Describe Yourself as a Writer: the Course That Made Me Better

I was very nervous coming into this class, not just because it was something new, but I have always struggled with putting ideas into words and explaining myself with proper grammar. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how this semester unfolded for me. Throughout College Composition, I have learned many new things that have improved my abilities as a writer. I have learned new techniques that have improved my ways of approaching an essay. I learned how to write a proper thesis and apply it to my essays. I have also learned how to argue both sides of an argument, and how to look for reliable sources and to properly quote and cite the author of the paper. My task is to Describe yourself as a writer', so in this essay I will reflect on how I grew up as a writer, especially through this course as I feel that I have become a better writer overall because of College Composition and I have seen improvements in my writing skills with each essay I have written.

This class affected me in many different ways and has shown me that writing takes time, I can not expect a paper to be good without any revising or editing, this has always been a mistake of mine. I would free write a lot because it was the only way I could get my thoughts processed on a paper. I never cared much for punctuation, but once I got into this class I knew it was going to be needed. The topics we wrote on were not just any random topics which in a way made it more interesting to write about. I also liked how we got to choose our essay topics leading up to our research paper. I confused by this towards the end of our semester, I was not aware that our essay topics would lead to our research paper topic. Looking back, I see that there were directions for this, however, I, unfortunately, missed these directions.

Before taking this class I would always try to write my rough draft to meet the requirements, then just proofread over it, do some more editing and then just turn in. So, when I started writing for our first assignment “Lamott's, Shitty First Drafts' I learned that does not have to be perfect for the first draft. This actually made me feel more relaxed with my writing. The first draft is a way for a writer to get all their ideas down on paper, which I enjoyed doing. You then take your first draft to form new drafts until getting the paper the way you want it to be. I learned that a good way to first approach your first draft is to make an outline so that a way you have different topics that you know you want to talk about.

Looking back now, my first essay was an absolute disaster. It was the first assigned that caught my attention on how poor of a writer I really was. There were many errors in my essay that I failed to see and correct. You left many comments on this essay such as “The opening paragraph is particularly effective” and “Your favorite grammar mistake is the comma splice”. I then went back, read your corrections and realized that it was very true. I never wrote papers to perfection or at least tried to. As long as I got to the minimum requirements I would stop and not even look over I would sadly just submit them.

I quickly realized that the way I wrote had to change if I wanted to succeed in this class. From there I buckled down and read the requirements for each assignment more carefully, making sure I understood all the directions and expectations. The first time I felt that I was improving in my writing was on essay three, “An Empathic Design Approach to an Augmented Gymnasium in a Special Needs School Setting”. I felt confident in writing this essay and I also enjoyed doing research for it. While I felt that I was slowly improving, I still felt that I wasn't reaching my full potential. I then decided that I would try a little harder and also ask for some help. My peers were so helpful and honest I could not believe it. I have never been someone who asks for help often but I am happy I did start that day. They gave me great advice on how I should continue my paper and what could change to make it better. A lot of this advice was through our peer-edits which I had never done before. This was a great resource for us to use and one that I wished I would have relayed on sooner.

Some of the improvements I saw in my writing throughout the semester is learning how to write an essay where I can communicate with the audience with my own personal voice. I also feel I improved on knowing how to properly include quotes and how to find good credible sources to include in my essay and on how to include both sides of an argument in my paper. I do believe that there are some areas of writing that I need to improve on. Areas such as improving my knowledge on how to write a stronger thesis. One of the biggest areas though, that I feel I have actually improved on is how to properly structure my essay and make it flow from paragraph to paragraph. This was a struggle in the beginning but now comes easier. I also saw myself as knowing how to write a good conclusion that summarized what I talked about in my essay and re-stating my thesis.

Throughout this semester, Mrs. Hinis teachings have improved the way I look at the sources and my paper as a whole. She was always there to help us with our papers, gave very detailed feedback which was extremely helpful and she was always available for when we had questions. I absolutely have a new appreciation for writing and the process on how to become a good writer because of Mrs. Hinis.

Overall, I enjoyed taking College Composition. Writing is not my favorite thing to do but I definitely feel more confident in my writing abilities. When getting grades back on our many written paper, I feel that I saw my growth as a writer improve with each paper I passed in. One thing I could better myself in the future could be to take better notes about topics and assignments so I fully understand it instead of setting myself up to fail. This happened multiple times and I struggled to catch back up. Each time I turned in a paper or an assignment I learned something new and something I could improve on. While it was a struggle it was a struggle at times, learning new techniques to help me as a writer was something that I enjoyed every day. I am excited to use this new writing technics that I have learned from this class and apply them to my future when I will need them.