ePortfolio

image source

At the beginning of the semester, I was not really sure I was going to be able to handle this writing course. I had taken writing classes throughout high school, but none of them were as advanced as College Writing 1 was seeming to be. My high school writing mostly consisted of the basic five paragraph papers, so I did not really know how to write in any other forms. Although, College Writing 1 did challenge me, it also introduced me to new forms of writing and helped me develop into a better writer.

Although I have learned a lot throughout the duration of this course, the concept that has helped me the most is the emphasis on revision. I have always been someone who would write up a paper and then turn in the first draft. I would gladly take a B on a paper and would feel so lucky if the grade was any higher. Occasionally, I would do a second draft, but for the most part I liked to write the paper and turn it in so I could be done with it. So, the idea of having to write multiple drafts did not sound any fun to me, and I was not looking forward to that part of this course.  However, looking back on the course now, I realize the reasons why Dr. Kyburz emphasizes revision, and I now see the difference it has made in my writing. Writing three to four (or more) drafts of every assignment has helped me be successful in this course. With every draft I write, I am able to find and change things in my writing that ultimately result in better work. Revision combined with review from Dr. Kyburz, my peers, and myself has resulted in some of my best work. I have been able to catch little mistakes that would have resulted in points be taken off, which I would always overlook when I only wrote one draft. Most importantly, revising often has shown me that looking at an assignment on different days allows me to get a fresh view on my writing and change things that seemed okay before but could actually be a lot better. Going forward, I will keep revising again and again to ensure I continue to improve my skills in future writing classes and with every paper I write throughout my college career. In fact, I can no longer see myself turning in my first draft of any writing assignment. I will never forget to "write early and revise often."

I believe that the best work I have done in this course is my exploratory project. This assignment was a bit of a challenge for me because I am used to roughly outlining what I am going to write before I start the actual writing process. I research if needed, I outline, and then I write. That is the process that has always worked best for me and has resulted in what I thought was my best work. However, the point of the exploratory assignment was to begin with one basic question and then see where my thoughts and research would take me. This meant that I could not really do much outlining or researching beforehand if I wanted this writing process to be as natural as possible. I will admit I did not like this at first. I had a hard time trying to figure out where to start and then where to go next with my writing. I began to get very frustrated with this and wanted to research and outline my paper and then connect the paragraphs with narrative glue. However, I realized I would be missing the whole point of the assignment if I did so and that it would not do much to improve my skills as a writer. So, I reached a point at which I decided to stop overthinking the project and just write and research. I figured that I could get the assignment done and then go back and change what I did not like. It turns out that overthinking the assignment so much was what was causing me so many problems. After the first couple of paragraphs, the writing process became much easier. My writing began to become more natural as I moved from one paragraph to the next. Soon enough, I began to gain interest in the topic I was writing about as I found more and more research. The assignment was feeling less and less like something I had to get done and more like something I wanted to do. In the end, I ended up with a paper that flows quite naturally, and I managed to become more comfortable with a style of writing that I had found difficult.

I am definitely leaving College Writing 1 as a better writer and as a more confident writer. Throughout the class, I have completed and done well on assignments that I would have never of thought I could handle or even get done. I have developed more writing skills in this course than any other writing class I have taken. As I go on to other writing courses and more advanced writing assignments, I can safely say that I feel a lot more prepared for them after taking this class.