Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

In this blog post I will be reflecting on my work through the course by answering the provided bulleted questions.

Alan Wolf, "Midland Painted Turtle" taken on August 27th, 2005 via Flickr Attribution Generic 2.0

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?

The biggest challenge for me that came up with this course was the work load. Out of all my courses it was the most demanding and required the most time. Learning to balance this with my other classes that I was taking was the biggest challenge that I faced. This course required a significant amount of work each day.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?

Through this course I learned that I have strong time management skills. I turned everything in on time and never procrastinated the deadlines. I never had to do a ton of work on Saturday as I spaced out my work over the week. My writing skills were stronger than I thought as I created some pieces of writing that I was very proud of. My editorial skills increased in strength due to the structured peer reviews we did. The project three peer review helped me learn how to peer review more effectively.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.

What I learned about the concept of "genre" was that there is a certain way of writing depending on the genre. The genre is like a set of rules, and the rules are the conventions of the genre. You must follow these rules to successfully write in the genre. You cannot simply pick a genre and not follow the conventions. By following the conventions you are then writing in the genre.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?

One skill I know I improved on was my time management skills. I also know that my editorial skills have improved. Before this I would rarely edit my papers. I would try to write the paper to the best of my capability the first time around and then not revisit it. I still write it to the best of my capability but I now know how to edit it to make it even better.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H?

I would say that my project three was my most effective moment. I used a genre that allowed me to be creative and I was very proud of how my project turned out. It followed the conventions, was effective for it's purpose, and looked professionally done. It allowed me to create a project using everything that I learned in the course.

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?

My least effective moment was the punctuation posts. I did not like doing those at all and my blog posts were very forced. I felt as if it was unnecessary busy work. I understood why we were doing the punctuation blog posts but I feel as if no one actually allowed themselves to learn about punctuation by doing them.