Literacy Reflection

Literacy Analysis There are many of writers in today’s world that struggle with things even though they have been writing for years. For some, it takes somebody to point out their weaknesses before they are able to correct those and have quality writing. Many writers also have close to perfect writing as they have learned from other peers’ mistakes and are able to turn those into good learning experiences and put together quality writing. Young people tend to have trouble receiving constructive criticism and are not able to learn from their mistakes. As you continue to read, you will learn a little more about me and my strengths and weaknesses as a young writer. Strengths were harder for me to think of, as I struggle with writing and I
am not always as confident as I wish to be. Some strengths I was able to think of are I always set up an outline or a to-do list before I start my writing that way I can have a better understanding about how my writing is going to take shape. Before I even start my outlining or to-do list, I brain-storm ideas to try to make my writing have good flow and ideas. After I have done some brainstorming and gathered ideas, set up an outline or to-do list, I always write a rough draft. What the rough draft does for me is it helps me organize my writing. With the rough draft I am able to move sentences around, or even paragraph and place them into the best possible place to have good flow in my writing. The rough draft also allows me to have more than just myself edit it and make corrections. Taking the extra steps of brainstorming, gathering ideas, and writing rough drafts has allowed me to have good organization in my writing. While I do tend to ramble sometimes in my writing, I for the most part stay on topic.
If I am writing about a topic I am highly interested in, I have a better chance of staying on topic and not rambling as much. I have accepted the fact that I am not a perfect writer and am not close to being a perfect writer at all, I am always up for positive criticism. For a long time I had a hard time of accepting criticism from others until I realized they see things differently than I do and it’s okay to learn from your mistakes so you don’t make them again. Having correct grammar is something I have always done. I try to use a broad variety of words and not repeat the same words
often. Weaknesses were easier for me to point out to myself as writing has never been one of my strengths. While receiving positive feedback from others I have been able to turn some of my weaknesses into strengths. One of the main things I have struggled with as a writer is developing a thesis statement. I have to give it a lot of thought and sometimes still have trouble thinking of one. As stated earlier, if I am writing about something I am interested in I typically have many supporting details, but when it comes to a topic I am not interested in, or even don’t know much about I typically don’t have very many supporting details which makes writing lengthy papers difficult. Punctuation errors have also been a weakness of mine as I am not always able to recognize when some punctuation should go.
Writing a rough draft and having others edit my paper has made me more aware of where certain punctuation is supposed to go. Having quality transition words, phrases, and sentences is also something I have improved on while having others edit my papers. Transitions are still tough for me to think of sometimes, so I am hoping I can get more educated on quality transitions during this course. Having good flow in your writing is always something to keep the readers attention so I try really hard to make sure my writing has good flow and is easy to
understand. With not having much experience with writing, citing sources correctly have always been a big weakness of mine. I have been taught a few times of the correct way to cite a source of give credit to the author, not having much experience of it has turned that into a big weakness of mine. Rambling and making lists out of things I am writing is something I plan on working on more. Knowing it is not efficient to make lists of any kind in writing, writing outlines and rough drafts has helped me steer away from using those so often. Not having very many English classes in High School that required us to write papers has made my weaknesses easier to point out. While writing this paper I have thought of many different ways I can try and improve my writing that way I am more confident with the work I am writing and turning in. During this semester while I take Freshman Composition I hope to gain more strengths than weaknesses that will be able to help me throughout life. I never thought of that I would have to write papers being a nursing major, but I quickly learned I was wrong. There is a lot of writing that has to be done as a nurse so I hope to gain many strengths for my writing over the next semester.