Reflective Essay On My Writing Style
Reflective Essay
As I take the time to reflect, it never ceases to amaze me how I’ve changed within the course of this year. Especially when I consider my writing style and how that has changed. From high school to completing my first year of college, a lot has happened as far as my writing style goes and those changes will help me to be a more professional writer in the future.
My writing style in high school was formal and followed a strict template for writing research papers and all other written assignments. Many of my teachers then left no wiggle room for creative detail nor allowed us to use “I” in any of our papers. They gave my peers and I such highly specific prompts that each of our body paragraphs was almost identical. As a result to the specific prompts, I would typically score 87-95 percent …show more content…
on my written assignments. Overall, it was easy to write essays in high school because it was always clear to me what the teachers were looking for in our papers. Transitioning into college, I felt my writing has not changed as the results still average to be B+ to A quality papers. At least that is according to my professors outside of Writing and Rhetoric. My professors offer clear expectations of what they are looking for in an A quality paper. They also offer specific prompts to their essays and term papers, which makes it all that much easier to stick with the same writing style I have had while in high school. The only difference between writing in my other classes at Alabama University and high school is the amount of time given per paper to write and the number of papers given to write per semester. In high school, I would have to write 2-3 research papers per semester whereas here at Stetson University I have to write 4-6 research papers per semester. Also my high school teachers would offer 4-5 weeks to produce a solid research paper, whereas my Alabama University professors would offer 2-3 weeks to produce a great research paper. Generally, the writing format and professors expectations remains the same in my classes outside of Writing and Rhetoric as it was back in high school, the only difference is that more papers are assigned per semester with less time to complete them.
My proudest moment this year was when I successfully completed a ten-page research paper for my intro to philosophy class. My topic for this paper was arguing that souls do exist. Writing the paper took 2-3 weeks to develop ideas and gather information. Finding statistical and credible information for a philosophy paper is difficult because philosophy in general is mostly about theories and ideas. The topic was particularly hard because souls are not tangible objects and it’s hard to make an argument about something that cannot be observed. There are not many concrete examples to use other than analogies that I can come with in my own head. Nevertheless, researched concrete info was key to the success of the paper. After I found the information that I needed, it took 2 weeks to write the actual paper. This was the first time I sat down and wrote a research paper that long before. It was not a paper that could be completed on an entire Saturday; it took awhile to complete. I had to break it up into chunks because I would at times get lost in what I was saying in my paper and have to go back and sometimes rewrite an entire paragraph. After it was done, I turned into my professor with much relief that I had completed a ten-page research paper on time. As an added benefit, I received an A- for the paper. Completing a ten page paper on time in my philosophy class and receiving a good grade on it was my proudest writing moment this year at Stetson University.
Unlike my writing style in high school and other classes at Alabama University, the writing style required of me in Writing and Rhetoric was rather odd and much more difficult. The course required me to be much more informal when writing research papers. My professor often encourage adding, “I think” and adding a bit of story telling or observational stories into research papers. This has been difficult for me to adjust to because I have been drilled to write formally since freshman year of high school. I often have found myself straining to find a way to write creatively and still be taken seriously when constructing a research paper. This course also offered vague prompts and vague grading rubric. Many times I became quite frustrated with myself because I did not know exactly what my professor was looking for and had to meagerly gander at it in the dark. At several points throughout the semester, I felt that I was writing without direction or purpose because I did not know how to write a paper that met my professor’s A quality expectations. Overall, this course has felt self-defeating because I have been getting A’s on my other written assignments outside of this course and have been struggling to get B-‘s on my written assignments in this course.
I suppose that that is the purpose of an English course, to be more difficult when it comes to writing papers. Writing and Rhetoric’s purpose is to teach students how to write research papers more creatively, so when students have to write research papers for other classes, theirs will appear more attractive to their professor than students who have not taken Writing and Rhetoric. I may not have enjoyed this course, but it did help me to improve my writing style with teaching me how to add more creativity to a boring research paper.
