Reflection About My Writing Process

Overall, I feel that both my quality of writing and writing process have improved over the course of the semester. This was important because in my first writing analysis statement at the beginning of the year, the two main things that I wanted to improve on were my quality and process. Throughout the semester, I learned to rely less on teacher comments and revisions and instead improve on my self-revision process, which was almost non-existent before I came to college.

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

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.

From elementary school to high school, I was taught that my writing had to be structured and follow strict criteria. After I arrived in Mr. Mukherjee’s ENG 102 class, I was given the opportunity to express my creative freedom through words and graphical pictures. It can often be difficult and challenging to improve upon my own writing abilities unless motived with an idea in mind. When looking back on my time at ASU, I thought about the goals that I wanted to address for myself and the course goals that my instructor had set for the class. These goals include ones that I had accomplished to the best of my ability and ones that I need to address as well as improve.

Thanks for responding to my post. You asked: “what is the best strategy to deal with the imposed assignment deadlines and reconciling the quality of your work?” One of my best practices in dealing with assignment deadlines is to have a plan and stick to it. For instance, getting started is the most difficult aspect of the process for me, at times there are roadblocks along the way, which is a time-consuming endeavor. However, by having a well-developed plan and a strong commitment, I persevere, I am motivated and dedicated to the process.

The process I used when writing previously changed during the first few weeks of this class. Already I have altered the way I write my drafts, and the way I read other people’s work. Lamott’s “Shitty First Draft” made me come to the realization that one draft isn’t always the best approach. Therefore, I took multiple steps in examining my draft and critiquing it accordingly. Additionally, I started brainstorming topics, and this led me to create a roadmap for the list of destinations and topics I wanted to touch on and the message I wanted the reader to take away. This is just the beginning of the year and I already have a sense that as I progress through the semester my work will be continually get better.

Reflecting at my own writing process and using my experiences as a way to shape my future practice as an English teacher, has brought light to the concepts of style, providing opportunities for multiple forms of writing, creating low-stakes writing opportunities, addressing authentic audiences, and establishing non-judgmental/safe space classrooms. Based on the theory that Milner et al. outline in the "Process Model," (2012, p.339) I would almost explicitly follow this pedagogy as a way to help students explore writing. For example, I would focus on the steps relating to revision (step 2), teaching multiple forms of writing (step 3), creating opportunities for teacher conferences (Step 4), and providing students with authentic, and divers audiences

I will start of with the style of papers I normally write. I usually prefer to write expository papers rather than narrative papers, as I am more of a factual kind of person. To put it another way, I am not really good at creative writing and I find it really hard to write story-based papers. Besides that, I do write e-mails to professors and friends every now and then. I also have a habit of taking notes in class and writing my own to-do lists. However, these types of writing didn’t really influence my writing style because I don’t normally abbreviate things when I write them whether or not it is formal or informal

As a writer there are many elements of writing that I struggle with, especially when composing an essay. When writing an essay, there are usually many skills that need to be used in order to be successful with the writing assignment. Many times in writing I struggle with explaining and fully developing the supporting details and ideas in my essay. I would also like to improve on incorporating clear topic sentences and concluding sentences, connecting my paragraphs ideas back to my thesis. Lastly, improvement can be made in my writing by avoiding awkward or wordy sentences. Writers face numerous challenges in their writing but strive to overcome or improve these challenges with each piece they write.

In my writing process, pre-writing was my initial step where I had to find the narrative to write. I had numerous stories in my mind, but I had to get the best, which draws inspiration to me, and the one that could teach valuable lessons to my audience. So, I had to refer from that childhood memory regarding the most significant narrative. However, I had to build up on the story. Therefore, I had to use the myth worksheet issued at class, to make sure that my story meets all the course requirements. Apparently, I had to make some changes (revise) the narrative, to deliver the most intended life lesson to my audience. That is when I decided to plan and structure on what to write down in particular.

My writing skills which I have worked on over the few months I have been in English 102 have changed quite a bit in my opinion. There are many things which I have improved upon that were amongst my weaker writing skills when the year began. On the opposite side of that point, there are also many things which I still need to improve upon if I want to truly elevate my writing to a level that I will be confident in. Finally, I have gained new skills outside of writing from this class, particularly the activities which we did in class at various points throughout the year. These things all cumulate together to give me an appreciation of English courses which I did not previously have.

During this semester, I have strengthened my writing by trying new writing techniques, learning about purpose, and finding new ways of combating writers block. My first essay in this class was less focused then the essays I wrote later in

Being in this class has helped me to progress in my writing by planning ahead; choosing a topic, get my ideas together to support my thesis, setting up time for free writing to help me start with my paper. Free writing has helped me to put my ideas on paper which it is less stressful when I am writing my first draft. According to professor Baxter, a good writer, need time for free writing and it is important that all writers get peer review so we can get feedback on base what we have on the paper to improve and make some changes. Setting time for revising has helped me to progress in my writing by acknowledging my own mistakes and getting assistance from SCAA. Base on professor’s comment I take more time to revising my paper to “avoid the

Throughout my time writing at the City College of New York, I experienced a slow and dramatic transition to my first semester of this college course. During that time, I've learned from several feedback and lessons from certain peers and my professor. Because of the strict comments written in my drafts by my professor, a few helpful suggestions to include in my writing, and a few miserably failures, I was able to see how my writing and habits have changed during the duration of this course. Back in high school, I was always comfortable writing only five paragraph essays (Introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion), but I've never expected to write something more complex. Here, I was encouraged to include as much detail as I can instead of writing something vague

Throughout this semester I learned a lot about writing essay. Before this course I knew only one style of essay, because in high school, I wrote essay only for Literature classes. In this class I found that writing could be structured in many ways. Moreover, all reading that I have helped me to think critically and analyze all information that I get. A large number of examples in these readings and my own experience in this course introduced me that sometimes people are getting mislead, because of misinformation or setting wrong belief into the reader. All of these I get from this class, including practicing writing in the formal style and improving my English.