, I try to gather as much information about the topic, I am getting ready to discuss before I start writing. What that does is it helps me get organized and have a greater understanding about what I will be writing. Not only do I try to gather as much information, I also try to organize myself and my writing by starting an outline to help me stay on topic. As a writer, I am not always as confident as I wish to be. Some improvements I hope to gather from taking this class is being able to keep my writing flowing and sounding efficient. When writing has positive flow and understanding, people are more likely to stay engaged in what they are reading. Transition words, phrases, and sentences is also something I would like to improve.

In this course, I enhanced my reading and writing skills. Reading and analyzing stories allowed me to become a better critical thinker. Beside, Learning to review and identify errors with the help of my peers and my instructor improved the quality of my writing. Also, I gained valuable practice in evaluating the credibility of sources that I would include in my writing.Finally, I also want to thank this class since I become more confident in my writing and my reading abilities

While taking this course, I realized that I enjoy researching for what I am writing about, but I have a difficult time putting my responses into words. I also learned I over-summarize everything the articles that I am reading and responding to, but I tried to combat this by explaining more in-depth. However, by doing the assignments in smaller parts, compared to only doing a draft and then a final paper, I found it easier to elaborate on the topics in my writing. I also learned the importance of revising papers, especially peer revisions because other people are able to catch mistakes you might miss or help you better explain an idea if they don’t understand, something I definitely need and utilized throughout this course.

The course helped me develop my interpersonal skills, collaborating with other students, preparing for presentations and addressing the class. I gained more confidence to present myself. Initially, it used to take me 3-4 days to summarize an article. To my surprise,

When I reflect on this course there are so many things that I have learned. What stood for me was the “Nine Steps to good Writing.” Identify your goal, analyze your audience, determine the correct tone and format…I had never considered these concepts before.

During this semester, I have learned a great deal about my own writing, and writing in general. One of the main takeaways from this course for me was how to break down the intricate process of writing papers. In addition, I developed viable skills regarding going into more in-depth detail during each step of the writing process. I enjoyed having the freedom to write about a topic that I was able to choose. This allowed me to research and write about something that actually interested me immensely. Having to work with one topic for the entire semester taught me how to find reliable resources and how to pick out the essential research from each article.

There is a significant difference between my perception of communication at the beginning of this course compared to now. Initially, I was aware communication was an important skill people needed to have, but I wasn’t fully aware of the depth of communication. I never realized there were such a variety of behaviors and characteristics that impacted the ability for people to communicate effectively. Once I started completing the self-assessments my perspective was broaden and I gained helpful insight into my own communication strengths and weaknesses. With each self-assessment I truly felt I was getting to know myself better.