The first day of this class made me pretty scared. I was pretty determined to
drop this class because the amount of work I was going to have to do. I didn’t think I
was capable of doing it, but I decided to stick with it. I actually called my mom right
after that first class and told her I wanted to drop it. I told her I couldn’t do it, but
she told me to stick with it and that I could do it. I told her then that my goal in the
class was to just get a ‘C’. I never get C’s, but that was my goal because I didn’t think I
could do it. This class was definitely a challenge, but I honestly enjoyed every
moment of it and I would take it over and over again. Many of you may laugh, but I
would because I learned so much and I really gained confidence in my writing,
which is something I never had before.
I think the reason integrating research effectively was so difficult was
because I never really had to do it before. In high school I only really had to do
research in history class and he didn’t really didn’t really care about citing sources
or anything, as long as the information was there. I always got by with what I had. I
only had to write about 3 papers in English class my entire high school career and
she never really graded that hard. She checked more for grammar rather then
sources and citations. I was also never taught a process on how to do research and
how integrate it successfully. I was always just told what to write about and then
told to just do it without ever being taught an efficient way of doing it.
The idea of process and research has changed my understanding about what
is necessary to write a scholarly paper because I now realize that it takes more work
then I ever thought. To write scholarly papers you have to take the time to research
information before you ever begin writing. I always seemed to do my research as I
was writing my paper, but that doesn’t work so well in college. It helped me
understand that I need to spend more times on my papers rather then trying to
cram them in one night. I can get it done it one night, but it won’t be a scholarly
paper. This writing process we were given requires a couple weeks of work in order
for it to really be a scholarly paper.
Writing is an extremely important role in my education. Pretty much
everything I do requires writing and if you can’t write well it will show. Writing will
always be something I will have to do and it could possibly keep me from getting a
job. When they are looking at your resume they will look to see if you had any
mistakes and if you did then you don’t even get an interview; they just throw yours
away. Writing is always going to play an important role in my education and the
more educated I become about writing the more it will help me in the future. I
totally agree with you, Dr. Martin, when you said that the only way to become a
better writer is to write. I never wrote so much in my life before I took your class,
but I could tell that my writing has improved because I keep writing. I know that if I
wrote even more then I do now then I could improve my writing even more. Now
that I have written so much I have actually started to enjoy it because I can see it
improving.
I have had to write a lot this semester, but there was a variety of writing
styles. Some I struggled with a little, but others seemed to come naturally to me. I
think I shined more when I wrote the discussions because I was told what I had to
write about and I had to answer certain questions. I can sit down and write for
hours when I am asked questions. I will think of all the possible ways I could answer
that question. I will write whatever comes to my head at the time. I just love writing
when I am told what to write about. I also think I shined when I wrote the essays
because I enjoyed writing them and really enjoyed doing the research. I had no
trouble writing them and everything just came together so well. Even though
researching is pretty new to me I picked it up pretty quickly and really put it in my
paper nicely. There were some areas where I struggled though. I struggled when I
wrote the blogs because I had trouble thinking of things to say. I wasn’t sure what to
say even though it could be anything relevant to class. I also struggled when I wrote
up my cultural events. Even though I was told what to wrote there were times when
I had trouble thinking of things to say. I had trouble thinking of how it gave me a
better understanding of how to claim my education. No matter whether I shined or
struggled, there is always for improvement.
Throughout this semester I have truly learned a lot about my writing. I
learned about the writer I was in the beginning and who I became as I writer. I
think I am the most proud of honestly everything I have done. I have worked hard
on everything I have done, so I take pride in everything. I think though that I am
most proud of my visual argument paper. I worked extremely hard on it and really
enjoyed doing the research for the video.
I think there are only a few things I would have done differently and one is
that I would have spent a little more time on some of my papers. I spent a lot of time
on them, but I think if I would have taken just a little more time on them then they
would be even better. I also would have followed the process a little more. I
followed it most of the time, but there were steps that I sometimes skipped. When I
didn’t skip those steps then my work seemed to come out better. I will take what I
have learned this semester and move it forward in a scholarly way because I will use
the process for my future papers. I will use the research skills that I have acquired
and use them for things that I will have to write in the rest of me college career and
years beyond college.