Reflective Essay: How My Writing Has Change

Over the course of this semester, I have improved as a writer. At the beginning, I would like to think I was fairly decent, but I didn’t have much experience in anything but English and the occasional history papers. This year was difficult, as it forced me to learn new ways of writing. As I got more comfortable, I clearly improved, with my writing and content improving. Essays like the Prairie Meadows scholarship and annotated bibliography were remarkably different than what I was used to, and I benefited from writing them. The beginning of this year, I wasn’t incredibly concerned with my sentence structure or the impact of the words I used. As I learned and wrote more, my sentences got more complex and I -for the most part- stopped using

Attached is my final project, a cumulative portfolio documenting my growth as a student and as a writer through out English 102. My English portfolio includes revised versions of my research paper, “Global Warming: Hot Topic” and essay “Blueprint Solution for the Poor,” along with the original drafts complete with red ink corrections. In addition, I am also providing this reflection essay demonstrating what I have learned this semester and how I have enhanced my original drafts. English 102 has taught me a number of things and has improved my writing skills. There are many things I have struggled with throughout the semester, but regardless, I have overcome most of my obstacles. Most of all, I have learned how to distinguish good sources from bad sources, how to better use citations, and how to properly develop a thesis.

Most of us were in a situation when we had to say: “I am not too good at it.”, or “I can try, but it is not my field”. For example, somebody will ask me to draw a picture of a cat. I will try. I have seen cats before, know how to operate a pencil, have a flat piece of paper. I am even passing by art gallery on the regular basis, on my way to work. But I still cannot be sure you will not mistake my picture of a cat for a picture of a tractor or an intergalactic battlefield scene. That is how I feel about assignment to write about my writing process. So far, mine I can divide in three steps.

Over the course of my studies at university, I have grown and learned more about academic writing and numerous writing styles. I believe there is so much room for me to master my writing skills to succeed and complete my degree and improve my academic writing and personal skills through more practice. However, I have become concerned with my first attempt submitting my piece of paper through the online test in the Writers’ Diet diagnostic tool and was labelled ‘flabby’ in my writing. Analysing my errors and referring to the textbook ’Communication Toolkit’ by Grellier and Goerke (2014), also submitting my piece of writing to Grammarly and paper rater I was able to measure my weakness in the area of sentence structure, punctuation and grammar.

This year, we have written several essays; all of which I have learned something new to help improve my writing. Looking back at my writing from the start of the year to now, I have encountered substantial improvements in my ability to form an effective introductory paragraph, my ability to use different types of phrases and my development of examples. “My Summer Reading Essay,” written earlier in the year, demonstrates my lack of knowledge on writing an introductory paragraph, using topic sentences and developing examples. However, since the beginning of the year, I have begun to see improvements in essays like “Major Works I” and the “Joe and Claire Narrative” that include more effective introductory paragraphs, the use of different types

When I confidently swaggered into this room on the first day, I was certain that I couldn’t improve any more than where I was at that time. On September 3, 2015, I thought that any piece I wrote would be deserving of a four. I was clearly mistaken. Reviewing the pieces written from September to now, it is difficult for me to process the fact that I was the one who wrote these seemingly mediocre stories and essays, and yet I thought they were excellent. The growth of my writing, along with all my language arts skills, has grown exponentially from September to now. This paper should be rewarded a four because my writing style has been enhanced, along with the vast improvement of my reading, speaking, and technological abilities, from all the

When I was younger creative writing was my strongest link, but as the assignments and requirements grew harder I lost my touch and began to struggle. After taking both English courses I can definitely say that it has helped me grow as a writer and as person. Before entering English courses I knew very little about writing. In my high school classes, I was taught how to write but was never taught how to do correct formatting, citing, and did not know the importance of writing in general. Thankfully, after getting my feet wet, I learned as much as I possibly could so that I could be knowledgeable for future assignments, and now I understand how important everything having to do with writing is. My two college English courses have taught me more than I learned throughout my four years in high school.

