Reflective Essay On Reflective 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.

Writing is a practice that most of us were taught when we were young. We were taught the basics of grammar, how to form a sentence, conjunction words, how to write paragraphs and more. Although we have learned this skill while growing up and have used the skill every year after entering kindergarten, this does not mean our writing process will ensure the best work. The authors that I chose each encourage their audience to excel in the art of writing in their own way to help with the writing process.

Upon entering English 111, I knew I would be writing papers. However, I did not anticipate how much room I had for improvement. Throughout this term I have been enlightened with so much knowledge that I may have forgotten or have been exposed to for the first time. Certainly, my experience with essay writing has been solidified due to newfound knowledge of proper work citing, MLA standards and the steps of planning an essay. Perhaps, my time away from a learning environment slowed me down a bit, other times I feel as though I have an advantage due to life experience. An online environment has certainly been challenging but throughout the course I have provided solid work and consistent grades commendable of an A grading.

Writing influences the way humans communicate. Good writing skills are essential in the working world and it’s important for our own self. The love for writing creative stories that engage the reader personally feels like an impossible task. After thirteen years of English I’ve realized that English does not come easy to me. It’s important to note that my writing skills have improved over the years. Going into my first year of college, I was nervous. I knew that my writing needed improvement. During my first semester of college, I was able to take the WAC 101 class. This class not only improved my writing, but it also encouraged me to start reading again. I look at reading as a task instead of a hobby, but I know that it can progress toward something that I like to do on my free time. WAC 101 is a class that helps develop a student’s writing skills. To measure the progress, outcomes in different areas of writing are reflected upon.

I have always prided myself on my thoughts and ideas; it is my ability to convey those thoughts through writing, with which I struggle. In highschool I managed to get by fairly well in my English class. We were primarily graded on reading comprehension, and so my poor writing skills had little opportunity to negatively impact my grade. I did not find this to be so in Writing 100, however. It quickly came to my attention that I would need to improve my writing if I wished to do well. I realized that in order to improve my writing, I would need to fix one of my worst qualities as a writer: my tendency to begin writing without properly understanding the prompt. This past semester in Writing 100 I have made an effort to fix this, and it has led me to become more intentional of the purpose of my essays, which, in my opinion, has helped highlight an intellectual depth that my work was incapable of displaying before.

     One of the techniques I am going to use through out college is talking to

One component I appreciated was peer review and editing sessions prior to due dates. These sessions are beneficial and reliable because instead of rereading my essays multiple times, having other classmates read my essays allows me to comprehend different perspectives and find more improvements. One negative component was the way the material was presented during each lecture. Personally, I would like to understand the requirements and to be provided with examples of the assignment beforehand and add adjustments along the way, rather than providing us with the information while working on the assignment and being uncertain. However, this issue is minor and can be sufficed. The course, First Year Writing II, was presented and taught well

Writing has been a challenge for me. After reading the feedback you gave me for my essays, I realized how bad my writing was. While reading my journal, I found the following note: “I was able to summarize and to point out the main ideas of what the authors were trying to say”. Obviously, I did not know how to incorporate those ideas to my argument. Analyzing the articles I was reading and using evidence to support my argument was an issue as well. I struggled with the structure & organization of my essays and making my paper longer. My paragraphs were disconnected, and I had trouble establishing my thesis. I had lot of work to do so that my portfolio revision could be at least, acceptable. To write a better essay, I had to understand what the authors were trying to say and the only way I could understand these articles was by annotating. We talked about this technique in class at the beginning of the semester. And to be honest, I did not use it until now. My first attempt of writing the conversation paper was a complete disaster. My writing was confusing, and my ideas were vague. How could I write a good paper if I had no idea what the authors were trying to say?

Before I came to college, I felt my writing had to follow a certain pattern and be fixated around one way of thinking. What I was fortunate to learn was quite the opposite. Writing does not have to follow any certain pattern, but can rather be structured through many different possibilities. I was also told in high school that my papers either had to agree or disagree with the given topic, even if I believed otherwise. This formulated a very one-track way of thinking when it came to my papers. Now I know that I can let my mind explore new and exciting ideas. I can agree, disagree, compliment, criticize, and question the author however my heart desires, as long as I have the evidence to back myself up. Many authors in the book, Writing About Writing, explain their processes as well as the processes of others when it comes to writing. As a writer, I can draw on my own processes and relate them to the authors, as well as use their ideas and apply them to myself. Through reading, I have learned new methods of invention, planning and revising, and incubation when it comes to writing. All ways I can use to create more meaningful and creative work.

