Dear whomever this may concern,

Going into the first semester I was very critical about my writing skills. I was nervous that my writing wasn’t going to be good enough, but I realized that writing is a process that you are always improving on. Even when feeling like an essay isn’t to the best of your ability you can always improve. I realized everyone has a different writing style and is at a different pace when it comes to writing. I think one of the most important things I learned was you can make your writing better through drafting, the more drafting that is done the better the piece will become. 

I remember one of the first classes we had, we did an in class free write about how we felt about our writing skills coming into this class. I remember writing about how I wasn’t confident with writing skills over all. One specific thing I said I struggled with was being too repetitive. I think I did improve on this during this class because most of the things we wrote about I had enough information to consistently write without the struggle of not knowing what to say, causing me to repeat ideas over and over again in my pieces. Another thing that I was concerned about was knowing what I wanted to write, but not knowing where to place that information, or even articulate it in the way I wanted. This class really helped me improve on that as well because it shows that just one other person looking at your writing can enhance your piece tremendously. Since we did group workshops in class, other people were able to look at my writing and help me organize my information better. I think overall that the workshops helped my essays look and sound more well put together. The final point I made in the free write was getting stuck while writing. I feel like this class gave me the opportunity to write more fluidly. We always talked about a topic a lot before a major writing assignment. There was a lot of research into strategies on how to tackle the assignments, so I thought that was super helpful during the writing process. 

Personally, in this class my favorite writing assignment was the first assignment we did. The narrative piece was my favorite because it was the easiest to write about my personal experiences rather than researching a topic and writing about it. I wrote about how we look up to people we  are inspired by through my experience with makeup. I was able to be very descriptive in my writing because I wrote about something I enjoy and do almost everyday. Leading up to the narrative essay we read a narrative essay by EB White. “Once More to the Lake”, ended up being my favorite reading assignment during this course. I liked how it explored the topics of maturity, aging, time, and self reflection. During my class post I reflected on how the rhetorical devices he used in his essay helped not only help readers to relate to him more by using pathos, but also it helped to make his writing more interesting. Without the rhetorical devices he used the essay might have come off very dull. Taking this into consideration I took all the points from EB Whites writing strategies and used them to strengthen my piece. I tried my best to be as descriptive as possible while also balancing it by being relatable and connecting with the reader so it wouldn’t become uninteresting. 

If I were to revise my essays I would go back and put more effort into the final drafting process. A lot of the times when I would go to submit an essay I would sloppily read through my paper trying to get it over with. I definitely think it is really important to look over your work thoroughly before submitting it because points can be easily lost from stupid little mistakes that you miss while skimming through. Also I have a problem with procrastinating, so if I were to do these again I would do it as early as possible so I would be able to get it as best as I possibly could before the deadline.

Overall this course helped me strengthen my writing skills a lot. Prior to coming to this class I was not self-assured when it came to writing, but now I think I can take on English 170 with more confidence than I had at the beginning of the semester. I am grateful for all the resources and knowledge I learned during this course and am happy to move onto a more challenging class that will teach me more about myself as a writer while boosting my skills and writing strategies as well.