Personal Reflection Essay

Prior to taking this class, my only real experience with writing consisted of text messages, e-mails, and employee appraisals. Influenced largely by the casual nature of social networking, I never took the time to reflect on my inability to communicate clearly and professionally via the written word. Given the relative success I experienced after dropping out of high school, I never really developed an appreciation for higher education. I worked primarily with my hands and didn’t understand the need to seek colligate writing skills. I planned to make my living off of the skills of my trade and had no intentions of expanding my career opportunities with needless classes. Now that I am in my thirties and lead a large military workforce, I am

While I appreciated that one of my peers provided feedback on my work, I feel that the feedback that was provided did not fulfill the assignment. My peer did not provide detailed feedback on my paper that could be adequately incorporated in my review and revisions. Most of the information that was provided as feedback were simply statements that reiterated what the prompt question was. Please see the below feedback provided to me by my peer.

In terms of subjective well-being, I like to believe that that I am moderately well-adjusted at this point in my life. I consider myself a happy person as I am physically healthy and am in the process of bettering my life by returning to college. I also have much to be thankful for as my mother as well as my grandfather, whom helped to raise me, both recently, went through a few years of very bad health but they are now in better health. I believe that, at this point in my life, I have no reason to be unhappy so I am trying to live my life in a way that will make me even happier in the future.

I came into this class expecting to fly through it to complete the necessary credits for college. I got instead was an education through writing that will help me further myself in my future career choices. I wish that I had only worked harder on the essays I was given to write to help my grades and future even more. I valued the lessons and instruction on the different forms of essays that came from attending this class. My next step is to continue that path that was made possible with the skills that I have acquired from this course.

Prior to this course I expected myself to struggle extremely with the requirements that Professor Groneman would ask for. I knew that this course wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, so I prepared myself to become more responsible when it came to the assignments, and deadlines. One of the aspects that surprised me was the amount of writing I could get done. I had never done a five or more page essay, and at first I didn’t think I could do it. I used to stress when it came to the essay, but it has become more natural and easier to write. Another aspect that surprised me was how well my essays became when it came to the flow of the paper. At first, I had always struggled with making my essays connect and flow, and now I’m able to. At the beginning

| |the intellectual conversation of topics that were discussed. I also enjoyed the learning |

As I was putting this portfolio together, I was thinking back on what I have acquired from this course and how it has shaped me into the writer I am today. Three to four months is not enough time to completely transform my writing voice and make me an incredible writer by any means, but I do believe that this time in the semester has influenced my writing a somewhat substantial amount. In this portfolio, I have included all my formal writings, along with a few informal writings. These works are just a few examples of the leaps and bounds that I struggled with while writing these different works. Before this class, I lacked style in my writing, strong topic sentences, and organization of thoughts. This was not good considering I would be writing in

Ever since I began reading as a small child, I have loved literature and the written word. However, even though this has always been the case, I originally was not a literature major when I entered Arizona State University. Instead, I began my college career as a Physics major. What I came to realize after completing some of the required courses for the major was not that I was not good at physics since I had done exceptionally in all my classes, but that I was more interested in reading the articles and writing the assignments for my classes than I was in actually doing research in the physics department. Therefore, even as I was pursuing an entirely different degree, my love of literature and writing was still fundamental to my learning, and it was this that eventually lead to me changing my major to English Literature. Coming to this decision to switch majors was difficult, however the experience was beneficial in the long run. Not only am I now enjoying the work I am doing as a student more, I also understand that writing, editing, and reading critically is important to all disciplines. Had I not first begun my

When I signed up for this course I was not expecting very much out of it. I assumed that, like most typical English courses, I would be learning to write proper essays. Once I saw that I would be writing to share experiences (Christmas tradition), writing to inform (biographical sketch), and writing to analyze (visual analysis) the class seemed easier. I thought this class would be a piece of cake! Unfortunately, I knew little of all the goals and expectations that would be needed from me! However, it was a pleasant surprise. I have never realized all the different types of writing, and how each writing area contains its own audience, purpose, genre, rhetorical situation, voice and tone, and context/medium/genre. Before entering this

