Reflective Essay-Style Writing Class

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 can honestly say, my writing skills have never been good, and taking this class has challenge me to grow in my writing by teaching me different writing techniques. This class has helped me in so many ways, not only has it thought me how to format and essay, but it showed me how to write my ideas and explore my options. I know that what I learn from this class will help me in my future, when writing letters, emails, and even my resume. I also really like that it gave me a My writing lab, which really helped me work on my grammar. My suggestion for future students who take this class, read all the resource the teacher gives you, as well as take time to read the books. Find a place where is nice and quiet, where you can let all your ideas flow

One whole semester has come and gone and have completed my first college writing class. Writing has always been a struggle of mine in school. I never thought my writing was good enough compared to the awesome essays from my peers. I would solely write to just complete the assignment instead of truly diving deep into the content I was writing about. However, from the beginning of this course I have been pushed to enhance my writing beyond the point of completing the assignment. I began to write for myself instead of writing for school. Throughout the past semester I have not only learned how to enhance my sentences and evidence in a meaningful way, but also how to add my own voice into the subject at hand.

Over the semester the semester i have felt like i have grown in my reading and writing abilities. This class has been a great refresher for me and it has help me remember things that i have seen in years. I have never been a good writer, but after this class i feel a little more confident in my writing ability. I can now form better sentence and make my papers flow a little better.

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.

First, I would like to mention that English is not my first language and so in every English class I take, I learn a lot on how to improve my writing. In this technical writing class I was able to take away some useful pointers on how to better my writing style. The assigned writing assignments such as the proposal, instructions, and job application helped me analyze my audience and write to my targeted audience in a clear and an effective way.

Imagine writing a ten-page essay on something you feel very strongly about, then being told you have to reduce the size of your essay to only two pages. While this may seem like an easy task, I have learned from experience that while writing is difficult, taking away from my writing is much more complicated. I have spent hours writing, my brain is tired, but I read my completed project, and am proud of what I have accomplished. Then, out of nowhere, I realize that I am only allowed two pages out of the ten I have just completed. At first, I panic, thinking, “What am I going to do? I have worked so hard on this and now I must delete most of it!” I reluctantly trudge forward, reading my essay and trying to figure out what to remove and what

This course has helped me excel in my writing technics. I have learned many skills that will help me in future college writing assignments. The course goal enabled me to focus on what was important for writing a successful essay. Some of the skills I learned are writing for different audiences and genres, using evidence critically to support arguments, composing in multiple forms of media, and using appropriate writing processes both individuals and collaterally. As I have reached many of parts of these goals I do have a few areas that I could still improve upon, one being critically reading and interpreting evidence.

To be completely honest my writing is average, maybe below average. I never really took writing seriously and that could be justified by simply reading my essays. Growing up my writing was decent nothing spectacular, until I reached high school I realized my writing sucked. I’m an average writer, I have had many negative and positive experiences with my writing, more negative than positive if you’d ask me.

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.

Although I only took this class because it was a requirement, I am glad I took it. This class has helped me better various parts of my writing and what is needed to successfully write an essay. After reading the first chapter of “Writing for success,” the strategies given have shown me some starter points and new ways of approach, to properly prepare for my essay. The chapter talked how I can plan my time better to read lengthy reading materials, and how to most efficiently organize my notes, so I have a less difficult time to properly organize my essay. With the help of this chapter I

Writing wasn’t exactly my strongest subject. In fact, compared to the more technical subjects that I often excelled at, writing was a relatively weak subject. Rarely would I score very well on my essays in high school. However, my approach to writing changed forever after taking College Writing R1A. One semester of writing several essays over a myriad of topics was all I needed to refine my writing techniques. Although numerous prior habits I had with writing changed over the span of fifteen weeks, there was one reform that was absolutely monumental: Altering my approach to revision. In high school, my approach to revision was just completely off. I took writing too mathematically and logically; my writing seemed fine unless pointed out otherwise, and I never made changes to the essays unless a comment was explicitly written in that section. As a result, I could never understand why I scored so consistently low on my essays in High School Language Arts class. There was obviously something wrong with my writing, but that problem would not be rectified until my first semester of college.

I can remember waving goodbye to my parents in the Abner’s parking lot after I had completed the dreadful day of moving into my dorm. Since I am in the FastTrack Program, I was able to move in two days earlier before the real madness started. I can remember complaining to my mother about having to retake Writing 101 my first semester because I had already done that in high school and I thought it was pointless, but I was extremely wrong. Throughout this year writing has taught me more about life than just throwing some words on a piece of paper and hoping for a decent grade.