How To Write A Personal Reflective Essay In My Writing Class

Writing is a practice that most of us were taught when we were young. We were taught the basics of grammar, how to form a sentence, conjunction words, how to write paragraphs and more. Although we have learned this skill while growing up and have used the skill every year after entering kindergarten, this does not mean our writing process will ensure the best work. The authors that I chose each encourage their audience to excel in the art of writing in their own way to help with the writing process.

Upon entering English 111, I knew I would be writing papers. However, I did not anticipate how much room I had for improvement. Throughout this term I have been enlightened with so much knowledge that I may have forgotten or have been exposed to for the first time. Certainly, my experience with essay writing has been solidified due to newfound knowledge of proper work citing, MLA standards and the steps of planning an essay. Perhaps, my time away from a learning environment slowed me down a bit, other times I feel as though I have an advantage due to life experience. An online environment has certainly been challenging but throughout the course I have provided solid work and consistent grades commendable of an A grading.

Writing influences the way humans communicate. Good writing skills are essential in the working world and it’s important for our own self. The love for writing creative stories that engage the reader personally feels like an impossible task. After thirteen years of English I’ve realized that English does not come easy to me. It’s important to note that my writing skills have improved over the years. Going into my first year of college, I was nervous. I knew that my writing needed improvement. During my first semester of college, I was able to take the WAC 101 class. This class not only improved my writing, but it also encouraged me to start reading again. I look at reading as a task instead of a hobby, but I know that it can progress toward something that I like to do on my free time. WAC 101 is a class that helps develop a student’s writing skills. To measure the progress, outcomes in different areas of writing are reflected upon.

I am writing to explain why I am qualified to become one of your student in your Writing 2 course. Over the years of my academic life I have taken numerous literature classes, which accelerated my comprehension in reading and writing, preparing me for this course. I wish to enroll in this course to further refine these skills and learn more about how creativity plays an important role in writing and in my life. In addition, I hope to unravel and share my creativity with the rest of my colleagues through future discussions and essays.

Throughout this class, I have learned many things and I have also improved. This quarter, my writing has developed a lot, on my papers I have wrote I usually can't write a paper then and there, but on the literacy walk in essay I got a good score which I was proud of since that’s the first time I had done that. Usually, I don’t get very good scores, but I have learned a lot and how to write a good paper which led to me getting a good score. Another way in which I have improved in writing is how to use less fragments and also do less run-on sentences. Before this class I would do a lot of run-on sentences and many fragments. I have learned how to use better word choice and better sentence structuring.

In conclusion, I had a great time in this class. I have developed in my writing skills and the confidence I have in my writing abilities; this semester has taught me some key life skills that go past a simple English but skills that will be applied.

As a writer, I feel like I am in a constant maze. In the beginning I feel like there is more than one path to take. It can either lead me to success and/or great achievements or it can lead me to a dead end. Writing can be easy at times, but other times when I come to a stopping point I always tend to overthink things. I feel like my choices need to be made right away. I tend to think of it as temptations being called from every different direction. One path will lead me to the finish line and the other path will lead me directly back to where I started, the beginning. When I am given a writing assignment, I feel like the pressure is on. Although I believe writing is a maze and often troubling at times, my competitive nature is always ready to take on a challenge. Throughout my entire life I have been faced with personal challenges, personal obstacles to get over, self-doubt to overcome, as well as experiences that have all shaped me into the writer I am today.

Growing up I learned to read in school like most others, but when it came to writing I was at a huge disadvantage. I have a disability called dysgraphia which effects the way I write. When it would come time for me to do my class work my peers and the teacher would struggle to understand what I had wrote on the assignment which would lead to chastisement from my peers. At one point I stopped enjoying school and even stopped doing my work. On top of the chastisement writing became too much of a chore for me to handle as I would end up growing tired both physically and mentally due to the way I would hold my pencil it would hurt my hand which would cause me to not be able to write for long periods of time without taking a break between paragraphs. Upon review of my work I would mentally beat myself up over the quality of my hand writing. I would find it tiring to constantly checking my letter alignment and spacing that I would spend five minutes writing and the next ten looking over what I had just wrote and re writing it all over again all while being mad at myself for not being able to write like my peers especially when it came to writing in cursive.

Have you ever sat staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank document on your computer screen? I have and let me tell you it’s annoying, especially when you’re ready to get started. At that point I begin to realize that I probably should have prepared myself for this task better. Writing has and hasn’t always been my strong suit when it comes to academics. I say this has because when it comes to writing and I have taken an interest with the topic, everything just flows with ease. Then sometimes that leads to why I say it hasn’t always been my strong suit. There are times I come across an assignment and simply cannot come up with a single word to put on that blank piece of paper or computer screen. The furthest I’d get is my name and that clearly doesn’t say much. From the words of Allen Ginsberg, “To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” After reading this and thinking about Ginsberg’s message, I first think about what I want my voice to say in my writing and then I think about the concept of writing as a whole.

Throughout this semester, this class has taught me many things. I have learned the process of drafting and revising, how to structure my essays, how to write to a specific audience, how to make a thesis, and how to use outside resources. In the three essays I chose to put in my portfolio, I believe I have support to back up the fact that I have learned these things.

Before this semester, my essay writing would have been considered rather poor. This was because I did not understand the various components of a properly written and accompany them to effectively communicate my ideas. I lacked the most in keeping the audience involved hence, catching and maintaining their attention, to my writing from the introduction to the conclusion. To me, writing was more complicated than a speech since a speech involved direct audience who the speaker can gauge their feelings. I took writing as a difficult task since it involved indirect audience and ensuring that I meet the demands of such indirect audience, brought more confusion. Though the case, this past semester’s class has really improved my skills in writing. I have learned to to make an effective written piece. Through the various learning experiences such as individual readings, professional feedback and many others, I have been able to interact with diverse knowledge sources which have made me much better by removing the confusion and negative picture I had with regard to writing.

Looking back at all my samples of work gave me a feeling of assurance that this semester of writing was successful. It is inevitable that developing my audience analysis, critical thinking and peer collaboration skills contributed to an improvement in the quality of my work. As the semester progressed, my pieces of work began reflecting the new understandings I gained. From my perspective, I feel that I have improved overall as a scholar, and I have achieved many of the course’s goals that were set at the beginning of the semester.

Throughout this course, I discovered just how bad a writer I was. At the very beginning we had to introduce our selves. There was a small section in that paragraph where I mentioned that I hate writing essay. I mentioned that I’ve never been good at them and I rarely got good scores. However, I feel as though I have greatly improved my writing skills during this course. I’ve picked up several rules and have made the most out of this class. I am very proud of myself and the work I have put forth into this class in efforts of improving my essay writing skills.

On June twelfth, I started a journey of enlightenment I didn’t realize I needed. I had signed up for this class purely to graduate college. I didn’t care about my writing ability, or lack thereof it. But, very quickly I realized something; I needed to better my writing ability. My whole educational career I had skated on by with the bare minimum amount of work; I very rarely took pride in my writing, nor did I feel it necessary to better myself. As this summer semester progressed though, there was a quickly developing realization that I was afraid, and also lacked general knowledge, of proper punctuation. You forced me to challenge myself and become a better writer, and while in the moment I hated you for that; I truly am thankful that I am leaving college with confidence in writing for the first time in my life.

This past semester was a successful one, where I learned a lot about proper writing. I came into the course with a basic understanding of writing academic papers, and left with a good understanding. Throughout the course I became better prepared to meet General Education Student Outlines, and it was evident while revising my first project, the personal narrative.