Reflection Essay

LaSonya Burns
May 7, 2015
Final Exam

What a Semester Liking to write and being able to effectively write are two totally different things. Writing is something that has always been an issue in my life. I have always had issues with writing due to things like MLA format and citation, where to put or not to put that comma, and the stringent criteria that goes along with writing. I do enjoy writing as long as it is not academically structured. If I have to write about an event in my life or tell a story I get interested but once the guidelines change so does my attitude toward the assignment. As for my strengths in writing, if given a generalized assignment, I can put words to paper with little to no effort. The ideas seem to flow from my head like water from a faucet. Now, my weaknesses are of a different caliber. My weaknesses are pretty much etched in the back of my mind. I had this one teacher in high school and no matter how much I revised, edited, or rewrote, the assignment was just not up to her standard. I began to feel almost ridiculed by her unflattering comments. So, after dealing with her for an entire year I began to feel inadequate. Thus my passion for writing extinguished like an out of control fire.
Being in class with Professor Shelton has helped to alter my perception of writing. With her funny sense of humor and her “tell it like it is” attitude she makes me want to do better. I have heard her tell many of my peers that the only person stopping you from doing well is you. Throughout this semester I have turned in assignments late for one reason or another and have suffered for it. I could have done a lot better had I not let work and family priorities get in the way of my study and writing time.
One of my favorite assignments for this semester was the personal narrative essay. This assignment was one of great ease to me. I sat down and immediately came up with an idea centered on a memory or experience. Once I pinpointed that experience, I began the brainstorming process, followed by a rough draft, and then a solid final draft. The only struggle happened when I began trying to expand the short narrative into a full length essay, as required. After a considerable amount of time attempting to tweak and expand on the first essay, I finally understood and began to add detail and description. After I finished the essay, turned it in, and received it back with my grade, I felt more accomplished than I had in a while. I found Professor Shelton’s comments to be extremely helpful in revising it yet again for this portfolio. After making the suggested revisions to my essay I am more confident in the grade I will receive on it.
The next assignment was the movie review or rave as it was called. This was actually another of my favorites of the semester. I have done many assignments similar to the rave, basically a paper with a multitude of favorable opinions bound together by a few known facts. This was how I saw the movie review, my opinion about a movie, while providing some plot summary and facts about the movie. I also could clearly see the rhetorical situation in the assignment: the purpose was to provide an opinion on a movie which would theoretically influence someone on whether or not to watch the movie. Although this assignment didn’t pose much grief to me, when getting down to writing my rave, I went online to different movies that I liked, to read the reviews and to study the experts. I wanted to see just how the reviews flowed. I then based my structure on what I saw and filled in my opinions and summary of the plot the way I had seen the experts do it. The rave was very easy to write, because I didn’t need to sound fair, I only needed to voice my own opinion about how much I loved the movie.
Now my least favorite assignments of the semester was a toss-up between the “Letter to the Editor” and the “Application Essay”. I found these two assignment to be brutal. The letter to the editor was one where we had to pick an editorial and either be for or against it. I searched for days to find an editorial that I could even understand. All of the political jargon had me lost like a child in a maze, but once I found one that I thought I understood, I began my writing process. It was a slow go for a while, just when I thought I had given it my all, I got my paper back from Professor Shelton and it had more corrections and instructions than I thought would be on it. I realized that I had not fully understood just what I should have until she explained it to me in layman terms. Things I would say would contradict the position I was taking a stand on. She enlightened me on my own position. When came time to revise again for this portfolio, I took all of her suggestions into account. Upon completion of this revision I felt compelled to say that without the instruction of Professor Shelton, I would not feel as though I can write anything for anyone and be a success. She gives sound, critical revision advice without the negative connotations that could so easily go along with it.
As for the application essay, my redundant comments throughout the essay made for a hideous mess. I grasped the concept of the assignment but just could not find the words to convey my message. When I started to write this essay, I found myself in the same predicament as with the letter to the editor. Ideas in my head but no way to get them to the paper. In getting my paper back from Professor Shelton, she was spot on with her revision comments. It was like she was in my head while I was writing it. She saw the redundancy in my work, and showed me how to get past it and make corrections to improve. Overall this assignment was not as bad as I had originally thought.
Being a student in Professor Shelton’s class has given me more insight that I could have ever hoped for. I learned about MLA documentation and citing, which was originally very confusing for me but now makes more sense. Luckily I had several resources at my disposal to help me with the documentation, but it was still a little bit tricky for me to grasp. I also began to use my writing process more as the semester progressed. Especially the various brainstorming and prewriting techniques. For the first time in my literary career, I could actually see my writing come to life. Before, I would just start writing and then go back and edit or rearrange my essay, but this semester I actually planned out most of my essays before I started to write them, and I think using that process made it much easier for me to write and made all my essays more solid.
In the future, I will always use the whole writing process, instead of trying to just “wing it” with my essays. I will also spend more time focusing on my writing and using the resources I have in front of me. The only thing I would change about my writing performance this semester is the amount of time I spend on my assignments. I spent a good bit of time writing and developing each of the essays, but I believe if I had spent a little extra time and gone the extra mile then my essays could have been very strong from the beginning. When writing in the future I will throw procrastination to the wind, set aside some dedicated writing time, and use all of the writing power points and other examples that Professor Shelton has provided during the semester. With the help of those three things and my willingness to want to persevere, I am confident that I can produce a writing sample of any style with any requirements.