Final Reflective

I have learned a lot over this semester. I am sure that this course has help me become a better writer. I consider myself as not a good writer plus I don’t like writing. This course has been challenging and interesting. I have learned that I need to make more time and commitment to my papers to also help myself become a better writer. My experience has been different from high school writing from Writing 101 and frim Writing 102, learning in this writing class and learning in my other classes have a little connection but are also different, and the Writing 102 theme power and privilege is relatable to me and the world around me.

My high school writing and Writing 101 from last semester was different from this semester Writing 102. Last semester in Writing 101, I didn’t have a theme but this semester I did and it was power and privilege. While in high school, the writing was completely different from college writing. In high school, I didn’t write as much and most of the thing I’ve been writing in college I haven’t done before that I can remember. As the years of writing went by, it made me a better writer with every assignment. In this class, Writing 102, most of my writing was consistent because I kept making similar grades and I kept lacking in the same things. In my Synthesis and Researched Argument paper, I needed a stronger thesis as said from the feedback. When I revised the Researched paper, I made a better grade and gained extra points which is why I feel like each assignment helped me become a better writer and better in my weaknesses. In high school, writing was so easy which is probably why I struggle in it now. We barely wrote papers and coming into college writing, I felt unnprepared and I knew that I would struggle. For a daily write, I wrote about my strengths and weaknesses when writing a paper. (04/11/17) I think that these things are still the same but I have gotten better and I hope to continue to where I have no problems at all when writing a paper. When I do write a paper, peer review sometimes help when people are looking for mistakes and reading my paper trying to help. As I wrote for a daily write, I explained how it broadens my thoughts and lets me see the things I need to change. (02/09/17) Things were a lot different from high school writing and Writing 101 from Writing 102 but in a good way.

Learning in this writing class and learning in my other classes have a little connection. This writing class and my other classes are different because we don’t discuss the things going on with race in the world or gender roles, we just focus on what we are supposed to learn for that class only. For one class, we did see gender roles. The class was Theatre. We saw how it is somewhat the same from back then and now. We also talked about it in class and discussed how the gender roles affect lives. For one of the other writings we did for class that was in my CPB was about two sources and how women are depicted and how men see women. (Connections of the two sources) This was talked about in my writing class and shown and talked about in my theatre class. The other classes are chemistry, math, and psychology which we just focus on topics that are related to the subjects we are discussing or learning about in class. Learning in my writing class and learning in my other classes are different but benefits me in different ways.

The Writing 102 theme power and privilege is very relatable to me and the world around me. I am a black female so it is relatable me especially with some of the things we talked about in class like racism, gender roles, and discrimination. It also relates to me because I am a black female student at The University of Mississippi and here at Ole Miss there has been times where I was judged because of the color of my skin. The theme relates to the world around me because of all the things going on with the black race and the killing. Many African Americans are getting killed for looking like they’re up to no good or another person of another race feels threatened. For example, Trayvon Martin, who was an unarmed 18-year-old with a black hoodie, an Arizona, and Skittles walking home from the store. Another person of another race felt “threatened” by Trayvon. I can relate to this because I wonder if it would ever happen to my brother or any family member who could be walking home from school or from the store or anything. In my CPB for a CRQ, there was a quote that stood out to me about race and I talked about how it relates to me and the world around me and I also included Trayvon Martin and the racism still going on today. (CRQ 04/10) Also, many policemen are killing the black race because they also feel “threatened” so basically, they kill them first before someone of the black race could kill them first. For another example, Philando Castile, who was shot by a police officer when he told the officer that he has a license to carry and as he was reaching for it, he is shot. I wonder if it will ever happen to me or my family if any of us gets pulled over by a policeman. Another reason this theme was relatable to me is because I am a black female I may not get all the opportunities a white female or white male may get. In my CPB for a CRQ, there was a quote for the reading that was about a white male feeling more privileged to get a better job than McDonald’s. (CRQ 03/22) This is relatable because for example, if a white female and I are up for the same job and let’s just say I am more qualified for the job, I may not get it because of the color of my skin. This theme was very relatable to me and the world around me.

This writing course has helped me a lot. My experience from writing in high school and Writing 101 from Writing 102 was different but had some similarities, learning in this writing class and learning in my other classes had a little connection but was also different, and the power and privilege theme for this writing class was relatable to me and the world around me. I have learned a lot this semester in Writing. I have gotten better at writing but I still have some weaknesses to work on but later in my college years, I hope to not have a problem at all in writing a paper. I know I would become a better writer and will start to like writing once I know how to use my time wisely and make a commitment to complete a writing assignment/paper.

