Reflection Essay Rough Draft
Throughout my life, I’ve always felt pretty secure in my ability to write. I knew that I was a strong writer in grade school and was commended often for my vocabulary and sentence structuring. Because of this, I really enjoyed the time I spent in English class from fourth grade onward. I always gravitated towards language-based classes as a teenager and still do the same today. So, at the beginning of the semester, I felt, for the most part, confident in myself as a writer.
Despite this, I knew that going into a college level class, I’d still have to improve on some of my writing skills. At the start of the class, I felt that one of the aspects I wanted to focus on was the general flow of my writing. My weakness in writing has always been transitioning smoothly between arguments/topics. There is a certain element of creativity involved in running two paragraphs seamlessly together, and I find myself to be highly analytical as opposed to creative. I also felt like my skills in citation were lacking and definitely needed some help. This is just something I never got around to memorizing exactly how to do during high school because I (wrongly) felt like it was extra information that I would never find a use for. My research paper reads as notable evidence that, while my ability to construct transition statements has improved tenfold since my time in high school, my citations could still use a little more work.
Another skill I feel I’ve improved upon is my ability to comfortably use technology. Before the class began, I had no intention of gaining technological knowledge because, after all, it was an English class and not a computer class. Additionally, I believed that I had a pretty firm grasp on technology as a whole. While this is partially true, the English 121 course advanced some of my skills in areas that I had little to no experience with. For example, the blog assignment helped me to understand professional formatting and the importance of presenting blog posts in a clean, well-written, and aesthetically appealing manner. This is a very useful skill because, in an age where technology is the primary source of all communication, it’s important that audiences take writers seriously. Furthermore, this is the first semester where I feel satisfied in my ability to properly utilize EBSCO and scholarly databases as a whole. Before, I had teachers and professors skim quickly over how to use a database in order to find a source that was somewhat relatable to the essay topic I was pursuing. Since taking English 121, however, I feel comfortable primarily using a database over a standard search engine (such as Google). I believe this might be the most useful skill I’ve gained from this class because I can see myself using this in every class I take in the future.
Overall, English 121 has prepared me for the remainder of my college life in ways I never really expected. Not only did I have the opportunity to learn and practice valuable writing skills, but I also learned technology skills that I see being useful even beyond college. To me, being able to utilize skills beyond the classroom is what marks a truly good class.
Thanks for reading that, here is a good dog to look at.
-Maddi
Blank Slate 