Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Writing Improvements

Writing has always been something I have enjoyed, but never felt truly confident about. I cannot say I am completely confident in my writing now, but I do have more faith in my writing after ten weeks of this class. When this semester first started, one of our assignments in this class was to write about what we would like to get out of this class and what skills we think we are going to gain from the course. If I remember correctly I was hoping to improve my researching skills and prompt writing ability. After the entire process of the many drafts and comments that surrounded the first essay submitted (the rhetorical essay) I realized that I was even shallower on research paper writing than I had even realized. I am hoping that my second and third essays will show improvement and I will start to fully understand the process behind writing one research that has been obtained and combined.
I believe what has improved after this class is my ability to think critically. After the various group projects and different assignments, I have found that my ability to “think outside of the box” has improved. One reason why I believe I can attribute this to the group projects is because I was given the opportunity to see different points of view from my group members. There were many times I would read a response a member of my group had and absolutely felt their response was better than my own. I enjoy being able to try and see many different perspectives on the same subject.
My writing has definitely improved in one way, and that’s development organization. By development I mean I am now aware of creating a thesis statement and elaborating further on it. Organization has improved in the way that I am now focused on the set up of pieces I write, ensuring I have an opening, a conclusion, and a strong body that does not go off subject and establishes my position when necessary. This could be due to the essays and critical thinking responses we do every week. In many of the critical thinking questions the reader is asked to identify certain things in an essay and explain why these parts are important to the author and the development of the essay. Having to critically consider these essays by professional writers can only help a person improve their own writing.
This class has definitely been a challenge for me. English has always been a strong subject for me, but as the courses get tougher as I continue my education, I realize I have much more to learn and master. I think the writing required in this class will give me the skills I need to carry me through the rest of my education and then onto my career. Writing is something that can always be changed and improved and I think this class has provided the opportunity to challenge the writing I became comfortable with producing to make it stronger and more comprehensive.

1 comment:

  1. Nice Job Shannon, This class I believe has been more helpful than even English 101. This class challenges you by having you to think about what you are writing about. When you think critically abut what you write you get the most out of your writing. I felt the same way that you did because I was no confident at all in my writing but over the course of ten weeks I am more confident than I have ever been in any English course. A lot of it has to do that with the feedback we get from professor Gross and our peers it has helped us to be effective and confident writers. It has shown that our input and ideas are just as good as anyone else. In the group work when you have a couple good ideas from everyone in the group it makes for some good writing. It just seems that everyone in the class in a way has had a hand in helping each other become better writers. I just believe from this point on you will only get better as writer as well as all of our fellow students will get. You know that you have taken the right course when you look back and you have grown in that particular subject.

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