Reflective Essay: What I Learned In My Writing

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.

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.

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.

This class has taught me things that may help my writing, and also things that I don’t find as useful. I thought practicing comma rules gave me a better understanding of punctuation, but I still don’t fully understand passive and active sentence structure. I’ve explored different ways to write a paper and realized my favorite is starting with an outline. I try to get all of my ideas organized where I want them before going in and writing pages at a time. I never found peer editing quite as useful, because a lot of times I don’t like having other students read my work. All of these examples have lead me to become the writer I am now compared to the beginning of the semester.

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.

Improving my writing has not been easily achieved, because the last six months have been some of the hardest I have experienced in a long time, they required me to make many sacrifices in my personal life. The two months that COMN 155 required were the most exhausting out of the three courses I took at SAIT, and with the help of wonderful instructors, many aspects or my writing improved gradually over time. From spelling, punctuation and word choice to complete understanding and reproduction of a text; ELF courses were the best decision I made to improve my skills.

Looking back at this year I know that developing my writing was something that was there but needed some improvement. When there were no teachers around to go over my writing I found websites that would correct my grammar and used that to my advantage. This would either make or break my writing because it could make it shorter or longer. My writing when there is a rubric to follow is great because I know what to follow but with reflections like these, it’s hard to develop good

I totally agree with what the author is saying in the text. It takes time to get a good product out even though we think some people are deep and wonderful they still have the same struggles that we have when it comes to writing. I like this text because it is realistic it is giving an account of first drafts from common day people and shows how it is even for professional writers have problems with. This point is important because as people we sometimes feel we are not as good or capable of doing something not realizing that the people we look up to have the same problems we do. Another point that I agree with the author on is that you have to start somewhere. Many times as writers we don’t know where to start when it comes to writing. That being said we will just sit and think for ten twenty minutes when we could've just been information on the paper and then editing it later. In addition I liked that the author used examples from his professional experience when it came to writing food reviews. By him using details like how he went to the restaurant and sat down with friends and took notes of what was said. This was good to me because it helps me connect with him and the things that he does to write his reviews.

All the outcomes are clear and I like how we are expected to reach them. I am a little bit scared with the grammar part and the specific skills that I should develop for this course. My writing skills are not the best’s, since English is not my first language. I love to read, and since I moved to US I started doing it in English. This is helping me to have a better understanding of the language, but I haven’t be paying attention to the writing. I hope to develop the good skills writing that are expected from me.

Before returning to college to finish my degree, I called myself a decent writer. Over the years, I have completed several reports, papers, and even charging documents that were used in courtrooms. Recent papers that I sent to Paperrator.com during this course came back with lackluster results, subsequently, this unit’s reading showed that my writing skills can and will improve. I typically write and organize my thoughts on paper before writing any documents of any length, which is one of the ideas in the reading. Now, I am learning to give a clearer thesis statement, record evidentiary statements about that thesis, and organize them for an effectively written paper.

This is assignment was one of the first writing assignments I have written since graduating high school in 2005. While writing this essay I learned several things about myself and become extremely excited when I learned I had earned 8 out of 10 points after submitting this assignment.

I tend to devote the most time to this step. Especially for grad program with extensive research, lots of research. Searching for resources and reading the references. Then, putting thoughts together and organizing them in the outline. Making introduction, stating the thesis, supporting text body and concluding the paper. Paying attention to detail and patience in this step does make it easier for me further in the process.

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.

Based on my previous English classes in high school, I expected this course to be an easy A class and a GPA booster with not a lot of work. In turn, this class challenged me to branch out from the basic five-paragraph-paper set up and to explore more of my major. Throughout high school, the bulk of my paper writing consisted of AP exam preparation in the structure of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I always believed this was how every paper for the rest of my life would be written and I was only prepared for that type of writing. The first semester of college I did not have to take an English course, so English 1120 with Dr. Crowell is my first experience of real college writing. I was taken aback by the discovery

Now that I am close to the end of this class I now format my paper very differently. I have grown very much into a better more mature writer. I am now more aware of the various techniques for writing and different styles for writing to keep progressing into a better writer. My style of writing will still be a little bit different but it will be a better different which means; I will have a quality assignments that will demonstrate that I have a better understanding of what is asked of me in the assignments I submit.