At the beginning of the semester, one main goal I made for myself was to improve my sentence structure and learn how to elaborate on or to back up the information that I would incorporate to enhance my paper. I also aimed to become a better critical thinker because in the past, I was never a really effective active reader when I would be assigned to read for homework assignments. This is not only a crucial thing to learn for English classes, but I have been able to adapt the techniques I learned in this class for other classes homework assignments such as history or philosophy. As I am finishing out this course, I can clearly see that my writing has also just benefitted from all of the different forms of revision in this class. For instance, last semester I never made use of the writing tutors that much, but after seeing how helpful they all are, it really made me feel welcome to reach out for help. An example of a paper I wrote with the writing process that I had trouble with would be the research paper. This type of paper is more challenging because I had to choose a topic, research to find out more about my topic, and take notes before I could even begin to start drafting. One way in specific that I found myself using was the incorporation of “they say, I say” writing in my paper. In my personal culture essay, I stated “in Turkle's lecture, she expresses the deep devotion humans have to our devices. I personally can't argue with this notion, because so much of my day is taken up by my need to fill time with being online” (Terrel 2). Here, the reader can clearly see that I am comparing evidence from a professional source to my own opinion. Using different tactics like the “they say, I say” concept made it easier for me to elaborate on content I incorporate and move through my paper easier. Also, the use of collaboration with others when they would revise my paper greatly aided my ability to gain another perspective on my topic so I won’t come across as completely bias.
In all honesty, grammar has never really been quite an issue for me because I am typically rather good at having proper sentence structure. However, one main area that I have shown to have trouble with is arranging my information in a paper to make the writing the most effective to the reader. An example of me fixing an error to make my paper more coherent can be found in the reflection essay. Here I originally stated “Social media outlets were created with the intention of aiding people in becoming connected with others who are not actually in their vicinity but as time has gone on, the addiction to these virtual realities have proven to be more detrimental than beneficial to our psychological health” (Terrel 2). As you can see, the sentence was rather long and felt as if I were rambling a lot, but after I met with the tutors, we came to a conclusion as to how I can state this thesis. I later revised the sentence to read: “Social media outlets were created with the intention of aiding people in becoming and remaining connected with other people who are not physically in their vicinity; however, as time has gone on, the addiction to these virtual realities have proven to be more detrimental than beneficial to our psychological health” (Terrel 2). It is clear that with the use of the semicolon, the two ideas were still able to be expressed, but the sentence was a lot easier for the reader to comprehend than the original one.
Another area I found myself improving on was being able to introduce a source before citing their information. One instance that I used this properly was in my research paper on gay rights being neglected. I stated that “According to Roffman in his article on heterosexual masculinity and homophobia” (Terrel 1). This tactic became useful for me because I would state something like this before actually going into the information from the author in order to give the reader some background information on the source before introducing the content. This establishes a sense of professional material being used in my work.
Throughout this course, we mainly used the blog website to do our work, and I honestly think that it was the most beneficial type of learning for me. I prefer drafting online and having everything organized, and with my own blog I was able to keep up this level of organization of my different works in one place. I was also able to view other examples of classmates if I were ever to find myself in trouble with a topic, so I would be able to reconvene and gain new perspectives. This is one main reason I think that the online presence for this course was the most beneficial to my writing because I was able to relate my own work to my peers. One other resource I found myself using frequently was the Ebsco page on the library website because it gave me vast different sources for the topics I would choose to write about for various essay topics. It also helped me cite my sources in the different formats that we used for different papers.
Overall, the semester seemed to go by so quickly, but I feel like I learned a great amount being in this class. Through the use of the different tactics used for the writing process and critical thinking, I can tell that my writing has benefitted greatly already, and I plan to use the different concepts in my future writing as well. Another way I feel I have benefitted is from using the tutors at the writing center, and I know that that is also another outlet I will use to revise my work as I grow and develop as a writer. As long as I am willing to learn, I can guarantee that I will continue to grow as a writer in my educational future.
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