Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

This blog post will review some more reflection about my writing process this semester.

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?

It's always a little difficult transitioning to a new teacher, especially because they all have different expectations and guidelines for what level they believe their students to be writing at. I feel as though in high school I was writing more to the bare minimum expected for the teachers, but rarely really pushed my writing. I feel as though being challenged with new forms of writing was probably the biggest challenge this semester.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time managment, writing and editorial skills?

Overall, I feel as though I've actually been fairly successful in time management.  I was concerned that I would continue the habit of awful procrastination from high school, but I've actually done quite well at keeping on top of my work (excepting this week, which was not as relaxing as a break as I had hoped). As I said in this blog post, I've enjoyed getting things done early. However it does seem as though I taper off in motivation as soon as winter rolls around. I also think my writing has improved. I spend a lot more time preparing drafts and researching than I used to, and I think that's really improved my writing. In conferences regarding papers, they've generally been more nit-pit-picky rather than have an overall negative tone.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.

It's always sort of been difficult for me to identify a "genre". I used to think that a paper is a paper, and that it seemed kind of silly to have to identify a genre rather than just have the conventions placed in front of me. As college has progressed, it's made more sense to me that you're not always going to have a rubric or something that'll be straight forward for writing. Working by looking at genres in depth and picking them apart by convention has helped me learn how to understand and learn about genres.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?

Helping to understand how to write for a genre, learning how to adjust writing for different teachers, learning how to write and research for myself as well as for school, etc.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H?

I would say that writing the last paper was an effective moment for me. It was a culmination of all the different skills I have picked up on this year. I had an very well written draft, was very well researched, and spent a long time writing a paper I was quite proud of. I feel like this was just a good moment for me, even if the paper isn't perfect.

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?

I would probably say the first paper. It felt like a research paper but it wasn't, I wanted to write in my high school sort of style and it didn't match, I didn't always understand the QRG genre and everything that it entailed. I felt frustrated and while I still feel like the paper came out okay, I still wish I had been more flexible in considering the writing.