Reflective Letter

Before initiating this journey in this class, I had previous experience with writing and argumentation since I always found interest in writing. When I turned 15 years old, I began to develop my interest in writing and things like poems, short stories, and even narratives from other people were something that woke up the inner writer that I had in me. I was not good at it at first, but with practice and learning from my own mistakes I managed to grow and become a better writer not only for the spectator but for myself. I always enjoyed writing poems to describe my feelings to the world in a more obscure and intimate way because it makes me able to write a history and yet portray my intentions behind what I’m writing about. However, this little hobby of mine went away for a long time. In a more summarized way and in chronological order: School, moving out of town, applying for college, the beginning of a pandemic, and going through it [pandemic] did not allow me to enjoy this past time at all. The time kept on passing by and I realized after joining my first English class in college that I do not enjoy writing as much as I used to, I developed more repulsion and hate towards writing due to the lack of motivation during these difficult times. Don’t get me wrong! I still find writing exciting and intriguing, yet I cannot find myself doing it as I would use to a few years ago. In my scholarly way to write and school-wise, I tend to follow the same process that I used to attempt before writing whether it’s an essay, narrative, or whatever I am assigned to do at the moment: I visualize as I’m writing. Before applying my words to my work, I like to imagine the scenes or whatever I’m going to write about, I am not a big fan of writing ideas nor being too specific with what I want to show to the audience because I like to work with what my mind screams at the moment, I believe that what makes my writing a little more unique and interesting sometimes. However, sometimes this does not work how it’s supposed to since I like to visualize what I write, descriptions or words are harder to play with and to portray in the work itself due to some of the times visual descriptions do not translate as good in the physical spectrum.

Something that I could say that I’m the proudest of it’s how my narrative and ability to take criticism has changed positively, I can be more descriptive with my stories and portray my ideas better than I used to when I initiated my writer’s journey in this class. However, I am not perfect nor an expert in narrative writing, journals, nor anything in the field. I understand that I have a lot to learn if I wanna become a better writer and things like academic journals, essay, and other things related to this side of writing are not my forte, but it is crucial for me to learn these and improve to be able to work with what is thrown at me without being worried of making mistakes or “doing it wrong”.

Some revisions that I have to make sure I do before submitting or attempting to publish my journals is to make sure grammar and spelling are on point to assure a better understanding of my work not only for me but for those who might be reading my work at the moment. Something that I’ve been told by my professors and colleagues is that sometimes my grammar and my use of words can be a little off or not as comprehensible which I’m trying to improve by practicing my typing skills, also learn more words that can expand my vocabulary as well as trying to revise my previous works and write down my frequent mistakes in my past assignment. 

As we move on to our next semester, it is important to grasp what we have from our previous assignments. Even if writing essays every week or journals can be annoying and worth rolling our eyes up, it forces us to practice our skills and become better students for future journals or even classes. Some things that I have to work on as well are the use of my sources and citations since some sources that I have used in the past assignments have turned out to be unreliable or not good sources for scholarly writing. 

At the beginning of this semester, I was not as confident with my work as I am right now and thanks to this class and the unconventional assignments that made me throw tantrums while doing them, I can confidently say that I am ready to participate in my next ENG 170 class. As I mentioned, I am not an expert nor a guru when it comes to being a writer, but being a good one [writer] does not mean that you are better than everybody else but you are capable of learning from your mistakes and keep on learning new ways to make your voice heard. I am ready for next semester because I know I can learn from my mistakes and from my colleagues who are here to only criticizes your work but to help each other, at the end of the day, we are here to make everybody come along and to improve together. I am ready because I know I can pass to the next level and pass the obstacles that are going to be thrown at me in the future.