It wasn’t until recently that I felt comfortable with the way I write. For schoolwork, I ideally spend 10-15 minutes planning out the assignment. Before I start any writing, I look at the rubric and requirements. Each assignment has a different set of requirements. If the assignment is an essay, I create a thorough outline with thesis statements and topic sentences. Then on a spreadsheet, I will put several quotes– to help me stay organized. For smaller assignments, I create the first draft and then edit it.

I learned throughout the semester that the first draft will never be perfect. It’s a time for you to look at what’s missing and what can be improved. I spent a lot of time stressing over first drafts. I would constantly revisit the same sentence. For essay #3, overthinking was a challenge. I kept feeling like something was missing from my writing. It ended up extending the amount of time I spent writing the research essay.

My writing style has changed from the beginning of the semester. I am now able to write in APA format. I also learned how to write different types of essays. The first essay in the semester required a transcript of an interview. I learned the importance of keeping the informant’s words the way they are said. I also learned a lot of lessons from procrastination. Pushing assignments to the last minute causes extra stress and grieving. It’s better to take your time and plan your essay over several days. Once you finish your essay– put it away and revisit it later to make edits.

Writing has never been too difficult for me, words flowing easily from pen to paper. The majority of my writing has stemmed from schoolwork and rarely a product for my own desire. When preparing for these assignments, I make sure I have read what is necessary to make the project comprehensible. This entails reading a specific chapter in a text, going over prior notes, or scanning the rubric for the task. Before I begin writing, I need to know the question begin asked or the purpose of the assignment. Additionally, I need to know the stance I will take throughout the piece or the point I am trying to make. Although I should write an outline for every assignment I am given, I only do so with bigger papers.

While writing, I constantly notice how I don’t just write out my thoughts regardless of how bad it is. I write a few sentences, pause to mull over the words, and then make edits to the words in question. I would rather just free write and then proceed to read over my work, but I can’t seem to drop this habit. Because of certain expectations given, like a word count or page maximum/minimum, I often add information that does not advance my point. My writing process, sadly, hasn’t changed much over the semester. Though I’d benefit from utilizing the methods learned in class to improve my writing, I probably will not incorporate them into my routine. Not because they aren’t useful, but instead because if an approach does not have a large impact on my writing, I tend to forget it or abandon use for it.

When approaching my writing I always have approached writing head on. I never really had a proper writing process. When beginning writing I didn’t look at structure and focused on trying to put my thoughts on paper. This process has changed over the semester because this semester I have been able to improve my writing by breaking down my writing into parts and not having to deal with the panic when writing essays.

When writing essays I try to do lots of research before beginning my writing. I usually try to have various sources/cites so I can have a solid idea before I even begin writing. It gives me ease having something to work with before I begin to write. When given a assignment I try to go through the criteria quickly and create a question that needs to be answered. As I go through the process of writing I tend to start with the body paragraphs and basically throw all my thoughts on the paper. After I’ve put all I could on my topic then I go back and revise.

After this I work on my introduction. I usually spend the longest time on my introduction as it is the beginning of the essay. I usually rewrite my introduction multiple times before I look back at the body paragraphs and the word vomit I wrote. Through this class I became more aware of my structure and if what I’m writing ties back to my thesis. From writing essay #3 I realized I focused a lot on context and summarizes my sources not adding enough of analysis/my voice. Writing essay #3 I became more aware of trying to connect and compare all my sources instead of just talking about them.

Reviewing the essay “How Individual Upbringing Affects Young Adult Romantic Relationships” I would overall give the essay a total score of a 90. This essay has a coherent structure with a strong introduction by beginning with a statement from campbell university. The essay compares and makes connections between his sources tying them back to his topic and triangulates data between sources. This author elaborates on his ideas and effectively summarizes his sources ideas and cites at least 5 sources.  This essay does give analysis but could have provided more of there voice in the body paragraphs. The essay overall is well-constructed and throughout the  has smooth transitions.

When I am going to write an assignment, first I will read the introduction of this assignment. The topic we are going to write and its requirements. For some simple writing projects, I will start writing after I read the requirements. For projects like an essay, I will need more preparation time. First, I will go find some background information which will help me to understand more. In this class, I like to read different sample essay and compare them, I use a similar format in my essay. Then I will think about the subject, create the inspiration for writing as much as possible, and then expand to a larger aspect. I will make a writing plan in my mind, and then read articles about the subject to help me sort out ideas. It is a long process for me to start writing, therefore the beginning is the most difficult part for me to start a new essay.

I learned that the complete structure of an article needs to be abstract to the citation, which helps me understand how to construct a comprehensive article. Also, after I completed a series of writing steps, I learned many tips on how to improve my article. Compare to my first draft and second draft, my thinking has improved a lot. In the final draft, I learned to analyze better, I learn to use evidence to connect with my topic instead of going straight to the conclusion after I put all my evidence.

