Reflective Essay On My Writing

I think I’ve done more writing this year than I have in the last 4-5 years combined, perhaps even since high school. I don’t remember any significant writing projects I did K-12 except for a term paper on postpartum depression and some occasional poetry. At this point in my life when I really do need the writing skills, I regret not taking papers seriously or appreciating the art of good written communication. Writing objective papers has not been a problem since the layout is simply good logic and researching reliable information. There isn’t pressure to keep your audience’s attention by painting a mental image to get the reader immersed. Even with this journal entry, I’m not anxious about capturing the reader as these are simply my thoughts as they come to me while I type.

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

I would like to think that I had some significant growth as a writer in my first semester as a college student. My rhetorical analysis essay, persuasive essay, and reflective analysis essay were all very different from each other in how I approached them and felt about them, but each one helped me grow as a writer in different ways. The rhetorical analysis was my first college essay so I felt some extreme self-imposed pressure to do well on it. I really enjoy writing persuasive essays because it causes you to form your own opinions and support them with evidence. My least favorite essay would most likely have to be the reflective analysis essay. I absolutely despise sharing my thoughts and emotions with people, let alone writing them. Beginning the essay was extremely difficult for me. However, I did found it to be the easiest essay to write once I had all my ideas gathered together. The point is, these three essays all had their pros and cons to them, but nonetheless, they each helped me grow as a writer in their own way, which helped me reach many of the stated outcomes for this class. This paper examines some of my work in these essays and describes how I was able to reach some of the course objectives.

Three aspects of my writing I wish to improve are grammar, punctuation, and flow or order. These issues have affected my ability to get my point across, and it has also made what I was trying to say mean something totally different. When the flow or order of my writing is wrong it also makes people stop reading what I wrote or not understand what I am saying. The way I plan on to fix these issues is by more practice. I learn better my doing it not by reading or watching someone teaching me. I know my writing has improved since the job I have I have to write more letters to customers and I have my boss look it over before I send it. By doing this he shows where I can improve by adding items or removing items from the letter. By taking this

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

Although writing papers usually comes easily to me, I found it particularly difficult to write this paper. At first I found it difficult to begin the paper. I struggled to organize my ideas in the beginning. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. Being restricted to only two pages, I struggled to say everything I wanted to say in a short and succinct manner. By the time I wrote all my own original ideas down, I didn’t have any room left for quotes. Only having two quotes in my paper hurt my grade because I did not have enough textual evidence. Every time I tried to add a quote, my paper went over the two page limit. I also struggled finding quotes that supported what I wanted to say. In the future, I need to do a better job finding textual

With what knowledge I have about writing, I feel like it needs improvement. I feel like I am so far behind with the knowledge of writing from other people. When I have a subject to write about I end up drawing a blank on how I should start out the paragraph. I will over think everything to where it gets to the point that I get so frustrated that I just want to quit.

Writing is a fun process that can be done by almost anyone because you can develop your own style or type of writing. There is not a set structure that you have to follow while writing, making every piece as unique as a butterfly. These past few weeks of writing have made me notice a few different writing techniques and methods that almost trademark the style of my writing. One thing that struck me as odd about my own writing was that I start with the climax of the a story. Another distinction I found was that I tend to change the story and cut phrases out more than i write. The third thing I discovered was that writing a fictional story is smoother for me.

The challenging component this semester, was the transitioning part from high school level english and writing to college level. High school writing did not have many expectations, its main focus was on the ideal five paragraph essays. As compared to college, writing is mainly geared and focused on one’s ability to thoroughly answer the prompt. However, I quickly adjusted to the change. In English 10, I have learned many valuable elements that I can incorporate in my everyday writing. I have chosen to include my writing from project 1 “Why English 10” and project 2 a rhetorical analysis on, “Black Lives Matter. These works effectively demonstrates my growth as a writer.

The challenging component this semester was transitioning from being a high school level writer to a college-level writer. However, English 10 has by far been my best experience in writing. By taking this course I have retrieved many helpful elements, that will help me be a successful writer throughout college. In high school, essays often gave me anxiety and stress, however, when taking English 10, I was able to learn to enjoy the process and the art of writing purposefully and mindfully. Even though I have taken advanced placement English courses in high school and have taken a practice run of college level English over the summer with Professor Brenda Venezia, I was still able to get a lot more out of this course. To showcase my progress in this course, I have included my essay from project 2 a rhetorical analysis titled, “Black Lives Matter!” and a research essay from project 3 titled “Why is Racism dangerous?”, which effectively demonstrate my growth as a creative writer, reader, and thinker.

This class has made an immense contribution in my writing journey. Taking this course has brought me out of my comfort zone and made me immerse myself in a variety of essay topics I was not familiar with. This was all new territory for me, but I’ve managed to get through it and along the way I learned new techniques and writing styles. With the help of the Writing Hub, instructors and my peers I managed to grasp a great deal of information on ways to improve on my writing. They all helped me along the process of writing all three of the writing assignments.

In Composition I, I learned more about writing than I have in all of my high school career. Not only did I learn about fallacies, expletives, and other smaller details, I also gained knowledge over summarizing, plagiarism, and how to create a writing process in which I would be successful in the class. By taking Composition I, I was able to learn how to support a thesis statement with appropriate evidence, how to summarize, paraphrase, and quote correctly, and how to develop a writing process.

The expectations required from a college student in writing requires more critical thinking and more in depth compared to a junior high paper. Transitioning from a grade school to a college student in writing is very limited. Therefore, in order to understand the necessity of a true college essay, I would have to learn the importance of “providing specific methods and techniques to introducing, explaining, and integrating other voices with their own ideas” (Miles). In English 5A, professor Michael Maniquiz introduces the writer’s main purpose by utilizing class discussions to help identify the writer’s voice, thus that helps me as a student understand the writer’s purpose in order for myself to respond back to the text. In English 5A, the rational lists the order of expectations that will enable to offer many opportunities to gain valuable knowledge in academic writing. Entering the course I was prepared to use basic skills I have used in high school, but instead, I learned how powerful literature and language can be. Over the course the resource has helped embraced my academic writing.

Teachers in high school were constantly trying to tell you how to write their way and perfect what they thought was good writing. Little did I know everyone’s writing style is good in its own way. This academic writing class proved to me that no writing style is right or wrong, but instead all writing styles have their own uniqueness and character to them. After reading the assigned articles and analyzing the writing process and other topics discussed in this class, I now see writing as an extraordinary process that is different for everyone. After writing papers and getting feedback, I saw where my writing lacked solid evidence in my rhetorical analysis paper, and I also found certain ways I can write more efficiently in my process

Since I have been in school, English and Writing has always been my least favorite subject. English has just never been as easy to me as it is for some other students. English is the subject that I continue to make the least grade in every year and struggle to improve in. This year, The Dual Credit course has really taught me a lot. College-level writing is very important to me because it is preparing me for the real world. Evidence from three of my EN 1113 papers this semester suggest that I've made great progress in is identifying author's purpose, organizing my paper, and gaining a better understanding of how my introductory paragraph is supposed to be. Reading through these papers, I'm stilling working on improving my knowledge of conventions.