Prior to this class, even having performed well academically, I was intimidated by college writing. Naturally, the curriculum made me nervous, and I could recall my negative past experiences from high school academic writing, so I entered the semester bracing myself for the worst. What actually happened was far from that expectation, and I have been adequately challenged and intrigued by my studies.
As mentioned, I was previously anxious that my writing would not meet the standards the course and this institution. Despite my success in rigorous classes in high school and even last semester, I had the mentality that I would rather be surprised by my capabilities instead of failing to meet expectations of myself that were set too high. At the same time, I felt that my education thus far had narrowed my abilities to writing that only pertained to the academic and argumentative style. Such repetition made other subsequent writing tasks dull and intimidating. The writing process was deprived of anything substantial after years of ‘going through the motions’ and caring more about rubrics than the content and quality of my papers. In my own writing I find that I tend to overcomplicate language when I have specific ideas I wish to express. This can present through odd use of punctuation which, rather than sounding well-formed and succinct, becomes awkward rhythmically. The same pertains to sentence structure. My sentences are sometimes too lengthy and often have a better alternative as far as structure. I also feel that before this course I was not confident in incorporating in text citation smoothly while providing ample context. The first large paper of this course helped me confront that discomfort since it was so rich with research. I had never constructed an annotated bibliography before and I found that it guided me greatly as far as how I would use quotes and where exactly they would fit in within my many ideas. Even in the two papers prior to large paper one, I practiced signaling and transitioning into quoted and even paraphrased information.
Although this course is the only general education course in my schedule this semester, I have found it has applications over multiple fields of study. I am a visual arts major so my schedule is typically dominated by art studios and art history courses. Perhaps this is part of what has been so engaging or refreshing about writing and rhetoric. This writing course has been highly applicable to my art courses since language is broad and includes both the written word and visual language. Since the start of the semester, I have considered the rhetoric behind my art projects more carefully, asking who is my audience?, why do I want to portray this?, Who else relates to the ideas I am presenting?
Critical reading is not something new to me as a student. As I understand it, the courses I have been in over the years have helped me to develop my ability in that area. Over the course of this semester, this course has only helped me to refine my critical reading and thinking. What comes to mind are various readings we completed, especially those completed through the website “hypothesis” which allowed annotation and the viewing of peer comments. Other more substantial examples include a number of projects such as “Large project 1” which was a traditional research style paper complete with an annotated bibliography. To be honest, I was most daunted by this particular project. Larger research-heavy assignments entail difficult work and the dread that accompanies deadlines. This paper scared me, but more importantly it challenged me. My critical thinking, researching, and writing muscles had to be in flex throughout the entire process for me to complete the assignment successfully. I carefully had to consider the sources which best fit my thesis and my smaller claims, and in the bibliography, establish how they would do just that. Not only will these skills be essential to any academic writing in the remainder of my time as a student, but the application of critical reading will allow me to be a more inquisitive, well-informed adult.
As with any new experience, my thoughts about college level academic writing have evolved. Previously, it was typical to have a greater amount of guidance through the duration of the writing process for various assignments. In college however, the responsibility of the process is mostly in the student’s hands. Once again, this is an aspect which can generate a lot of anxiety as a student in their Freshman year. What helped me overcome this specifically though, was taking advantage of the resources around me. This semester, even more so than the last, I established and maintained a good rapport with my instructor which helped my navigate topics covered in class and confusion I experienced smoothly. For the most part, I continue to use many of the strategies I have in the past as I continue to improve my time management skills. I do not typically prefer to work on assignments in small increments over a length of time, but in shorter more intense bursts closer to the deadline. I have had both success in failure in this technique in the past, but by using it I am dependent on my organization skills and efficiency to be successful. This has caused me to become an individual who works efficiently to solve problems which is an invaluable attribute to have moving forward. In this course I learned about myself as a writer in regards to the process of drafting, editing, and revising. Because of my preference to work within a in a shorter span of time, I tend not to have drafts of my projects. With Small Project 2 and Large Project 1, required rough drafts allowed me to compile my thoughts and approach to writing in one space. These drafts were not required to be comprehensive but mainly to assist our writing by putting ideas and structural notes down on paper. I find that editing and revising are both parts of the process I rely on heavily because I do not prefer drafting. For smaller papers like Small Project 2, I had more time and room to make edits as I was writing, whereas Large Project 1 made editing difficult since it was research heavy and time-consuming. The process of revising these papers for this webpage revealed to me that I can accomplish the effect I intend to in intense bursts of writing, but it would serve me that much more to give myself more time with my work.
At this point, I consider myself to be effective in reaching my audience and achieving my intended purpose, especially because I feel I support my ideas well with in-text citation, analysis, and contextualization. As a writer, I have a better understanding of the bigger picture of ideas and topics I discuss or write about. I understand their exigency: why exactly should I care about this? Why am I writing about what I am writing about? My weaker points are usually in the smaller details of my writing such as organization and paragraph structure and even my language use. When I get excited about an idea or am highly focused while writing, I tend to spew my thoughts into longer and fewer paragraphs which can make my argument harder to grasp. This semester I have been working on breaking this habit by writing as I normally would and breaking down smaller ideas into their respective paragraphs as I edit. I pride myself on my language use as I value sounding intelligent, credible, and ethical in my writing. Similar to my organization, my language becomes repetitive as I write which speaks to the formulaic style of writing and pressure to reach a time or word limit I am used to from my academic career. Again, another thing I have been working on this semester is mindfulness in my diction and sentence structure to create a cohesive flow in my writing.
Upon my completion of this course, I feel far more prepared in regards to college and professional writing. At the same time, I have much more experience and knowledge to gain in this area to be fully prepared for my later academic career and beyond. This course was detrimental to laying the foundations of my college writing skills and that is invaluable to me. My relationship with writing is complex because I find it enjoyable when I do it for myself and it is a satisfying creative endeavor, but academic writing has been a source of much dread and stress in my life so far. This still holds true for me, but since the beginning of the semester, I have become far more open to failure and learning, and therefore can take on the challenges of future writing more prepared and with a positive mindset.