My writing skills are very weak, and this class has undoubtedly provided me a lot of help. When I write the first draft, I often feel confused, I have no clear idea of how to structure the subject of my article. I will receive many suggestions from classmates and professors to help me improve, and my main idea will get more clear. After much writing training in this class, I feel that my writing skills have been improved. Every time I got the professor’s comments in the first draft and it became an experience for me. Previously, my article was a chaotic structure, now I will pay attention to the coherence from top to bottom, formulate a clear theme so that each of my paragraphs has a central sentence. This has given me a lot of help in writing skills.

My writing process is ever-changing, I feel like I do have some sort of process without structure if that makes any sense. I normally just jump into writing my assignments but after taking this course it has shown me that actually breaking up the writing assignment into mini assignments is very helpful and can help me avoid the feeling of panic while I try to cram the last minute. It has given me a structure and timeline which I desperately needed.

I like to first go over the main criteria I need to include in my writing. Are all the questions answered first?I like to glance at the criteria and then vomit on the page. Everything that I could possibly say about the topic and especially include my opinions on whatever the subject is. I like to get it all on the page to then go back later to see what I’m dealing with. What am I missing? Did I meet all of the criteria? Do I need to do more research? Do I need to work on my transitions and bring clarity to my ideas? Does it make sense? Do I repeat a lot of the same words which then brings me to the thesaurus to try and elevate my vocabulary because it definitely needs the elevation? I like to start writing from my introduction all the way to my conclusion and then move things around accordingly. I’ve learned that when I write I’m pretty emotional and I like to write about myself personally and relate it to any topic. Trying to write essay #3 was in my opinion one of the hardest essay’s I’ve had to write for this class but I feel like it was the essay that pushed me the most into developing a scholarly voice, it taught me the importance of separating the bigger assignment into smaller ones.

Before starting an assignment, I always do some sort of research about the topic to get a better understating of it. Also, look at the assignment details of what is it asking me to do. I can’t just write anything. After all this, I kind of schedule out what days to work on what. For example, today I will this, and tomorrow I will do that.  As I start writing the paper, I collect multiple sources as I can possibly use on the paper and write down any ideas that I can think of about the topic. This is because I will rather be prepared before writing the draft so that I don’t get stuck in the middle out of nowhere. What I learned while writing is that through the process the main idea changes a lot. Every time I write a paper my main research question tends to change quite often. Never have I ever finished writing the question with my initial idea before writing a paper. This semester my writing process changed a lo. I never prepared myself before writing at all. I barely even wrote a draft. I use to always jump to writing the final version without any idea of what I am going to write. I soon realized that was not a good idea after I started taking this class.

At first, I didn’t really do much preparation whenever I would start an assignment, I would just dive right into it but I found out that it’s easier for me to prepare for a written assignment by creating some sort of an outline to help me organize. It also helps me keep track of my assignment and what to write. Writing an introduction is the hardest part for me and it takes me a while to know exactly what to write and how to go about it. Therefore, the first thing I try to do, is to write a body paragraph then move on to the introduction. Before I begin, I need to know what I’m writing about, context wise, and look for credible sources/evidence that supports the topic. As I go through the process, I learn about the credibility of a source, how crucial it is to analyze evidence as well as citing. If I’m being really honest, I don’t notice much of a change in my writing over the course of this semester. I feel like I still have much to learn in terms of analyzing and being more concise in my writing. But I’m proud of what I have done in this class. All the writings I did made me realize my weakness and how to address/fix them. Checking for grammar and punctuation is something that I often find myself doing since I didn’t used to before. Maybe if I go through all of my written assignments, I will be able to notice a significant improvement.

To prepare for a writing assignment, I always like to have research be done on the topic first. Once being given or choosing a topic, I look into many sources to have information-and if based on a topic of my choice, sources that relate to the research question so I’m not struggling to find sources at all. Once doing that, I like to write down summaries of what each source is about as well as list the information that stands out provided in the text. As said earlier, before I write I need to know if there are sources that are related to my research question, particularly for research where I’m able to choose my question so that I’m assured (credible) sources for the topic exist. By going through the process, I learn how to make the sources correlate with one another, following with additional information that’ll correlate with the next source; I do this so that my paper has a better flow to it. The only way my writing process has changed is by me having to break down each source more than once through assignments given. I find these assignments beneficial as it helps me better grasp the information in different perspectives and how I want to use it; It also helps me better word the final essay, as I try to avoid using repetitive words in each assignment, allowing me to find one that suits and sounds best. However, what hasn’t changed is my time management. Though I know not ideal, I usually do my writing assignments last minute as knowing I have x amount of days/hours left to turn it in helps me better focus on strictly just the assignment.