Reflective Essay Writing

During the beginning of the English 101 when we began the writing process: I thought at first that we spent too much time on our essays but I soon realized how important it was spending time on the essays to improve them . The revisions that my teacher and classmates made on my essays were truly helpful for me because it allowed me to better my writing. For every week in the entire course we went over the MLA formatting process, annotating, citing within the essay, and how to make the paper flow better. I had the most troubles in this quarter when I started writing some of my essays for my portfolio because I didn’t have a clue how to start them at first. After a while of brainstorming ideas and seeing examples the teacher

I discovered that nothing can be thrown together in a short amount of time no matter what it is, especially with me. With my first composing essay, I was beside myself. First of all, I insist on an absolute quiet surrounding when I write and preferably with no other humans interrupting my thought processes. While that never actually occurred, it may be the reason that my first essay lit up with blue-colored call out boxes in almost every sentence I carefully constructed. Once I began to go over the corrections, tips, and suggestions my instructor thoughtfully added to my essay, I realized how little I knew about the correct usage of simple words such as “that” and “which” and, how loosely I repeatedly used contractions when

From time to time we all hear that dreadful five letter word; “essay”. Even though I am sure that we would all like to delete the word from existence, unfortunately, it will go on being an annoying part of high school. Many students hear this word and immediately begin to worry about whether or not they have a sufficient amount of time to write it, or if they can even write an essay good enough to get an acceptable grade on it. They struggle with not knowing how to write an effective essay. Most students really struggle getting across the idea that they want to tell their readers. "When I came to write my first assignment, I cried," says Daphne Elliston (from essay writing trips you up). "I just didn't know what I was doing." The writing in

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.

Writing an essay has always been a difficult and tedious task in my opinion. The writing process I followed when creating the original assignment consisted of research, a rough draft, a small amount of editing, and a final draft. Researching the topic was the first step I took in writing my paper. I searched for credible and useful information that would have a positive effect on my essay. After gathering my information, I worked to create an outline that would assist in the organization and structure of my essay. I then used my outline to begin a rough draft by inserting research, as well as my own thoughts and ideas. After editing and revising my essay, I ended with a final draft. The editing done to the paper was basic and done solely by myself. I did not use any resources such as the writing center. Along with this, peer reviews were not helpful as my group did not strive to make any meaningful corrections or provide any constructive criticism. Because I had little corrections the amount of editing or revising done was limited. Throughout the duration of this class, the process in which I write an essay has changed.

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.

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.

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?

If there is anything that this class has taught me, it is that writing is more complex than I ever imagined. I have concluded that writing is like a cake- the good ones are creative with many layers. Coming from a small public school, I was raised on the five paragraph essay style. If you were to get a pile of my senior classes final research papers, it would be hard to tell them apart. We all wrote the same, and our style hardly changed from second grade on. Metaphorically speaking, we all created the same plain vanilla cake.

Writing, the bases of change around the world. People around the world use writing as a way to connect to others and to form a bond with others. I have learned what it takes to heighten my writing and create pieces of work that lays a template of my further growth. As I learned how to perform better on my reports than what I was previously able to do. Through each report I had continued to learn more about my shortcomings and had progressed to a beyond passable grade. It is because to my development that I can confidently say that I have reached all the needed criteria that is needed to pass GSW 1110.

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.

My previous experience in writing hasn’t been much. My first few years in high school I don’t remember writing any essays at all till I moved to a different high school in Battle Creek where I was starting my junior year and my English teacher had us write an essay on compare and contrast and I struggled with it. I started to dislike writing so much that I didn’t even try writing the essays so I had to repeat the English class. I always had trouble with putting things into detail and putting the essays together, never knowing how to start or how to end the essays. I took the same teacher and she saw that I was putting an effort into actually trying to write my essays so she helped me with my essays and made the essays seem easier to write.

Have you ever sat staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank document on your computer screen? I have and let me tell you it’s annoying, especially when you’re ready to get started. At that point I begin to realize that I probably should have prepared myself for this task better. Writing has and hasn’t always been my strong suit when it comes to academics. I say this has because when it comes to writing and I have taken an interest with the topic, everything just flows with ease. Then sometimes that leads to why I say it hasn’t always been my strong suit. There are times I come across an assignment and simply cannot come up with a single word to put on that blank piece of paper or computer screen. The furthest I’d get is my name and that clearly doesn’t say much. From the words of Allen Ginsberg, “To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” After reading this and thinking about Ginsberg’s message, I first think about what I want my voice to say in my writing and then I think about the concept of writing as a whole.

Before this semester, my essay writing would have been considered rather poor. This was because I did not understand the various components of a properly written and accompany them to effectively communicate my ideas. I lacked the most in keeping the audience involved hence, catching and maintaining their attention, to my writing from the introduction to the conclusion. To me, writing was more complicated than a speech since a speech involved direct audience who the speaker can gauge their feelings. I took writing as a difficult task since it involved indirect audience and ensuring that I meet the demands of such indirect audience, brought more confusion. Though the case, this past semester’s class has really improved my skills in writing. I have learned to to make an effective written piece. Through the various learning experiences such as individual readings, professional feedback and many others, I have been able to interact with diverse knowledge sources which have made me much better by removing the confusion and negative picture I had with regard to writing.

Every day, I make sure to take time out to reflect upon how grateful I feel to be put in the situation I am today. There are so many instances I can recall of throughout high school when I felt very uncertain about myself and my family’s future, however, we learned to persevere and overcome these many obstacles which unexpectedly set me up and prepared me for the many opportunities I now have today at Gonzaga University.