Reflection On Writing

Ever since I can remember, I’ve struggled with writing. It just wasn’t something that came natural to me and always resulted in a very uncomfortable process. Throughout this class, I have become more comfortable with writing and its components. Though, this is only writing 101, my skill level has increased immensely. Before starting this course, writing was uncomfortable and confusing, but towards the end, my knowledge has expanded and I can more comfortably take on the majority of writing assignments.

From the early beginning of the school year to the current day, my writing skills and knowledge have improved and broadened over time. If not drastic, the change is noticeable nevertheless. For almost an entirety of eighth grade, assignments of varying difficulty challenged me to a degree. To be frank, some seemed as though they were beyond my comprehension and ability. However, determination amalgamated with knowledge obtained in advance helped me to overcome my doubts, for I exceeded my expectations; surprisingly good grades and comments are a delight, owing to the fact of that I don’t tend to think of myself as being proficient at writing. Consequently, the assignments given to me this school year shaped me into who I am as a writer.

This semester of writing has been truly interesting for me. Being able to write within a topic that interests me has made the process more exciting and engaging. I can see this growth in my papers this semester, but I feel that other, perhaps, cannot. It is true that the mechanics of my writing have improved and I am more able to articulate my thoughts and position. However, the real improvement, that other may not see, has been in my self-esteem and confidence in my own writing skills. I chose my sixth writing assignment as my example of progress for a variety of reasons. The two most prominent reasons are that it is one of my later assignments, and, therefore, will represent the most recent evidence of my progress and that it received my highest grade of all of my assignments.

Entering college for the first time was nerve wracking for me. I knew I would be challenged academically at a new level, and didn’t know how to prepare for college courses to come. However, Writing 1310 and 1320 have greatly improved my writing skills. I’m more confident in my writing and have even used these skills in my other courses such as history and film and literature. Along the course of 1320, there were 3 writing assignments including an informative paper, an annotated bibliography with abstract, and an argument paper. The assignment that I was the most concerned about was the final assignment, the argument paper. We were to use the information in the preceding assignment, the annotated bibliography along with the abstract, and create a 1500 word argumentative essay in regards to an issue in our field of study. I’m currently

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.

I have never been an excellent student and perennially struggled with English, Math, and Science growing up. These subjects would cast a pall over my day and school work. Anxiety would well up inside of me which often resulted with me passed out across my desk sleeping through parts of class. When I would return home at day’s end, I rarely completed my homework. When I did try to complete homework, it often ended in tears of frustration or the hurling of a book across the room. Taking this class has helped to quell a portion of that anxiety and frustration. It was a grueling class, seemingly impossible at times, but taking this class has given me the confidence to know that not only can I finish the class if I work hard but can also excel! Writing is something that I will exercise throughout my college curriculum and my life. It will help to convey my ideas to the instructor, peers, bosses, and co-workers. In my college curriculum, it will also show my instructors that I’m learning the information provided and how to apply that knowledge appropriately. It will allow me to complete assignments, discussions, and reports, and I will also apply writing in basic communication when necessary.

After reading your essay, I think you did a good job on this assignment, especially on reasoning your proposition. I like your introduction paragraph the most. By narrating your personal experience with writing, you introduced your problem associated with writing that “writing only for assignments” and made a very good transition from your story to the proposition which clearly stated at the end of your first paragraph “Once I felt that what I had to say was meaningful…I started to enjoy writing more and more for the class”. As a reader, I was told what you are going to say at the next few paragraphs after reading your introduction paragraph and I expected you would say more about why you think that made you enjoy writing. But when I continued

I have been practicing on how to improve my writing over the past few weeks, which has taught me a great deal about writing. My teacher would like me to evaluate and explain my strengths and weaknesses in my own writing. This evaluation is in between my two essays. One on my own and another with my teacher's help. I have strengths and weakness in my introduction, body paragraphs ,and my conclusion.

During the semester, the class was assigned writing tasks that were intended to showcase our strengths and weaknesses in our writing. We were forced to think outside the box and expand on ideas in our readings. In the beginning of the semester, I was not certain what to except from this course. Writing has never been my strong suit, early in the semester I struggled with the writings. In high school, English class was not my favorite subject causing me to not gain the knowledge I should have, coming into this course with a poor knowledge about expository and narrative writing. Once I entered this course, the information that was received about expository and narrative writing helped me tremendously. I became accustomed to the new writing

Over the first and second quarters of Dual Enrollment English at Brooke Point High School, I have grown immensely as a writer. I learned a great deal about how to write a paper, as well as, about myself. In the beginning of this course, I felt as if my assignments were going to overwhelm me; I also felt apathetic about completing them. This led me to create my own personal agenda as to how I would complete my assignments. My plan was to overcome my weaknesses and enhance my strengths within the construction my essays, depth of paragraphs and overall assignments.

There was many steps that helped me improve in this class including drafts and peer-evaluation worksheets. Having a rough draft is one of the best ways to help me improve on my essays because it gives me a professional eye to see the problems that I’m not able to. Discussing the prompts of our essays had benefited me because it gave me a sense of direction of where I should start and another perspective. Peer-evaluation worksheets are also one of the great tools used to improve my writing because it gave me a different approach on my essay that is by peers. They wrote some particularly useful revisions I should make to increase the value of my writing. By having a rubric to follow as guidelines had immensely improved

In my ePortfolio, I have gathered a series of my writings that I have completed over the course of this semester. Overall in this entire course I have learned a great deal of material that has pushed me to become a better writer. From my past courses, I have noticed that I am not the strongest writer but I do try my best. With Professor Knox’s tough grading system, he has given me drive to bshow my potiential as a writer. I feel as if my knowledge has increased a significant amount on the following topics/concepts and I support each claim with the correlating artifacts 1) Writing process Artifact 1-Writing Log 3, (2) Discourse Community-Artifact 2 Assignment 2 Partner Review, (3) Rhetoric Artifact 3- Assignment 1, (4) Genre Artifact 4- Reading Notes Week 10; and (5) Critical Thinking, Reading, and Research—Artifact 5--Assignment 5. Every assignment has shaped me into a more developed writer and has prepared me more for ENG 280.

My writing looks like the game Tetris – I write according to how my ideas flow from my head to my paper. The English 1010 lessons are designed to impact my writing processes and since being in the course I have realized the importance of the process while preparing the paper. While I knew that practice and revisions were important to the writing process, the ideas of writing as inherently collaborative or as an extension of technology were not concepts that I had considered at length. For the assignment, I chose to record myself and reflect on my process. The observation of my writing process and decisions took place in an awkward way. I began sitting at my desk in my dorm with a black ink pen, wide-ruled paper, and the prompt of my essay. It took a good bit of time for the process to begin – all the distractions had to run out, frequent checks on social media, quick trip to the snack machine, and responding to text messages. Finally, it was time to start. I can begin. “Ok, outline” I said to myself. “What’s your main point?” And so, I started, pen to paper, writing the three main ideas I knew I wanted to cover in the paper. I did discover, however, that I scratch my head while I am thinking and as I write I would catch myself reading aloud.

In the following pages, I will be expressing the key points and lessons learned during the past seven weeks which had the most significant impact on my writing abilities. By the same token, I will give a brief description of how I utilized those lessons in the essays I will add to my writing portfolio.

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.