Synthesis Unit Reflection

The synthesis assignment was something that I have done before. I don’t really know my outcome on it. I don’t know if I did good, bad, or alright. I am hoping the very best though. In Writing 101 last semester, we also had an synthesis assignment that we had to do. I did struggle a lot with this assignment. I used one of the sources from Rereading America and a documentary from Netflix called “Miss Representation.” I think I mainly struggled with connecting the two sources and also the word count. My synthesis paper last semester in Writing 101 word count was only 1000 words instead 1200 like this assignment this semester. I discovered about myself as a writing during this assignment that I should make more time and effort because I already struggle writing papers. I also discovered that I should try to get all the help I can and use all the resources so I can continue to improve in my writing and become a better writer. I think my strengths in this paper was my topic sentences and explain the sources. I struggled with finding the right sources as well because I wasn’t sure if it fit my thesis and what I wanted my entire paper to be on. I think that was hard for me because it is kind of hard to find the absolute right sources. I think my sources were good though and something I could use to support my thesis and topic sentences of each paragraph. Even though I don’t think I did good on this assignment, I learned a lot from it.

Analysis Unit Reflection

The analysis assignment was very interesting to do. The assignment was to choose an artifact (music video, magazine, picture, etc) and connect it with one of the three readings. The process was somewhat complicating because I am not the best writer, ans I have trouble making things more broad and coming up with ideas or things to say. My hook and introduction was the hardest to come up with for me. I chose Beyonce’s music video “Formation.” I think it was a little complicating because not only she showed many things in her video like police brutality, how the government and others forgot about Hurricane Katrina, and the black community but also she said those things as well. My strength was the body paragraphs and backing up the things I was saying with evidence from the video and article I chose. I think this assignment was important because it shows how to take things and analyze them together. I have done an assignment like this in Writ 101  but without using a music video. I think I did okay on this assignment because I do think I have some things that could be better. The part that was in class that somewhat helped me with this assignment was peer review. Peer review is always helpful  because it gives you more ideas and things to add, if you forgot or something, to your paper. I really liked my paper because I connected with it not only because I am a young black female but because Beyonce is praising the black community and showing some challenges that is happening in the world today and how everyone just forgot about Hurricane Katrina. Plus, I like the song. I think this assignment helped me as a writer.

Journey to Becoming a Better Writer and Student

I have became a better writer over the year. I have struggled with many things over the semester and some things came naturally or was easy. I know how to improve my writing skills and become a better writer. I think not having confidence in my writing also makes me not try as hard as I can also because writing isn’t really my best subject so this course and the assignments helped me gain my confidence.  All the assignments helped me become a better writer because they all were different and each of them showed a weakness and something that need to be worked on. Some assignments showed some things that came naturally. This course and all the assignments has made me a better writer than I was and a better student, and I also know what to work on as a writer and student.

One thing that I struggled with was commitment. Throughout the semester and for every assignment, I made no commitment at all for the assignments. My grades sometimes reflected that because I wasn’t making the commitment that should have and the commitment needed for the assignments. I learned to make commitments on anything I have and not to just wait until the last minute. This will not only make me a better writer, but also a better student.

Another thing I struggled with a lot was digging deeper. I found myself repeating statements and things that was already stated earlier in the essay. I also couldn’t expand my thoughts about certain topics or for a certain assignment which made everything harder and not knowing what to write about. Everything ties together because not making a commitment or doing the assignments at the last minute doesn’t give me enough time to dig deeper. Digging deeper would help a lot because not only did I repeat some things, but also I didn’t even meet some length requirements. I have to make a commitment first so I could dig deeper.

One of the modes of writing we did that I struggled the worst one was the analysis assignment. I struggled with the analysis essay because I was repeating things and summarizing things when the assignment was for you to analyze. Even though I struggled with this assignment, this was my favorite assignment to do. I think it was my favorite assignment because I had to use a video and some writing techniques like pathos, logos, kairos, and ethos to complete the assignment. The analysis assignment was very fun to do. It was about an 11-year old girl that gets hit by a stray bullet. This was the hardest assignment out of all the assignment to me because I kept summarizing and when I was told I was summarizing, I tried not to and that caused repetition. I discovered writing this analysis paper that if I make a commitment and try harder everything would have been easier and the assignment would have been easier and more. If I make a commitment and dig deeper, I would be a better writer than I am.

