Deanna Jacobson

  English 1010 Reflection

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED THROUGH ENGLISH 1010:

    I am excited to say that I have learned many things this semester. Through the semester as I have experienced many types and styles of writing I have had the opportunity to learn what types of writing I am successful in and those I need to strengthen and improve.  I have learned how to improve my method and process of writing so that I am effective in proving my point and presenting the message of my writing to my readers.

   Although I have learned many things in English 1010 this semester, the greatest thing, and perhaps the most tedious thing that I have learned, is how to edit and revise my writing fully so that my final draft is the best that it can be. Throughout class, revision of an individual paper required a minimum of three revisers that were in charge of searching for specific errors in the paper. This included a search of errors in areas such as grammar and punctuation, organization of ideas, and the overall purpose of the writing. By establishing a routine of multiple revisions I was able to see the transformation in writing a first draft to the corrected final draft of my assignment.

   Some of the specific assignments that we worked on not only taught me how to revise effectively, as each paper consisted of multiple revisions, but more importantly, what types of writing I enjoy. Some of these assignments include the memoir and research writing assignments. The differences in writing memoirs in comparison to research assignments, I found was obvious. I clearly enjoy writing memoirs for the reason that I can take a past experience and can bring it to life on paper through dialogue, active verbs, and descriptive details. While a research assignment on the other hand involves multiple hours of research. However, I found that I do enjoy research assignments when the topic that I have chosen is something that interests me, such as the ethics of stem cell research.  

CHALLENGES AND SUCCESSES:

    Some of the challenges that I faced during this semester was a belief that I was not a great writer. I felt that my writing was insignificant among other talented writers in the class. I was also concerned that I would not be able to correctly format my assignments to the appropriate format. At the beginning of the semester, these fears seemed to hold me back from doing my best.

   But as the semester went on, I was able to overcome those fears and develop my writing process further. I discovered that I didn’t have to sit down and write a perfect paper in the first draft. The writing process uses revision for the purpose to receive constructive criticism that helped me improve in my writing. I admit I am not a great writer when it comes to a first draft, but as I have taken the time to improve and alter my writing process, I have been successful in developing writing skills that have made me a better writer.

 Writing Reflection

            The memoir that I wrote titled,"Adventures of Babysitting," was my favorite assignment of the whole class. I love writing reflections on past experiences, because it provides a base that I can expound upon and reflect on life lessons that I have gained. In a memoir I can add dialogue and action. Because I can emphasize the action and speech of the characters involved, I can continually make them come to life through writing. I felt that this paper was the start to my development of an improved writing process.

           The group research assignment that we were assigned to do titled, "Embryonic Stem Cell Research Is It Ethical?", greatly helped to improve my writing. It was through this project that I was able to tie everything that I had learned into one large assignment. I was able to work with a partner and with the combination of my partner's ideas with my own, I was able to learn and expound upon new ideas. The revision process took longer than regular assignments. But as I saw what needed to be improved on in my group's research paper, it was easy and clear in deciding how to develop a research paper. That is why I this assignment was one of my greatest writings, because I gave my best work and revised my portion of the research into a great paper that I am proud of!