I have much to reflect upon when looking back on this past semester. The class has taught me a lot for instance new ways of writing papers and the formatting process, the time spent in class, the changes that happened in my writing patterns, the process of editing and revising, it helped me discover what I disliked in my own writing and how I approach new papers as a whole.

From my highschool experience I was used to the 5 paragraph format and a very structured cookie cutter way of writing. Taking this class I saw really how much more freedom you can have while writing. Being able to build your paper around what you’re writing and not basing your writing on how you think the structure is supposed to be. Something I found difficult with those though was the writing prompts. I don’t think I’m alone when I say I find it much easier to write when it’s about a topic that I’m interested in and having less freedom when writing about a topic makes it hard to get motivation to even just start the paper. I learned much about myself when thinking about this and I understand the change that has to happen with my writing to improve. In all honesty this class was a wake up call that we cannot always write about what we want and that realistically most topics that I’m going to have to write about aren’t necessarily going to be things that I’m passionate about. Something that really helped with this change was the environment in the classroom. Luckily enough the people that I was in class with were constantly engaging in group discussions which at times could be counterproductive really helped lighten the load of the change.

Taking perspectives from multiple people on my own writing was an experience that I didn’t really understand the benefits of at first. I have always enjoyed writing my papers and only sharing them with the bare minimum of people and I still think that’s what I prefer. Although now I can really understand how much this can improve your own writing. You receive a multitude of different perspectives on a piece of writing I only really looked at one way. Having other notes to work off of I could really see where more of my flaws were in my own writing. Being given the opportunity to look at others papers and seeing how I could incorporate some of there writing tendencies into my own was a way to broaden my writing capabilities. A major flaw that my professor took note of right away was the fact that my papers were very repetitive. While reading through I could see how my papers, even if all the information was new, were very bland. Since I had only had highschool experience when writing papers I could see how changing this could help improve my writing dramatically. I am nowhere near done improving this aspect of my writing but I believe that this class has done a great job of giving me the tools I need to improve my writing in the future. Seeing the change from each step of the writing process, from the first draft to the polished, it was easier to see where I needed change.

Approaching new papers in this class was very difficult for me. With writing prompts that I was far less interested in then papers I had written in the past. It felt almost like busy work for the semester; something to keep us occupied. I now realize how even if in the moment it felt boring; it helped challenge me to a degree that I hadn’t expected in my own writing. Before taking this class I didn’t understand what being a good writer meant. It’s not just being able to write about any topic or even the language that you use. Being a good writer requires more discipline and focus but at the same time it requires a certain creativity.