A thing that I was good at while doing the argument assignment was opposing viewpoints. I think I didn’t struggle with this because I only had to write about the opposite of what I was writing about. My argument was that hip hop doesn’t belong to any race, age, or gender. I didn’t have to dig deep about the opposing viewpoint which made it easier. Opposing a viewpoint on something you are arguing about is really easy anyway because it is just the opposite of your argument. When I did the argument assignment, I struggled with digging deeper and repetition because I didn’t make a commitment but when it came to opposing the viewpoint of my argument, it came easily. I think opposing a viewpoint for anything is the easiest thing to do because it is the opposite of the argument.

One thing that helped me with all the assignments was research. When I say research, I mean peer review or student-teacher conference. The peer review research helped me a lot because I was able to see an example of what we were suppose to do because most likely I was confused or I forgot, and the peer review research also helped me because I was able to get feedback from my classmates on what needed to be changed and fixed and their opinion on the whole paper itself. The student-teacher conference research helped me because I got feedback from my teacher and she’s the person that is grading the paper. The research itself helped a lot because I knew I didn’t try my best on the draft because I didn’t make an commitment doing the assignment, and I needed some helpful feedback from someone. The research helped me so much throughout the semester.

I have to work on making commitments for my assignments, so I can dig deeper in the essay. If I make a commitment and dig deeper, then there will be no repetition and I won’t struggle as bad as I did over the semester with the assignments. I do think that I improved as writer because I realized mistakes and learned from them. I gained some confidence in my writing over the semester because I came up with good topics or good points which made me try harder. This course has helped me a lot with my writing in many ways. On some assignments, I would think I would have gotten a bad grade but I actually got a good grade and that also made me gain confidence in my writing. I learned a lot over the semester and will bring it along with me as I continue my college career.

Multimodal Assignment Unit Reflection

I think I struggled with meeting the word length requirements because I didn’t want to go off topic and repeat myself over and over. I also think I struggled with keeping my thesis true because I kept making it contradicting when adding things that did’t make my thesis true and that didn’t support what I said. It kind of came easily but meeting the word requirement, trying to not go off topic, or keeping the whole article in order and about my thesis was hard. If I had more time, I honestly don’t think that would help because the assignment was already extended but that did help a lot. I have never did a project like this before, only essays when I was in high school.

I learned from this op-ed project to stay on topic and not to add anything that will make the thesis not true and will make the whole assignment wrong. The kind of commitment I made to this project was a little time but a lot of effort. Writing isn’t my best subject so I don’t really do well in it so since I know that I don’t make as much time as it needs. The part of class that helped me was the peer review and working on it in class. When we did the peer review, I got to see how my classmate did theirs and they left comments on what is wrong and needs to be fixed. The time in class helped me because I could ask questions if I needed help and it allowed me to get started on my final draft. The out of class experience that helped me was emailing the teacher when I had questions or was confused about the assignment. I would define the Multimodal Project as different and challenging because it is based off of the argument essay but it is different from it. I thought about the outcomes because I’m sure this has made me a better writer.

Argument Unit Reflection

I really struggled with this assignment because I really didn’t know how to use the features and make the paper good. I really struggled with citations, how to put them in the essay. What came easily was the other side’s argument from mine in the paper. I think that came easily because it had to be the opposite of my argument. If I had more time, I would maybe set another conference up to meet with my teacher. I don’t think I have did writing like this before which probably made it a lot harder than the previous papers we have done in class. I learned while doing this that an argumentative essay is not just persuading or trying to get your point across, you have to back it up with textual evidence and make sure you don’t get off topic, that your whole paper is focused on one point except the opposite side argument. I don’t think I did well on this assignment, it was very hard and I think if I had more time that I will feel better about this assignment. It was not different to see multiple sides of an issue because it’s just the opposite of what you think and what you think someone who thinks that side of the argument would say and how would they back it up with textual evidence. The student-teacher conference helped me with this paper because I actually got to hear what the teacher, the person who is grading my paper, what she thinks and what I need to change. I think that helped because she knows what she will be looking for when she grades the papers. I discovered about myself that I need to get better things to talk about or just know how to put all my thoughts and things in my essay better.