Reflective Essay Writing

Showing how literacy is more than just writing for school or being pressured in school and how you still procrastinate. Lamott used to write food reviews and the would struggle writing them at times, saying “It’s over, I’d think, calmly. I’m not going to be able to get the magic to work this time.” (pg854 para 3). This shows that even as advanced and growing writers we still struggle and have difficult time writing drafts. Writing drafts before you even know what you’re going to say so you just hope for the best. Lamott tells her story of experiencing the struggles of writing, this helps people feel more comfortable with their own writing. If you think that you write shitty first drafts, there’s always numerous people out there with the same

My writing throughout this semester has not been outstanding, as my writing pieces in the beginning where ought to be poor. The semester consisted of my knowledge of writing expanding heavily. The English 1101 class has helped me thoroughly in my writing mistakes and skills. Overall my effort in this class has helped me become an exceptional writer.

Writing is a place where you can get lost to create stories or grab attention for an audience. However, writing can be done pretty much anywhere and by anybody. For me, I can say writing has provided me many open doors. Helping me to get closure from my father, gained positive aspects, and in some areas, I struggled. But writing is an influence that you must have because it brings out the inner part of you to rise above. Like maybe you can't specifically say it to a particular person. Where as to me I've been in that situation but I've found it easier to write to them. Providing a sense of you going out of the way to provide time to write to them means a lot to a particular person or for me. Sometimes writing is a place where I can get lost or maybe find my weaknesses and strengths overall writing has influenced me to do good.

I have chosen to explore the “Writing Process” that I used while drafting my argumentative paper on sloths in the rainforest for this reflective essay. I am choosing this topic and this particular essay because my writing process was a key component to the ‘C’ I made on the project and how my failure in this particular area lead me to this grade. Looking back, I realized that the grade I received is a perfect reflection of the effort I put into the writing process. I believe that I had the power to make an A if I would have slowed down and completed the essay the right way. From an outline all the way to the final draft I will be reflecting on my paper and the journey I took to complete it.

* Have a one on one meeting with each member and ask what they would like to do and achieve

Coming straight out of high school and being thrown into a college-level English course can be very frightening; much like a mother leaving her child on the first day of school. Except, this time we are on our own. It is almost like we are blindly being thrown into this big pool without knowing how to swim. We are scared and almost unprepared as much of what we did in high school is nothing compared to of what college professors expect from us.

“Perfectionism instills fears that you will never live up to a standard set in your mind or one that’s been set for you by others” (Rosenfeld, 2015). This quote accurately describes my relationship with writing. A significant part of my fears and apprehensions about writing relate to creating that perfect paper. I consume too much time judging if what I have written is good enough for the reader, as well as for myself based on my standards. It is important that I recognize how the value in expressing my ideas in writing could potentially influence others viewpoints. Thus, awarding me the ability to create something I can admire as well. While I do not have difficulty in the writing required in my career, ultimately the goal is to become more excited about the prospect of essay writing. However, stepping outside of my comfort zone in my writing causes an increase in my anxiety due to my expectations of what perfect writing should be.

As a freshman at West Chester University, I have began to learn many skills in my WRT 120 class. Writing has been never been a strong suit for me, but as I began taking this class I have required multiple skills and developed a more creative mind in my writing. Dr. Cooke gave assignments that as students, we could express our own intellectual ideas in her prompts. Like I have stated, It was always hard to write an assignment that was on one concrete subject. Being able to contribute my own personal ideas and express in my own words, I was able to find my creative side into my work. I have always believed a “good writer” was someone that was able to speak in their own words to pursue their creative side.

I cried, I was overwhelmed with emotion, as I stood there with my fist clenched and eyes red. I realized that this was not the end. I went to yet another session of office hours. I told Ms. Maria that she had made a mistake, that she was punishing me for things that I can not control.

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.

When thinking about what effective writing is, there is no single answer as to what the definition is. Everyone has their own idea of what the most important aspects of effective writing are. This is why combining multiple people’s ideas into one concrete style allows us to open our mind to other possibilities. In our group, we all had a slightly different ideas of what the most important aspect of effective writing was. Because of this, we were able to combine all three and make a three step process of how a writer should go about generating an effective piece of writing. The three steps are, contemplate, clarify and connect. Good effective writing requires proper preparation to write a clear and concise piece of work which results in the reader's understanding of the point the writer is trying to get across.

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

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.

Writing 101G is a class that I enjoy, and look forward to attending. I have always loved to write, but as a child I never payed attention to the basics of writing. Now, I feel that I struggle a little to catch up on the basic structure of how to write. I feel that if I had payed more attention, today I would be attempting to get a job as some sort of writer, or editor in some type of fashion magazine. I think this class, and the way Brittany teaches, got me to rethink if I could have a job like that one day. When I feel comfortable with a teacher, I am able to learn, and enjoy what I am learning. During the past month, I noticed that I have learned so much more than I did in a whole year of writing in high school. I know that there will be more progress if I put in all my effort in every paper I write rather than starting it the day before it is due. If I do save it for the last day, I will not be able to recognize what I can change to make my essay better. At this point in the year I notice that I feel that I have a lot to say in my essay, but still need help trying to do exactly what is asked.

Writing this essay is difficult. As I sit in class gripping my pencil, pondering what I could possibly tell these college admissions officers about myself that I really want them to know. I look around and within just minutes, I notice most of my classmates have already decided exactly what they want people to know about them and what stories they are going to tell.