Initially I felt my writing was strong. I used to write a lot, even for fun, but now I’m less motivated to do so. However, when I come up with an idea I really like, I can write much more than required.

I learned to start my introduction paragraphs with what I really want to talk about. In high school I was taught to start with a hook, now I know that’s not really necessary, and I can dive right into my real points.

Creating a works cited page was something important that I learned. In high school we created works cited pages, but we used generators, and we didn’t need to worry about them being perfect. Now I know how to create one properly and have used that knowledge for my history course.

            When I have to do done-page journals for any reading, I now pay closer attention to what I’m reading so I have enough information to actually write about. Also with visual memoirs, I have to think critically about what’s in the picture. I have to think about the meaning of each piece of the picture.

Before this course, I would barely brainstorm or concept map. I would just open a document and stare at it until a thought I liked crossed my mind. Now, I create documents and break up my thoughts into different sections or paragraph. Each section has my potential idea and what source I would like to use to strengthen my point. This was helpful for starting my research paper. It was important I did that because it’s much harder to create a paper started from absolutely nothing.

Like mentioned before, I did learn how to brainstorm more, which was beneficial to starting my research paper. I also learned how to be a little more analytical. With one of my first assignments, I had to analyze and painting. So, I had to take what I was seeing and really go into depth about it instead of just writing my pure observations.

I don’t think I had many issues with paragraph structure, but now I definitely follow a specific structure when writing paragraphs. Also creating a counter argument for my essays. Sometimes I was required to think of a counter to my point in high school, but we didn’t always need to do it. Now, I pretty much always create a counter argument and a rebuttal for it. Also, with MLA formatting. For things like the heading, I wasn’t exactly sure what to put for it, but now I know the key things to have in my heading.

I feel like I’ll be more prepared for future papers. I probably won’t enjoy writing them as the page requirement will most likely increase. However, with what I’ve learned, I will probably have an easier time actually reaching those requirements. My writing will also have a higher quality than from the beginning of this semester.