Liz Walton

Professor Jan Reiman

English 1103

March 3rd, 2011

College English: A Reflection over the Semester

In the syllabus, we were told to expect to write in several different modes throughout the

semester. This goal has been and, with the remaining assignments, will be completed at the end of the

course. So far in this English course, I’ve written quick daybook entries, research papers responses to

readings, and creative ‘Writing to Explore’ pieces. In the writing to explore pieces, I’ve used several

different styles some of which are writing from a different perspective, writing a log of activities and

describing them, and even writing a semi-autobiography. In the future, I plan to continue broadening my

range of writing styles through the additional writing to explore pieces that have been assigned this

semester. I am actually quite disappointed in the writing style shown in my daybook. The topics discussed

could have come to better fruition had they been given more thought and the style of writing could have

been more interesting. Some of my daybook entries involve the planning process for my inquiry paper

which has proven to be quite helpful. I think in the upcoming remainder of the semester I should focus

more on planning in my daybook, as well as making my responses to the writing prompts less flighty and

disorganized. In addition to writing in different modes, we were also informed that we would be

analyzing readings, learning to write thoughtfully and to use previous texts to help analyze new

information. The responses that we’ve written to readings have displayed all of these qualities and I

believe that we’ve grasped the concept of the course rather well.

A simple goal that I can come up with for my writing would be to focus more on the correct

usage of punctuations, such as commas and semicolons and their correct usage. Semicolons have always

been an unexplained writing mystery to me. They have a purpose that hasn’t been fully explained to me

and they seem to pop up in strange places in my papers… Another goal that I have for myself that could

be classified as a medium goal would be to give myself more time to write, rather than rushing through
assignments merely to complete them on time. When I have taken time to really think about something

that I’m writing the result is a much richer and complex piece that what I come up with on the fly. A

harder goal that I could reach for would be to write once a day. It doesn’t matter what I’m writing as long

as it become a creative outlet rather than a chore. I consider this the most difficult of my goals because it’s

so time consuming and it also requires a great amount of dedication, both of which have always been

problems for me.

In the remainder of the semester I intend to work on these goals as well as try to improve the

types of writing that I’ve had issues with, enhance the quality of types I’m comfortable with and improve

the way that I write in general.