As Writ 101 comes to an end, I am thankful for this class and what it has taught me. I set a goal at the beginning of the semester to become a better writer in general. I wanted to specifically focus on my introductions and conclusions. Introductions and conclusions were something that I had struggled with coming into Writ 101. I think I have accomplished this goal. Being able to understand that a piece of writing shouldn’t be a thesis statement with 3 parts and each part will have its paragraph, followed by the conclusion being a restatement of the thesis, is very helpful in writing the intros and outros. I think I can continue to work on this but I have a better understanding of how to write these parts. Something that this class taught me that I didn’t even know I needed was confidence in my writing. I’ve never felt like I was a “good writer” but I would always still make high grades on the essays I would write in high school. But now when I write, I can feel confident in my writing because I’ve developed a better understanding of HOW TO write.
My writing process has improved. I still hold on to some aspects of my past writing process but I’ve learned different ways to prevent myself from waiting till the last minute to write. I used to wait till the very last minute and would just write as if I were speaking and then go back and find sources that supported what I said. Now I find it easier to write when I find good, reliable sources before writing. Being able to read sources from others and then forming my own words while incorporating the sources as background, makes my writing more concise and clear. I still wait till the last minute to start my writing process but now that I know what I have to do it makes it easier to know what I’m going to say and write about. I think when I wait till it gets closer to the due date, my writing can honestly be better because I’m pressed for time and under pressure. And sometimes working under pressure is when I do my best work.
The small groups were an epic failure in my opinion. I was appointed as the leader for my group which I was thankful for. I have a natural leadership attitude and felt like I accomplished my role in my group extremely well. For me, it was very frustrating because I would reach out to my group at the beginning of the week to let them know what we had due at the end, and wouldn’t get any response until Saturday night or even Sunday. I think because we all probably had so many different schedules, where doing the group work at the beginning of the week was better for some, the end of the week might’ve suited others better. Regardless, I still think that the members of my group could’ve contributed more. I’m glad that we had the option to be a part of a group or not and we weren’t stuck with the group for the rest of the semester, especially when no one in my group was doing their work.
I’ve learned a lot in this class about my writing style and process. I’m going to take what I have learned in this class to my future writing and English classes. I will also utilize the things I have learned when I have to write a paper or essay for another class that might not be English or writing specifically. I want to continue to grow as a writer and learn about different ways to write. I think if I were to learn and practice different ways of writing, my writing skills would improve tremendously because I wouldn’t be stuck in only writing one specific way. I hope to continue to learn about different writing techniques in my future classes. As much as I’ve grown as a writer, I definitely couldn’t capitalize on writing to be included in my major. I think it is a very useful skill that we should start teaching from a younger age and be taught the right way. I will have to write a paper or essay for multiple classes so having the necessary skills to do this is very important to me. But I’m not passionate enough about it to continue learning about it and ultimately focus on it as my major.