Posted on May 7, 2019
Writing has never been my strong point and my interest has always been toward the STEM field. I never found writing enjoyable mostly because there are so many rules one must follow. What I can express through speaking I could never properly express it in written form. It seems my words get lost as it comes down from my brain to my hand. I leave out words that are meant to be written down. And top of that my writing usually has full of grammar mistakes. And so, I have always been reluctant to write essay papers because I am afraid to make mistakes like these.
I learned a lot of skill throughout this course. I think the first thing I learned is that when you write a draft you don’t necessarily have to be perfect. It can have grammatical errors and any other mistakes. You just need to get your thoughts written down as they come and no matter how terrible it sounds you just need to keep going. I think this part of the learning process made me enjoy writing than before. So I really enjoy writing my Literacy essay. I felt the freedom in writing as a bird that flies away from its cage. I didn’t feel any restriction. I let my thoughts out through my writing as they came in.
One of the learning outcome is that I achieved in this semester is how to research a topic, develop an argument, and organize supporting details. For the research essay especially, I had to dig really deeply. Researching about a topic takes time and effort. And also, I was overwhelmed information and trying to add the information that best represent by my point of view and support my claim was no walk in the park. Another skill I learned was rhetoric. Rhetoric is the art of persuasiveness. When I was writing my I-search essay and Research essay, I had to persuade my readers my giving a lot of evidence. Evidence also needed to be properly presented through quotes and paraphrases.
Overall, I think I developed as writer, but there’s a lot room for improvement. I hope to continue sharpen my skill as a writer throughout my life.
Manika,
This class definitely allowed you to make errors while writing! That was the whole point of the class – if everyone were a perfect writer, there would be no point in the class. The purpose of the class, just like the purpose of being in college, is to learn and improve. Good to hear that you think you developed into a better writer!
Also, I really like how you would let your ideas flow on paper on your rough drafts. This was something I was reluctant to do just because I would have so many ideas flowing at once and I would confuse myself. Good to hear that you became less afraid to make mistakes and more appreciative of writing in general.
It seems that you learned a lot about writing in general from this course, not just in terms of rhetorically or researching. You seem to have developed to become a more confident writer, which is GREAT because there will DEFINITELY be more writing involved in your future classes. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes in the future; follow the writing process (drafting, review, revision, etc.) throughout writing assignments in the future, and you will do great. Good luck!
“I felt the freedom in writing as a bird that flies away from its cage.” Great metaphor. I learned alot about chess and gender from reading your essays. More than once this semester I found myself at the chess tables in Union Square Park or Washington Square Park thinking about your research — I never saw a woman / girl among the players. I hope you continue to write about and share what you learned so that this will change.