Reflecting Back On This Pass Semester

Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.

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.

Writing is something we have been used to since childhood. Beginning to write with just a few words and activities to improve our pendmanship. From easy sentences we all gradually improve our writing, as expected from higher levels of education. However, throughout all this time, many of us have been writing blind. Only writing what is seen an necessary, oblivious to the true skill and precision it takes to actually write quality work. Through the use of Anne Lammott’s article “Shitty First Drafts” and personal experiences, I will advice you, my fellow freshman, on certain a aspect of writing that you may not have known prior to joining the college world, as well as offer some life advice.

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.

As the semester approaches a conclusion, I have discovered for myself that I happen to exhibit not simply on how I have endured this semester, but then again also what I have gained in knowledge of. In the past four months, I would consider that I obtain an accomplishment of achievement in improving my writing techniques. The most important principle that I have discovered so far ensues on how to become an improved writer. With each writing assignment, I learned additional methods and skills, which tweaked my capabilities to develop my thoughts in detail on paper, to write clearly, and to organize my essays efficiently. In previous years, I would frequently catch myself irritated believing I had terrible writer’s block standing in my path of writing an organized essay. This created a feeling as if I could not distinguish how to write properly and the reasoning behind my hatred for writing. During high school, I learned the Modern Language Association (MLA) formats for bibliographies and parenthetical citations, consequently at the beginning of the fall semester, I knew only this format. I was able to learned the correct format for the American Psychological Association (APA) style when doing each assignment at hand.

As this semester comes to a close, I have become to realize how much I’ve grown as a writer. After taking this class, I have noticed that I have gained more and more of a voice in my writing. When faced with having to write about subjective topics, I have learned how to voice my opinions in papers in order to make them more effective. My writing has greatly evolved because of this class. Not only has it shown me I have to work on sentence variety, but it has also allowed me to work on word choice which is something I have always struggled with throughout my high school career. Struggling with how to put things into words as exactly how I see them has been a struggle for me throughout this course. Despite how much I’ve grown as writer, I have

During this second semester, I learned about many techniques that enhanced my writing. I cannot believe that my first year of college is over because it seems like yesterday I attended my first class. I will use this techniques throughout the rest of my life to make my paper stronger and more professional. As I continue to learn I will add techniques I learn in the future to make my writing even stronger. I believe my writing is strong, but can

When I began this writing course, I was asked what I hoped to accomplish. I even wrote a reflective essay as a journal entry on the topic. Looking back at the essay and reading it again, I am struck by how much I have learned in such a brief time span. My initial concerns were surrounded in a perceived fear of academia. I was insecure in my ability to convey thoughts in a structured academic format. I still take time to consider these concerns. However, this course boosted my confidence in my ability to learn to write academically, and effectively.

The area of growth I will need in order to succeed in this program is my writing skills. I understand that academic writing is an important part of my development as a doctoral student. It is the only way I can demonstrate my learning experience (Lloyd, & Marjorie, 2007). This is the reason I am taking out time to work personally on my writing skills. By the end of this semester, I will be on the same level as my

Throughout this semester, I have seen an improvement in my writing skills and the way I develop my essays. I have always had a passion for creative writing, but when writing academic papers, I lacked technique and correct grammar. I made exceptional grades on my writing assignments in high school, but I learned quickly that English college classes are much more challenging. Being in my first college English class helped me learn how important class attendance and participation are, along with learning the many rules and techniques used in writing. Seeing the improvement in my writing over the course of this semester has made me very optimistic of the English classes I will take in the future. This class has taught me how important grammar is and how I should always strive for improvement in my writing.

My interest in writing wasn’t always apparent to me even though I sought out activities that included the skill. I enjoyed English classes growing up, but I never thought I would utilize writing at a heightened capacity for different disciplines and my own creative pursuits. Soon enough, writing became an activity that I did outside of the classroom, especially in public health pursuits during my time in college and creatively post-graduation. It is a part of my constant development as a person who contributes to causes and activities that I care about and a part of the impact I believe I can make in the medical field.

I learned a lot about writing and reading from this course, writing became more easy, even my fear of writing essays has been diminished. I learned to be a critical reader to write better. I started to read more and look at different topic, although not much as I wish, but still it enhanced my writing. I now take notes more often than before. I no longer judge a writing by my emotions instead by what it presents of ideas and facts, I keep in my mind that it just reflects the author’s ideas and opinions not necessary the truth, and that my reflection and response of a writing may be the same or differ from others. Using a double journal became the better tool to capture all my thoughts with the ideas of

When looking back over the previous microthemes and papers I can see how far I have come as a writer. At the beginning of the semester I was a poor writer who could not grasp the important aspects of writing. I had many grammatical errors along with many underdeveloped thoughts. Even though this class was only for a short period of time in order to learn how to write a proper academic paper, I can see how far I have come. My papers may still be sub-par but in many aspects have come a long way. I no longer have as many grammatical errors and can further express my thoughts in a paper. Also by taking this class I have further developed revision skills by learning new tricks such as reading out loud and writing thoughts out as a brainstorming

As I reflect over the last nine weeks of class, I’m happy I was able to finally take a writing course to help improve my writing style. I have always shied away when it came to writing because it was something I did not enjoy to do and I did not understand the fundamental of writing.

Over the past few weeks, I have learned a great deal about the writing process. Applying different revision techniques to my own writing enabled me to learn more about myself as a writer. As I employed the writing process, I became intimately aware of the various steps involved, which both helped me to improve my own writing and enabled me to teach my students about developing their writing.