Personal Writing Reflection

Writing is one of the most important skills that I have learned throughout my years in school. I have learned that no matter how much I love or hate it, writing is a necessity; I might as well try to be good at it. Writing has been in my life for many years. There are many types of writing, educational writing and personal writing are two that I will mention in this essay. I have learned how to allow writing to help me in my daily life. When I began writing I hated it, however, I have learned the many uses of it, and it has become a huge part of my life.

In this writing project I learned to write a story with a purpose and show my readers a learning movement. By using different kinds of writing tools I could give my readers a more complex story. I learned how to write by showing and using details (the senses) to really give my readers a deeper understanding and emotions. I also learned in how you prepare for writing an essay. The importance of building your idea (pre-write), write, revision, and finally editing the paper.

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

As the semester comes to a close, it is always interesting to look back and reflect on the events and opportunities my English class has given me throughout my first semester as a whole. At the beginning of this semester it was evident that I was feeling uncomfortable due to the adjustment that I was going through as a student moving to college. It was very difficult expressing myself through my writing since I was nervous about good impressions and my good grade. While this class was one of the most difficult courses that I have taken this far, it has become quite evident to me that I have grown a substantial amount as a writer and as a person; Especially, when it came to explaining my ideas, writing academic essays, and making arguments.

While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.

I learned that you are not only writing for your own benefit, your writing for your classmates, teachers and peers as well. It helps you gain common knowledge that you may not have known otherwise, as well as teaching us research skills that we will need later in life due to the rise is technology use. I have learned that research is a part of life and you will need it throughout college. Writing has helped me understand things I was unable to comprehend before, and gives me a feeling of capability. As Frederick Douglas, an African American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman, once wrote, “Thus, after a long, tedious effort for years, I finally succeeded in learning how to write” (McQuade and Atwan). At the beginning of the semester, I would have never guessed that I would finish this course on a positive note; however, I finished, and it was not as difficult as I thought it would

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.

After a grueling first quarter, I was completely miserable, with terrible grades, low self-esteem, and no end in sight. I was hanging on to the hope that there would be some epiphany moment, a moment where suddenly my writing soared, along with my grades. That change did happen, but not all at once‒ it began during the third quarter, when my teacher, Ms. Boynton, asked me to stay after class, along with five other students. She asked if we would each be interested in participating in The Atlantic and College Board Essay Contest, in which we would each submit an analysis of a famous American speech. I was truly stunned that she had chosen me over so many other students in the class, since I had felt so lost for so many weeks, but it was exactly what I needed as motivation to keep on improving my writing. As I worked closely with her on my contest submission and other class work, I came to realize how much she cared about me and wanted to help me succeed. With that being said, she never made it easy; she continually pushed me, knowing that I could always do better if I set my mind to it. Last September, I began her demanding course with the intention of purely surviving, not necessarily thriving, but that

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.

I learned a lot in this class during the semester. The first project was our learning narrative, it was not what I was expecting from a writing class. I expected we would be writing a many formal essays in MLA format with lots of sources and research. The first essay being a creative writing project was unexpected. At first writing a narrative from my personal experience was difficult for me. I had not written anything besides formal essays since high school. Writing something that was creative and expressive was an adjustment. After a few days of writing I began to really enjoy my learning narrative. I liked being able to express myself and my own experiences and share them with others.

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.

This course has taught me more than I could imagine over the past few months. I have reached and surpassed many of the goals I set for myself and reached objectives I never thought possible because of this class. Despite my success and continued improvement over the course of the semester, there is still much room for my writing to grow.

Reading and writing were two things my parents use to always push me to improve and work on more often. They always told me they are the essentials of everything thing. Even though I disliked both at a young age as I grew older I preferred writing because I can always change the way I write and write from my point of view, really be creative with it and prove my point. Growing up I always loved writing short stories especially scary stories. I always was creative with them and even made them realistic. To write an essay I usually have a couple of steps writing an outline, and the thesis a draft and finally a final draft. The most difficult part about this is writing the thesis because the whole essay revolves the thesis because it summarizes the whole essay. At the end of some essays, I had to use citations to do that there were many websites that helped me cite sources such as easybib which was a really simple process. So, citing sources was one of the easiest things about writing the essay.

You mention in your email quite a few references to my writing having some serious issues, yet in the grading not one example was pointed out--. I ask that if you believe the same applies to any part of the draft submission that you highlight at least the one that will explain any significant point deduction. More, importantly, I would like to know exactly where I can use improvements, plus I prefer clarity as to where and/or why points were taken off in this class. Sometimes stylistic choice is mistaken for poor writing or incoherent or illogical as you suggested. I have not come across any professor that has said so much about my writing (negatively) and not offer any example. A link in this case is not exactly the solution for all that was implied. Anyhow, my main goal is to focus on where I can fix it myself, so please. show where, next time—thanks.

I have been a lover of reading for as long as I can remember. My mother tells me stories about how she used to come into my room at night to check on me and end up finding me with books perched on my nose. I have never found English that boring. I love reading and analyzing stories as well as a newfound love for writing. However, I have found some of the short stories in class to be quite boring and hard for me to pick apart. It has not caused me to dislike the class. It has just presented me with more of a challenge to understand and be able to write about them. I find it easier to write about and analyze stories that I can relate to or potentially relate to although that hasn’t been much of the case this semester. Despite that challenge I feel that I am doing decently well in the class.