Bryant 1 Whitney Bryant Ms.

Caruso ENGL 1101 21 November 2011 My Final Reflection English 1101 this semester has been a great help to my formal and informal writing. As I reflect over the semester, and think about my initial goals and objectives for this English class I have realized that I have done exceptionally well. There were many goals that were established for the semester, some were simple but major, like focusing on one topic while writing, or being more clear and formal. Each and every journal or writing assignment improved from start to finish, each time altering something in one assignment, making the next assignment even better. Once learning from one mistake, I made sure that I didnt make the same mistake in my next piece of work. Every single assignment from this class improved my process of writing and through these projects I achieved my goals. All assignments completed during this course were definitely worthwhile. Our first assignment was a Literacy memoir which was purposed to tell our professor our previous English experiences and our goals for the semester. I started this class off very confident in my writing, but eager to learn. After completing this, we exchanged papers with a student in the class, and from this particular activity, I realized that my writing was passionate but that it needed much work grammatically. After our first piece of work was completed, peer reviewed upon, and evaluated again, I completed an overall literacy memoir reflection, which showed immediate improvement upon my previous literacy memoir. These first assignments alone were purposed to introduce us to a new way of thinking and writing, this method of thinking presented

Bryant 2 to us was used to finish a Rhetorical Analysis paper. Here we had to choose one particular text, provide its purpose, analyze it, and conclude whether or not it achieved its purpose. After using a certain text to write the rhetorical analysis paper, we had to re-create this text through another genre. Both of these projects taught me how to think critically and creatively. Because recreating my original text, took thought and time. One assignment in specific that I had to take a risk with was my rhetorical analysis paper. While other students chose texts such as pictures or objects, I chose George Washingtons farewell address, a long complex speech that was written for the US congress and the citizens of America. I chose this text because it is one of my most favorite texts that I believe in. I figured that if I chose something that I was passionate about, it would be easier for me to write it. Choosing this hard text also made me grow as a writer, because I had more to explain and analyze. Within learning how to become a better writer this semester, I identified my weaknesses and my strengths from the beginning to the end. My strengths include being enthusiastic and successfully making storylines to create my rough drafts of my papers. Once I have such guideline, it prepares me to write a better paper, rather than just writing off the top of my head. My weaknesses at the beginning of the semester included focusing on one single topic, and having good topic and closing sentences. I have worked hard to improve these weaknesses, and to add more support to my strengths. One important trait that a good writer needs is critical thinking. Before entering this class, I was not aware of this, like I currently am now. This class has helped me to think more about what I am writing and explaining every thought. From day one in this class my professor lead discussions and she always had a deeper way of explaining an assignment. With her explaining

Bryant 3 in a profounder meaning, her thinking demanded me to think that way as well to complete my assignments. Thinking outside of the box is something that is needed for creative and well thought writing. It also helps you to pull more out of your mind, even when you think there is nothing more to write about. This aspect is important in English as a whole, but in this class it has truly helped me the most out of anything else. Peer review was something else that helped me a lot this semester. There is nothing better than advice from more than one person. Usually when you have opinions from different people it helps you for the better. Things that I may not think about, someone else might! While participating in peer review, I place my complete attention on the paper of the other writer. One thing that helped me in this class in being a better peer reviewer, was the article called the Phenomenology of Error by Joseph M. Williams. Within this article, Williams showed that when reading and analyzing his documents, he would look over grammatical errors and read the content. Not saying that grammatical errors are not important but saying that the content should be your first priority in checking a paper. So when I look at someone elses paper, I look beyond the errors and I look at the content, realizing that once the writer has the right idea for the substance of the paper, the errors can be easily fixed. I make sure that I read the entire paper, and I give full detailed comments, not sugar-coating anything, because critical analysis is what is needed for a paper. Another important part in peer review is receiving critical analysis not just giving it. I learned that everyones comments count and they mean something. So overall I believe that I was superb for peer review in this class. As an eager freshman college student, I came to class ready for a new world. I expected that this class was very difficult, especially being on a college level. So I knew that I had to come with a positive attitude, and that I had to be ready to work. But as I started attending this class

Bryant 4 more and more, I realized that it wasnt hard at all. All that I really needed was a mind to think, a body to come to class, a hand to write, and a spirit that is willing to do any activity set before me. This class became a class that was very comfortable for me, I enjoyed coming, and I enjoyed writing. After seeing that this class was not difficult to pass, if I did my work and participated in class, my opinion remained the same throughout the semester. There were no particular assignments that were difficult for me, they just all required time and effort, and all of these assignments advanced growth within me. Assignments in particular would be the Overall Literacy Memoir Reflection. It gave me a wakeup call about my writing, making me more determined, each time that I completed another assignment. In conclusion, I have become a better writer and I have learned many things in writing papers. As I revised my main papers for the final portfolio, I reworded sentences, changed topic and closing sentences, and I learned how to stay focus on one topic. The main things that I focused on were my opening and closing sentences. In my literacy memoir I stated that I wanted to work on my MLA formatting and focusing on one complete topic. I can truly say that I have improved on in text citations, works cited, and focusing on one topic. Overall this English class is vital to me, and it is major stepping stone that will help me to be a brilliant writer.