Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

In this blog post, I will provide short but detailed responses to the following 6 items on pages 251 & 252 in Student's Guide. I will number my responses and look back over all the writing I have done in the course as I respond - my blogging, comments I have left for peers, drafting, notes & planning, email correspondence, major projects, etc. Additionally, I will quote directly from my own work or the course materials where appropriate and illustrative. Lastly, the picture of the cat curled up in a ball illustrates my warm attitude toward my writing experiences.

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?

Overall, the biggest challenges that I faced this semester was time management and maintaining my health. I made it a priority to do well in school but to also focus on my health. Freshman year of high school was very difficult for me because everything was different. There was more homework, more studying, more notes, and more papers. Unfortunately, I managed my time poorly, and I would not workout due to this. Since I did not workout, I gained twenty pounds. This experience made me never want to fall into this dreadful downfall of poor time management because my health suffered. I knew that freshman year of college would be different because I would have more time during the day to fit it in. After creating "Calendar Reflection", I was able to create my priorities and schedule out my time better. Therefore, this blog post was very helpful because it allowed me to see my schedule as a whole in front of me. For a few weeks, I admit I did become overwhelmed once the first set of exams rolled through. After tackling these exams, I was able to designate time to workout. Also the first few weeks were tough with making the deadlines for this course. Because I tried to workout a lot, I always pushed the blog posts last minute. Eventually, I was able to balance it all out.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?

This semester I learned that I have very good time management. I think the blog posts helped improve my time management because they forced me to work ahead of time so that I wouldn't be trapped inside my dorm working on them all of Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, this was the case for a few dreadful weekends. However, these experiences taught me to manage my time better. Eventually, I started doing blog posts the Sunday before they were due. This felt so rewarding. The cluster maps helped encourage me to work ahead because I basically planned my paper in them In the "Cluster of my Controversy" post, I created a cluster map in order to further express my controversy. This helped me in the writing process because I did not have to think back too far since it was already there for me. In high school, I used to always wait last minute to write essays. I would stay up until four in the morning some nights. It was terrible, but I could never break that habit. I think the fact that the weekend are bustling here motivated me to get my work done so that I was not confined in my dorm on the weekends. I wish I had learned to manage my time better earlier, but I am glad that I finally am able to.

This semester I learned that I do have very good writing and editorial skills. In high school, rhetorical analysis discouraged me as a writer because it was hard for me to ever get the grade that I wanted. In this course, I also received a low grade for my rhetorical analysis. However, my other writings received better grades. This feeling was so rewarding for me. The best part was whenever the blog posts would be graded, and I would receive many 100 percents. The feeling of success is great, and I think that is what motivated me to put forth my best efforts in this course. Unfortunately, my lower grades with rhetorical analysis in high school would discourage me to the point where I would barely revise my papers. I received the same low grade every time. This course helped me see my true writing potential that I haven't seen rewarded for years.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.

I think the concept of genre assisted me in improving my writing. In order to better understand genre, the blog posts "Analysing My Genre" and "Analysing My Audience" helped the most. These helped the most because the first post helped me analyze my genre and better understand it. By doing this, I was able to look more in depth about the conventions of my genre and how it functioned. In order to make sure that my genre was suitable for my audience, the second post that I mentioned helped analyze my audience and helped me get a better understanding about the genre that would be best to convey my message.

Petful. "Cat Curled Up in a Ball. So Cute." 6/6/14 via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?

I think there are many skills from this course that will be applied in my future. The post that sticks out to me is "Narrowing My Focus" because I need to narrow my focus on my major as time goes on. This blog post could be applied to my actual life because I need to narrow down to a concentration in my nutrition major. This blog post taught me pick something and to expand on it. In my future studies, I know that this will be expected in writing as well.

Also, "Questions About Controversy" post allowed me to further explore my topic. In school, we are taught that students who ask questions learn the most. Therefore, I think the skill of questioning for a better understanding was a very useful skill to reinforce here. In the future, I will have to use this in order to decide the outcome of a possible essay, discussion, or even a master's thesis.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H? 

The most effective moment from this semester in 109H was receiving my grade for Project 3. To know that I finally was able to receive an A on a project in this class was beyond rewarding. This is my most effective moment because it was so good to know that my hard work this semester in this class has paid off. I think that I feel more motivated to do well in the final project because of the grade I received for the past project. This is good because by this time in the year students are typically burnt out. Therefore, my newfound motivation should help me to get a good grade on the final project.

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H? 

I think the least effective moment from this semester in 109H was to practice paraphrasing and summarizing in "Practicing Paraphrase & Summary" blog post. Through all my years of schooling, teachers in elementary school and middle school loved to emphasize the importance of these two writing skills. I think that writing this blog post was ineffective for me because I had already been taught this and have practiced it meticulously.