When I first signed up for the class last year, I was expecting an extremely hard class dedicated to solely writing essays. In a sense, I was not wrong in that it was hard class and most of the assignments included writing. At that time, I had little confidence in my writing abilities. I dreaded every moment I had to spend on writing assignments. Even though I hated writing, I decided to challenge myself to take the class to improve my writing capabilities. At the

In Aug. 2010, I completed my B.S. in Environmental science concentration in biology at Taylor University. Courses I have taken, allowed me to be familiar with different aspects of biology, ecology and geology. As a result, I was able to experience the tangibility of these fields, for example gathering and analyzing field samples. Furthermore, one summer was spent taking and examining water quality samples, as well as examining plants and animal specimens. For my senior project, I designed and completed a practicum, where I removed invasives plants from a local forest near my hometown. After accomplishing the objectives, the superintendent offer me the position of a natural resource specialist.

The first time I realized that writing was what I wanted to do in life was on the corner of Powell Street in San Fransisco. I had just ended a call with my comatose grandfather, telling him I loved him and goodbye. Standing in the middle of happening San Fransisco, I’d bid the longest goodbye to my best friend and all I could think to do was write out how I felt. I sat in the closest McDonald’s, drank copious amounts of coffee, and wrote for hours on end. While being a Jane Austen and Sylvia Plath lover, my bawling over a styrafome cup was less than romantic, but at the time, there was nothing stopping me. After befriending the 24-hour staff at McDonalds, I returned home and kept on writing. This story has always stayed with me as the day I figured out my coping mechanism, my love, and something that has shaped every aspect of my life. I often think that maybe I have known my whole life that I was meant to write through constant reading and writing, but it wasn’t until that day that I really understood what it meant to be driven to do something forever.

One of my biggest strengths is working well under a lot of stress and pressure. The more commitments I have, the better I seem to work. Being an RA, being on CAB exec board and being in other clubs around campus forces me to have deadlines and a routine that I stick to every day. Having free time is something I do not cope well with because I am used to always moving and working so if free time is given I have to use that time for something productive. I am not one of those students who can watch Netflix during the semester because if I am doing that then I know I am doing something wrong. If I am lucky enough to be picked for SRA next year, and have CAB, it will help me create a good routine for my day to day life which then enables me to get my work in on time. A thought one may have, though, is if I have too much on my plate, my work will suffer and not be as best as it can be, but, being a perfectionist, I refuse to submit work I am genuinely proud of which allows my work to never suffer.

This SWOT analysis was soul-bearing in a way, and it gave me a perspective I did not have at the beginning of this exercise. As I started to receive responses some observations I understood, but others I was surprised how others viewed me, but I understood a key to development is the ability to realize your own abilities, behaviors, and evolve. Throughout my time in the college student development program, I have begun to understand that for myself, and the students I serve the key to development is a reflective mindset. In this perspective, I must have the ability to understand my own strengths, weaknesses, and adjust my own mannerisms. Throughout my graduate degree, I have been able to obtain reflection on my past, which presented me

Entering this course, I was nervous for a couple of reasons. First, I was returning to LSU after eighteen months of time off and thought I was ill-prepared for the intellectual intensity of an honors course. Second, I was entering into a realm of academia that has always highly intrigued me, but that I never felt educated enough on to participate in. Although I still feel like I have a lot of material to catch up on, the respect, vulnerability, and genuine open-mindedness my classmates have displayed over the past few weeks has quickly diminished any fears I had regarding this course. Contrary to my original thought, this course has, up to this point, been the best way for me to reacclimate to collegiate life. The curriculum for this course is designed to put an emphasis on listening, analyzing experiences, and responding constructively. The elements of peer review and analytical reasoning that are built into the class are exactly what I needed coming back to LSU. Albeit I was worried about my ability to write on the level this course requires; however, the constructive manner in which we have critiqued our classmates has presented me with the ability to connect once more (after eighteen months) with my unique style, structure, and logic. Initially, I was very nervous about enrolling in this course, but now realize that it was one of the best decisions I could have made this semester.