Kristi Sherman
Stephanie Weaver
8 December 2009
Self-Reflection Essay
On the first day of the first class of my college experience, the first thing that was asked
of me was to answer a simple question. What is good writing? I responded by saying, “good
writing is writing that intrigues the reader and compels him or her to continue reading. Good
writing also is able to paint a picture in the reader’s mind using simply the words in the
document. To become a better writer one must study the writing styles and techniques and
attempt to practice these learned lessons. The more one practices good writing, the better one
becomes. For me, the easiest thing is brainstorming ideas for the writing piece, but the most
difficult thing about writing is structuring it so that everything flows into each other easily.”
Although I still believe in some of those ideas, my overall view of what constitutes “good
writing” has been altered throughout the course of the semester.
I didn’t know what to expect when I initially walked into English 111; all I knew was that
I was in for an adventure. I came into this class knowing that I was not a very strong writer and
that English was definitely not one of my favorite subjects, but I still kept an open mind. I knew
that things were bound to get tougher, but I had no idea how tough or if I would be able to
manage the new changes. I had heard horrible horror stories about college English classes and
students having to write million-page papers. Okay, well maybe that’s an exaggeration, but as a
recently-graduated high school student anything above ten pages seemed highly impossible at the
time. Consequently, I was a little scared for what I was to be facing ahead, but I wasn’t about to
let my fear of the unknown get the best of me.
After being assigned the first sequence, I was very intimidated, but luckily everything
was broken down into smaller sections so that it seemed more achievable. The writing
assignments that led up to the actual writing of the paper helped me to focus my thoughts and get
some ideas down on paper. For example, I didn’t even know what a subculture was before doing
the writing on subculture and without doing that, writing my ethnography paper would have been
much more difficult than it was. In my writer’s memo I answered the question “What is the #1
big idea of your ethnography?” by saying, “The main idea of my ethnography is the how the
subculture of the people that go to the rec is divided into even smaller subcultures with the most
prevalent differences being between the two genders and the “rules” that they all seemingly
know and follow,” so knowing about subcultures was imperative to the writing of my
ethnography. The personal philosophy short assignment in this sequence allowed me to explore
what was truly important to me and while doing this, I learned so much about myself that I didn’t
previously know or was unsure of. After being out of school for 3 months for the summer and
not writing for that long, these assignments helped me to “get back into the swing of things” so
that by the time I had to write my paper I felt a bit more confident in myself. I was relieved when
the page requirement was not the million-pages that I had heard rumors about, but only about
three pages. It took a while for me to actually sit down and pound the paper out, but after doing
so, I felt comfortable with it and felt like I did an adequate job for it being my first large paper of
my college career. I got my rough draft paper back and was extremely discontented when my
projected grade for it was about a C. I had worked so hard on it. I thought it was a decent paper,
but seeing and hearing all of those comments made me think otherwise. I reluctantly decided that
I would listen to what was said and attempt to change my ethnography so as to meet the goals
that were set for me. I quickly learned that criticism is not meant to tear a person apart, but meant
only to make someone better and in this case, to make me a better writer. By listening to all of
the comments about my rough draft paper, I was able to revise it and increase my grade
significantly. Through all of this I have learned that like Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird, so
nicely put it, it is natural for everyone to have a “shitty first draft” and there is always room for
improvement when it comes to writing.
By the time sequence three came around and it was time to draft one of my last papers for
the class, I felt like I was much more comfortable with the whole writing process and knew what
to include and not include in a paper by learning from my past criticisms. The difference
between the previous sequences and sequence three is that sequence three used a blog where a
group of four people including me posted resources regarding the topic which we were assigned
to research about. I had never used anything like a blog before so it was a new experience, but I
benefited greatly from it. It was interesting reading what my other group members had added
because occasionally they brought up points that I hadn’t ever thought about before reading their
posts. This collective research allowed me to gain much more information about the topic I was
writing about than if I were to do all of the research on my own. The bad part about having so
much research to use was deciding what to focus the paper on. In my first draft, I got extremely
caught up and ended up jumping around and eventually included almost all aspects of the topic. I
quickly learned after receiving that paper back that I needed to focus in on one part of the topic
because my paper was much too broad. Instead of being disgruntled with this criticism about my
paper, I welcomed it because I had learned from previous experiences that this focusing would
only increase the clarity and likability my paper and allow it to flow more easily than the first
rough draft. After editing my sequence three paper, I felt comfortable and confident that I had
done what was asked of me and turned it in with pride. Although I didn’t receive the grade I had
wanted on my final product, I was proud that I was finally learning and utilizing the steps taught
in class to become a better.
Although unrelated to writing, I believe that my confidence and interpersonal skills
improved because of this course. Sequence four was another group project, but instead of a blog
or some type of writing, the requirement was some type of media. The group that I was a part of
decided to make a short, comedic video regarding our topic. When this idea was originally
brought to the table, I will admit that I was quite nervous due to the fact that I have always had a
hard time putting myself out there and speaking in front of people, but I didn’t oppose the idea
because I figured now was as good a time as any to try something new. The group created the
script all together and everyone was assigned a role. I was hoping to be the narrator because then
I wouldn’t have to be seen, but the other group members wanted me in it so I eventually
complied. The day we filmed, I was a little nervous, but told myself that I could do it and needed
to conquer my fear. Ready, set, action! And then it was done. “Wow, that was easy,” I thought to
myself after we had finished. I was proud of myself for doing something I knew I was
uncomfortable with and after that day I learned that I can push myself to be much more than I
think I can be. The members of my group were so personable and very easy to get along with
which definitely made the whole process that much easier. We started this assignment as solely
classmates, and ended up gaining genuine friendships I knew that throughout the course of this
English class I was bound to develop as a writer, but I didn’t expect to develop as a person as
well.
The class has reached its end and I can clearly see a difference between the person I was
on the first day of school walking into my first college class and the person I am now at the end
of the semester. I previously thought that in order to be a good writer, one must study and
practice proper writing techniques as outlined in books, but that’s not the only way to improve
writing ability. Someone doesn’t become a good writer over night. It takes time and it takes
failures in order to see what can use improvement. Once the problem is found, it can be easily
corrected. Without mistakes and without criticism, you won’t know what needs to be changed,
looked at, or focused in on. Criticism is not meant to hurt you, but only to make you better and to
teach you. There is always room for improvement and it is okay to mess up the first time; no one
(well, almost no one) gets it right on the first try. Working with others allows you to receive
many different sources of input about ideas and they might find some flaw that you missed when
proofreading. They allow you to see different sides of situations and can put things into
perspective. Overall, this course has not only taught me ways in which I can make myself a
better writer, but it has also increased my self confidence. I still don’t consider myself an
especially strong writer, but I now know ways in which to improve my abilities and I certainly
think that I am on the right track.