Self - Analysis Blog

This class has opened a lot of doors for me as far as writing is concerned. Before this class, I saw myself as an average high school writer that basically did what needed to be done for the assignment and I never really put extra time into my work. After this semester, I feel like I have improved a fair amount in this area. Now I can say that I have a more diversified outlook on the types of writing, including the rhetoric view as well as the the observational and relflective styles that we have discussed in class. I have learned to respect all styles of writing as well, even if I don't completely understand the purpose of it. I have also learned to write in a more spaced out format. I work on an assignment chunk by chunk, in order to have time to think about it longer, instead of sitting down at one session and putting an entire paper together.

In communicating with other classmates, I have learned to bounce ideas back and forth to create a better understanding of a particular assignment, as well as get that person's perspective (a peer review) on a piece of work that maybe I thought was ok. The peer reviews that were done in class this year provided a lot of constructive feedback for helping me complete the first two writing projects. Communicating with my teacher, when I did communicate, was a good experience. He provides complete answers to my questions and that made the assignment a lot easier.

I think I can say that the strengths of my writing skills are a fairly well-educated vocabulary and grammar skills (although I am sure everyone can say the same about the grammar). I think that I struggled this semester in comprehending all that the rhetoric assignment was to be composed of. My imagination when it comes to deciding what to write for freewrites was a strength as well, as there was a lot of opportunity to write those. In reference to the "What is good writing?" question, I think it is safe to say that good writing is composed of a few things. First, if there is a topic or question that needs to be discussed, make sure the writer is effectively doing that. Also, there needs to be a feel that the writer has put a little time and effort into it by creating a sort of flowing work that makes sense in general.

As far as the future of my writing experiences, I think that a lot of this education will be used in many other papers, classes, or even jobs. There will be times I am sure that I will need to address the emotional standpoint of some issue. I would feel confident in my knowledge of pathos to develop a strong argument on an issue of that type. This class has been a learning experience that I will definitely take with me after this semester.