Throughout this semester, I have learned a lot about myself as a writer. I didn’t know that I was capable of writing different genres of papers that were assigned in this class. From writing an opinion editorial to composing a visual essay that I have never done in any of my English classes before. There was a series of 3 essays overall in this course, and in each paper, I learned what were my strengths and what were my weaknesses through the comments given to me from peer review. During peer review, I took the suggestions that were given to me and tried to incorporate it into my writing. I was able to formulate and articulate a stance through my writing through being organized and drafting my papers. Doing outlines before writing the papers really helped me stay on topic and leave out any information that wasn’t necessary. Though I did struggle on some papers, for example, paper 2 and 3 were ones that I struggled with. In paper 2, I lacked creativity in my visuals which really showed me that I needed to work on not just proving my arguments through writing but also through visuals. In paper 3, I struggled with analyzing the argument in my paper which is something I must work on. Analysis is one of the biggest things I struggled with throughout this class. In some papers my analysis in my paragraphs were strong and in others I lacked it, so I needed to figure out how to thoroughly analyze the evidence that I used in my papers which I was able to do through the comments given to me by the professor. 

Some of my strengths in this class were being able to practice using library sources, online databases, and the internet to find articles that were included in my papers. This not only helped me in this class but in other classes as well. This also helped me strengthen my quoting and paraphrasing skills in some of my papers because sometimes the quotes were just too long to incorporate, and it needed to be cut short and straight to the point. Being able to develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes in this course was helpful for me since I am used to rushing the process of writing a paper and just putting it together without taking the time to actually go through the thinking process of what I want the message in my paper to be, for example, how many sources I want to incorporate and how I can further analyze the argument I am trying to making in my papers. 

Overall, I was able to enhance my strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing throughout this course and I am looking forward to taking this learning experience and applying it to my other classes moving forward. Through the comments from my peers and my professor, I am looking forward to turning my weakness into strengths and I know there is always more room for improvement going forward. I’ve learned that writing is about your thoughts put formally into words and being able to share it with others. Other’s may not agree with your thoughts and that is okay because it helps maintain balance and initiates discussions between people and that is the beauty of writing, having people come together to read it and discuss it.  

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