I think that I have developed as a writer and bettered my writing process throughout this term. At the beginning of the term, I described myself as a writer who works well with a very sloppy first draft, refining it through multiple stages. I have realized throughout this class that when I wrote first drafts that were very sloppy, I was uninterested in revisiting them. I have found that my process works better when I spend a little more time on the first draft, so I am inspired to come back and edit it. I have also learned that I often use convoluted and clunky prose in my writing. I am definitely a more conscientious writer now. I ask myself “what am I trying to say?” and I try to write it as clear as possible on the page. I still have more work to do with this, but I can definitely say I have improved.

I chose my paper entitled the “Seasonal Changes in Summer” along with my final research paper because I feel both reflect how I have improved as a writer and thinker. I struggled in both papers to find strong, relevant theses and support with strong arguments. With both papers, I had classmates tell me that they were not convinced of my arguments, which inspired me to revise them and make them stronger. These were my favorite papers to write and revise.

I also included my descriptive activity because it also reflects my growth as a writer. I was surprised to have written a passage from seemingly meaningless descriptors during the class activity. This has taught me that it is worth taking the time to think about sensory descriptions before writing on the page. It makes me more excited to write and gives the reader a context for the story.

What I have learned from this class is how much I enjoy collaboration in the writing process, which I probably would not have said before taking this class. Discussing ideas as a group helped me critically think about the texts we were reading and how they applied to other ideas, and by the time I had to choose an idea for a paper, it was stronger and more developed than it would have been if I had thought about it on my own. I also benefitted from my classmates’ feedback on my drafts. It was helpful to have the reader identify lapses of clarity, which my own eyes were blind to.

My writing process is more structured as a result of this class, but not in a restricting way. I feel I am better able to communicate with my readers, which will improve my writing in the future.