Preparing for my final year of high school, relief and enthusiasm poured over for the idea of the pain and suffering of assignments ending in one hundred and eighty days. However, I never would have imagined growing academically, especially in my writing, over the course of just one semester. Reflecting back on the first few assignments in Expository Writing, they were tragic. A mess is the easiest explanation of their composition. Entering this course, a goal of simply wishing to finish each paper was sadly set, but it became evident that if I put my heart into the writing and took my time that some wonderful pieces could be produced. Over the course of the semester, I learned how to make my writing more formal, how to integrate and embed quotes, as well as learning how to writing multiple drafts with self and peer editing.

In my early childhood, I went to John Bayne Elementary a school where expressing yourself was like screaming to a soundproof window. Even though, there were a couple teachers who actually cared and didn’t come every other friday and have the smell of there brand new check coming later that day. When I was in 6th grade, my teacher Mrs. Middleton was teaching a new concept on writing, a topic i was actually really familiar about. A topic where if i would began to write all of the truth from my lips will unapologetically spill on the paper. This topic was a concept people use the very most to let anger out, to be heard and just because teachers would say we have to match each and every other word with a rhyme people would think that they are rappers. The topic i am expressing is poetry, a lauryn hill type poetry, a maya angleou type poetry. In one of my classes, after a day of just a lesson based upon different types of poems, this would be the first time i would be able to express myself on paper without anyone with a red pen who would come and scratch words off because of “grammatic error”. When all i want to say to that pen was “I ACTUALLY MEANT WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ERASE AND FIX!” This day was free writing, words didn’t have to match unless people who wasnt really good at writing, that was a way they can help there poem go into length and meet the right stanza we had to reach. This day was the day poetry became my light in a dark place. But, this was not the day where i

As a young girl, I loved to write and read books, middle of junior high school was when I lost my touch with writing. Before Writing 1100 I hated writing, it was one of the things I used to hate the most. That was mainly because I had a tough time putting my thoughts into a paper. Although I felt that writing wasn't my best subject, I still use to get okay grades on essays I was assigned back in junior high and high school. Things changed for me when I had two writing classes in college, I realized I was not a good writer. I knew I was not good at writing when I had to take a remedial writing class my first semester of college. Writing in the Public Sphere 1100 changed how I feel about writing, Although, in this course, it was a lot of stress and excessive assignments I can say that having all of the writing assignments helped me with improving myself as a writer. My skills with MLA formatting, citing and analyzing readings have improved. I also learned how to summarize well. In this course I have written six journals, two essays, a research paper, and some free-writes. Now that I am creating this portfolio, Reflecting on my writing now, I would say that the there was a lot of work assigned, and these assignments were somewhat repetitive and that’s why my skills have gotten better because I didn't lose touch of the skill I was taught for this course.

On June twelfth, I started a journey of enlightenment I didn’t realize I needed. I had signed up for this class purely to graduate college. I didn’t care about my writing ability, or lack thereof it. But, very quickly I realized something; I needed to better my writing ability. My whole educational career I had skated on by with the bare minimum amount of work; I very rarely took pride in my writing, nor did I feel it necessary to better myself. As this summer semester progressed though, there was a quickly developing realization that I was afraid, and also lacked general knowledge, of proper punctuation. You forced me to challenge myself and become a better writer, and while in the moment I hated you for that; I truly am thankful that I am leaving college with confidence in writing for the first time in my life.

I’ve always considered myself a skilled writer until quite recently. But I came to a rude awakening when I realized that attending honors and accelerated English classes meant nothing on its own. Finding myself making embarrassing grammatical errors and noticing that my arsenal of sophisticated

When I was began signing up for my classes this summer, College Comp was the class I was most worried about. Although many find writing papers to be relatively easy, I have never been that good at it. Writing has just never come easy to me, and because of this I always tend to overthink, and procrastinate every single detail that I put into any of my papers, rather it be a personal paper or paper I have to do a ton of research on, I always tend to get extremely distracted and lose my focus no matter how far along into the paper I have gotten. In high school I spent a lot of my time trying to become a better writer, and with lots of practice and paper writing, I soon began to see a change in my writing style, and a noticeable difference in the grades I was getting. Even though my writing had gotten better, I was still not a big fan of it. The closer the first day of my college semester got, the more stressed I became. This class was definitely not the hardest class I was taking, but it was the one I was the most worried about.