Reflective Essay: Why I Need To Reread My Writing

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.

A person communicate different variety of ways, both verbally and non-verbally. Primates and other animals have been communicating without the use of language since long before humans invented verbal communication. Some scientists believe that even today, most communication between humans is non-verbal. Both types of communication differ significantly between genders and across cultures.

In my writing assignments, I found that I am good at organizing my thoughts and notes in an appropriate way, also going back and revising my mistakes along the way. In my future writing assignments, my goal is to make sure that I know how to start my writing properly and taking extra time to proofread the whole assignment.

What I learned this week from reading is to look at my writing situation and focus on the key elements (like purpose of your writing and the audience). I also have a habit of overthinking what to write and it sometimes takes me longer with writing which results in errors. I am learning to just write and go back and proofread my writing. If I have second doubts about my writing I will ask someone else to review it. When writing you has to discover your purpose and what you would like to accomplish in writing. Also know who your audience is; when writing a paper a person must know the audience that they are writing for.

My Writing Process The writing process has always been a challenge for me. Especially if it has a due date. In the past, I have always procrastinated the process and that never ended well. I knew something had to be done and I needed to come up with ways to make

Starting a piece of writing has always been tough for me. There are times when I have spent an hour trying to figure out how I should start my writing. Now that's partly because of procrastination but main due to the fact that the intro to any piece is writing, in my opinion, is the most important aspect of any form of writing.

Essay have never been my strong suite. This semester however, my writing ability has improved. My progress is evident when I look over my assignment five essay and see the mistakes highlighted. These mistakes are what I now look for while editing my work. I am still improving with every piece of writing I create, but I revise differently by looking specifically for my weaknesses. I have been successful in my attempts because I do not make the same mistakes as I used to. I now use more resources than I previously did to embellish my writing process. The combination of these changes has greatly improved my final pieces of writing.

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.

After looking over my recent GRW essay and the comments made on it by professor Prud’homme, I have concluded my work could be significantly improved with further revision prior to submission. I need to be more careful when editing my writing and possibly read it backwards to make sure I'm not overlooking simple errors. Through improving my editing and reviewing process I also think it will help to identify sentences needing further clarification. By acknowledging these weaknesses in my writing process I strongly believe it will lead to improvement in my overall writing abilities on future assignments.

Most of our writing process are the same since most of us are brought up with common teachings of how to write. I don’t quite consider myself using a normal process. As I switch up how I do things to keep from a sort of, monotony, of writing the same exact way over and over. Generally speaking I start off with the main topic of the essay, the intro and closing, complete rough draft, talking it over aloud throughout, then lastly revisions before turning it in.

"A writer is simply a photographer of thoughts." -Brandon A. Trean I relate to this quote by Brandon A. Trean because to me photography and writing are sort of similar. There can be a 100,000 meanings and things going on in a photo as there can be on a page. Writing and pictures capture moments and feelings that can make the person reading or looking feel as if they were at that place and feeling those emotions, that's why I enjoy writing.

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?

Throughout my time in this course, I feel my writing skills have improved tremendously. I am now more capable of composing more organized, grammatically correct, and cohesive essays. In addition to acquiring many important writing skills during this course, I also learned how to write an MLA formatted essay. The many assignments requiring MLA format helped me to learn this skill, including the reflective essay, profile essay, MLA quiz, annotated bibliography, and the research paper. As a writer now compare to in the beginning of this course, I feel like I have a better understanding of how to structure an essay and how to properly write essays in a timely manner. The more essays I completed, the easier it became to effectively structure and make my essays sound as fluid as possible.

Writing and I have always had a, what I would consider, a fairly complicated relationship. I have always dreaded writing assignments, yet those assignments reflect most accurately my understanding of the subject. Most of the time, I would greet a writing assignment with a sigh or an eye-roll. Whether it

Changes in technology and society have changed and will continue to transform the ways in which we think and communicate. Students must be ready for the new demands (Dixon, Cassady, Cross & Williams, 2005). In society, English forms the foundation for effective communication. Academic success requires writing skills (Castek et al, 2007). Writing is hard work; individuals think it is better to talk than write. Social and psychological factors such as social status, background, and age affect writing skills (Reeves & Stanford, 2009). Edwards-Groves (2011) rants that students must be taught the writing process. This will help students write in any situation. Writing should not be confined to just English classes but across all disciplines. Anecdotal evidence suggest students and faculty believe that learners improve their writing skills and subject area knowledge in writing across the disciplines (Hartley, Howe & McKeachie, 2001). All disciplines have their own form and conventions. If students are going to become better writers, they must write on a regular basis.