There a lot that changed when I left high school and on was my process on how I write essays now that I’m in college. I put more time and effort into them, I don’t wait till the very last minute to start working on them. My essays have been getting better, but they still need work. I need to stay more organized and focused on the things I need to do and get it done on time. When I’m stuck I ask for help from a teacher, a friend, or anyone that is willing to help. With all this I feel my essays with greatly improve more the more I work on

At the beginning of eighth grade I wasn’t prepared to write an essay because the concept was a little new to me since I haven’t always been the most efficient learner. Getting to the end of the year in eighth grade I had improved my vocabulary, and the way I organize my body paragraphs. During the first quarter of my freshmen year writing essays still took getting used to, which meant I was gonna be challenged. As time went

Throughout this semester there are many skills that I have noticed have improved through the constant writing of essays for this class. The one that I find most noticeable is a habit I had long struggled with which was essentially my tendency to be over necessarily wordy when writing my essays. I believe that I was able to somewhat fix this subconsciously, just by knowing that I was no longer in high school, and could no longer get by with just attempting to fill up my word count. I also believe I have greatly improved in my topic selection. In high school I would throw caution to the wind and just pick whatever topic came to mind just in an effort to get it done. I have been much more calculated in college, and I believe that it has helped me write better essays. While these were the

When it came to the essays writing became a little trickier because I had to understand what it was I needed to write about and the style in which I need to write it in. There are nine essay writing methods which I learned while attending this course: exemplification, compare/contrast, cause and effect, proposal, narration, process, division/classification, definition, and argument. The only problems I encountered when trying to write the essays that were assigned to me by the instructor was finding suitable subject matter to write about. Once I found my topics for my essay, everything else became easier. I would first produce a rough draft and then the students, the instructor, and myself would go over them in class and decided if what I was writing was in its best form. Most of my rough drafts needed improvement, but if it didn’t it wouldn’t be a rough draft, so it was understood. My final drafts were very satisfying for me as well as the grades I received on them.

English has always been one of the classes I have struggled with. I used to get low 80’s after writing what I thought was a good essay. I would struggle to get B’s in middle school because of it. Then I got into highschool and had you for a teacher. I started to get 85’s and 89’s and occasionally a low 90 on essays. During my freshmen year my writing improved greatly; however, this trimester has been even more beneficial than my first class with you as a teacher. This trimester has shown me various amounts of ways to write an essay. Whether it's expository, persuasive, or narrative. I learned the differences between them and achieved the ability to write an essay with them all.

Before entering into this class, I thought that I had an adequate skill in writing essays. However, as I started writing papers for this class I began to notice that my ability to write an essay needed a great deal of improvement. At the beginning of the class I was not even able to distinguish the difference between editing and revising, however, I soon learned the difference. Throughout my learning experience this semester I have been able to gain valuable knowledge on how to revise my essays and this newfound knowledge helped me learn how to use revision techniques to improve my essays.

I do not like writing, I do not like proofreading, and I most certainly do not like time consuming projects. Those were my thoughts at the beginning of the semester. I have never written about something that I truly care about, I did not realize the power of a voice. Writing and Argument has pushed me to find my voice as a writer and has showed me that there is more to a paper than the requirements.

Reading and writing has always been one my strengths throughout high school. With every english course I’ve taken, there have been multiple writing assignments that are assigned with instructions different from the last. For example, coming from a regular english class with a standard curriculum to a college class that has very high expectations, was an extreme wake up call for me but I was ready for the challenge. Growing up with writing skills that seem reasonably natural, I have always been able to write an essay a day or two before the deadline. When I realized that taking composition meant longer papers and higher standards, I was forced to work more diligently on my papers and learn how to critique every error or attribute. The more essays I wrote during this course, the more it allowed me to obtain a better understanding of how important it is to plan or re-read my work in order to receive the grade I wanted. This semester, I overall altered my procrastination habits, improved upon my proofreading and editing skills which lead to knowing how to properly writing a five-paragraph essay.