Reflection Essay : How I Never Learned In My Writing

This semester has impacted me and my writing abilities greatly. I feel I have improved in all aspects of writing. Throughout High school writing was never my preferred subject, but after taking this class I have developed an interest in writing and no longer look at it as a chore, but more as a method to express myself.

Everybody has their own methods for writing; however, I believe there is always room for improvement. Chapter 3 in Everyone’s an Author has shown me that writing involves processes that need to be mastered through constant practice. It also revealed helpful tips on how to develop writing processes that can help write effective papers.

In the beginning of the semester, everyone was write down two goals that would be accomplished in the semester. Experience in writing papers showed me that I was weak in writing any type of papers. However, I was determined to stop repeating idea by rewording as well as writing information that is unnecessary. Also, I knew I had to improve on writing essays with no to very few mistakes, whether it is structurally or punctually. I am pleased with discontinuing any repetitions while writing, but am not so pleased about structuring and punctuating my sentences.

When writing, I have started to look at my writing in different ways. When I finish writing my papers, I look back at it and re read it out loud to try to find any

I have written many different types of papers for all of my classes throughout high school. For my science classes, I have written several labs in the form of essays. Writing the essays was different for me because I did not really know that science had much to do with writing. It took me a while to gather all the information I needed to finish my lab assignments. Writing lab reports will definitely help me in my science courses in the next four years.

Although I can explain this in a very short way, the goal of this assignment is to elaborate on our experiences with writing and reading papers. The first paper I ever wrote was in middle school, and I plagiarized the majority of it, which many people do

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.

Today I look at my identity and I am a whole different person when it comes to writing. I take my time. If I don’t like something I take the time to fix it by deleting and retyping until it sounds the way I want it to. I no longer settle for an “okay” paper. I want every time I write

know now that the proper way to write a paper is to take it in stages. I learned that if I

     When writing a paper it can be very difficult unless you break it up into sections. When I had to write my first paper I felt like a man on a desert island all alone without a clue on how to do anything. But with the help of a few teachers they taught me how to survive on the island of writing papers. What the teachers taught me was that just like everything in life it needs to be taken in steps. The steps they taught me still apply to the papers I write to this day.

My writing process has drastically changed in the last few months. I am at a point where I still make mistakes, but the fear is gone. Currently coming out of WAC101. The most important thing I have taken away was to write often and then rewrite. This has been extremely beneficial in helping my comfort level, approach, and process to writing. Before I started that class I had a fear to write with constantly questioning every sentence I jotted down, asking myself is it good enough? What will someone say about that? Now, I feel I have the ability to write to a few different audiences with structure and substance. Not saying I am an amazing writer now because I am still far from good.

I think self-reflection, or a careful cogitation of one’s personal work, is very important. It will help me think about my strengths and weaknesses in my writing skills and learning process, so that I can improve my weaknesses in the future and become a better writer. I believe, I have many strengths and many weaknesses that can be seen transparently through my drafts, revisions, and final essays, or writings, this semester. My overall strength includes the ability to pick out good examples from articles and the ability to construct good development of my body paragraphs after my revisions. On the other hand, my overall weakness includes having some unclear explanation of thoughts, unclear topic sentences, confusing thesis statements, having undefined terms, difficulties transitioning from one idea to another. I have learned that to have a good essay, I must revise my papers more than once because there are always flaws that can be fixed or improved. My writing process has evolved from having difficulties writing down or explaining my thought process to being able to explain and clarify examples to help support my thesis statement.

Prior to Composition I, I felt very uneasy about my writing ability. My high school’s English classes were very focused on literature rather than writing. This was quite concerning for me because I knew that my writing techniques and essays needed to be top-notch when applying to prestigious colleges. Before Composition I, I did not fully understand how to utilize commas and periods. I consistently was writing with run-on sentences. My first paper in Composition I, “The Falling Man” is a prime example of this. This paper was an evaluative essay and in my first paragraph I stated, “However, he is acknowledged as one of the trapped victims on the upper floors of the skyscraper who had two options- to fall searching for safety or jump to escape the massive amounts

Over the eighth grade year, I have learned to effectively use feedback and reflection skills to strengthen my writing. These writing processes taught me to include peer and teacher feedback along with self-reflection to earn a better grade on my writing pieces. In the beginning of the year, I would simply complete the drafts my teacher assigned. Proof of my original writing process is shown in the essay, titled One Necessity of a Hero: Personal Sacrifice, in which it reflects on the Thematic Unit. To demonstrate my poor writing process, a segment of my original introduction stated, “After analyzing documents from The Hobbit Thematic Unit, I discovered that the principles of heroism involve personal sacrifice. I also learned that a hero is

Over the past few months, I have learned several different writing techniques. While all of the different types of papers were difficult to write, I believe that my writing skills have improved. In fact, I did not understand all of the assignments, but I did try to do my best on all of them. While I should have used more transitional words in between sentences and paragraphs, I feel that I learned a great deal. It is true that I have not had very much writing experience and the writing process is difficult for me. Sometimes, I do admit, it takes days to complete one assignment, but it will be worth it when I am a proficient writer.