Miranda
Storey
English
102
Final
Reflection
6
May 2013
What
Makes a Great Writer - Makes a Great Person
Every person has their own
way of expressing their thoughts onto paper, their own way of painting that
picture for the reader to fully understand the concepts of the paper, and their
own way of improving along the way. This is the case for every English class,
and the case for anyone who ever writes a paper. In high school, we are taught
over and over the format for a research paper, and how to correctly cite
different kinds of medium. We are also taught what is essential for a great
paper, and what should not be included for scholarly research, yet when we get
to college we manage to forget about the things we already know and make the
same mistakes over again. College writing for me has completely evolved how I go
about writing a paper. Instead of doing the generic writing I aimed to achieve
in high school, I now try to think outside of the box and create a piece or
writing that really captures my thoughts and keeps my readers interested.
One of the most important
lessons I have learned over the course of this semester is that time is key. If
I did not manage my time well, my paper would not be as strong and I tended to
have weaker statements not fully supported by my research. As I learned to
manage my time better, and I spent more time on my writing I learned that my
paper evolved and was 100 times better than before. Time management also helps
a C+ paper turn into an A or A- paper. A great example of a weak statement as a
result of lack of time management is prevalent in my first essay. With
statements like, “It is time to face the facts, face the mounds of trash piling
high, and time to turn our backs on the past.” I tended to get carried away
with using words like ‘our’ or ‘we’ in my first paper because I was not
spending enough time thoroughly analyzing how else I could word what I was
trying to say.
Another huge thing that I
have improved on this semester is keeping past tense verbs, and weak pronouns
out of my papers. In my previous English classes I always had trouble trying to
word exactly what it was I was trying to say, in a way that would stay consistent
with the rest of my paper. I would always have issues jumping back and forth
from past tense to present tense, and never really figured out why…until this
semester! It was just lack of knowing how to reword what I was trying to say,
probably due to all of the grammar lectures I never understood in high school.
I have always struggled with grammar, and I truly believe that this semester I
have gained some of that ground that was missing all this time.
In order to have a completely
coherent paper, you must have a well-organized paper. I went into the semester
knowing that organization was something I have struggle with in the past, and
have been trying to fix since. I believe that this semester of English and
research has helped me overcome this issue. I feel confident in the papers I write
now, whereas before I was worried they would not flow correctly and would be
jumping around from view to view. Organization is another key to successful
writing, and successful researching, and this is why this semester has been an
evolutionary one. I have evolved as a writer and a researcher, and am now able
to fully focus in on the paper at hand and construct a well-rounded good paper.
I now am able to use complex sentences and organizational flow to make my paper
strong. An example is in my second paper, the film analysis, I feel that I really
grasped the concept of the movie I was analyzing and organized my paper in a
way that made the readers understand my movie and my topic. For example, a well
worded thesis can give the readers a clear direction of what the paper is going
to be about. Much like this one from my film analysis essay, “Muniz did not
intend to go to Brazil and change the lives of the catadores while creating his
artwork, he intended to let them reimagine what their life could be like and
teach them lessons along the way.” This thesis captures who my paper is going
to be about and gives a clear direction for the points I will explore.
Writing is something that
will always change and evolve as society does. People write about things they
are passionate about, as I did this entire semester, and when people write with
passion great things happen. With the help of time management, correct grammar,
and organization my papers have been some of the best I have ever written this
semester, and I can say that with confidence. I know that with everything I have
learned in English 102 that in all my future endeavors I will be able to
construct whatever writing assignments may be thrown my way. My writing has
transformed for the best, and in all my future business classes I believe the
research and analysis I have completed this semester will be of great use to
me. I will be able to do some in a timely manner, and should be able to
accomplish all of my future business papers.
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