Though I may feel I have not changed my writing style, it is evident in my Writing and Rhetoric first and last research papers that I have altered it. The grade result may be the same for both papers, but there is still a change. In the first paper, I was formal as that was only way I knew how to write. I never used “I” once, which made it difficult for my professor to distinguish my thoughts between a quote. It also didn’t help that the majority of my paper was composed of quotes and one or two short sentences explaining the quote and how it applies to my argument. My professor appreciated that I knew a plenty of information about my topic on my first research paper, but she wanted me to develop my voice and creativity in writing more. I took in her suggestions and applied them to my final paper. In my last paper, I showed more of my own voice and used less quotes. I used phrases such as, “In my own view” or “my opinion is that…” There were still times that my professor had difficulty distinguishing my voice between a quote which is frustrating to me since I was trying hard not to fall back into a formal writing style in the last paper. There were also other times when she wanted a specific quote for something that I knew off the top of my head. I suppose that I should not have used the word “about” when attempting to give a statistic from the off the top of my head. I have changed from writing formally and using quotes to take up the majority of my research paper to writing more informally and inputting my voice more over use of quotes. There are many more improvements that I could make to my writing. My professor has suggested that I can develop more of my ideas and dive deeper into my arguments and thought processes. I could also try to have a more exciting intro with the use of a short story or personal experience. Grammar could always be improved. There are times when I write long run on sentences. Some times I can’t help it when I have an idea flowing through my head. In addition to run on sentences, I have a hard time with remembering the right tenses to my verbs sometimes. However, that is what revising and editing is for. I could also try increasing my vocab and varying the length of my sentence to make my paper seem more interesting. The biggest things I need to improve upon are transitions. I have relatively great points made in my research papers, but I have difficulty making my points connect and flow from one to the next. I am relatively adequate at putting together an outline that makes sense. It just those two sentences between each body paragraph that I have to work on. These are just some of the few aspects that would help me turn a mediocre research paper into a fantastic research paper, there are more I am sure.
By knowing what I need to improve upon and what I learned from my Writing and Rhetoric course, this knowledge has better prepared me for my psychology major. The grammar and vocab is always a must and have good skills in that regard will help my writing to be more professional. Adding my own voice and creativity, will make lab manuscripts seem less dull to the readers and help to feel confident in my own knowledge. Learning how to make good transitions will help to maintain clarity and fluidity when I communicate with other peers, professors and eventually my colleagues. Overall, this knowledge will help to me become more professional when I write and verbally communicate in the psychological field.
From high school to completing my first year of college, a lot has happened as far as my writing style goes.
I have found it easy and systematic to write good quality papers in high school and some of my classes at Alabama University because professors gave clear prompts and I knew what to expect as far as grading goes. My proudest moment so far came from a ten page research paper I did in my philosophy class and that was mostly due to the fact that put a lot of time into constructing it. Writing and Rhetoric was a challenge for me. The course caused me to rethink of how I write my research papers. I have changed from writing formally and drowning my papers in quotes to becoming more informal and using my own voice more than quotes. Grant it, there are still many improvements to be made in the way that I write. The lessons that I gained from this course and becoming more aware of my weaknesses in writing, will help me to write and communicate more professionally in the psychology field, which is what I plan to go into. Writing and Rhetoric has truly improved my perspective in respects to how I write and I will feel more confident as I write in the
future.
As I take the time to reflect, it never ceases to amaze me how I’ve changed within the course of this year. Especially when I consider my writing style and how that has changed. From high school to completing my first year of college, a lot has happened as far as my writing style goes and those changes will help me to be a more professional writer in the future.
My writing style in high school was formal and followed a strict template for writing research papers and all other written assignments. Many of my teachers then left no wiggle room for creative detail nor allowed us to use “I” in any of our papers. They gave my peers and I such highly specific prompts that each of our body paragraphs was almost identical. As a result to the specific prompts, I would typically score 87-95 percent …show more content…
on my written assignments. Overall, it was easy to write essays in high school because it was always clear to me what the teachers were looking for in our papers. Transitioning into college, I felt my writing has not changed as the results still average to be B+ to A quality papers. At least that is according to my professors outside of Writing and Rhetoric. My professors offer clear expectations of what they are looking for in an A quality paper. They also offer specific prompts to their essays and term papers, which makes it all that much easier to stick with the same writing style I have had while in high school. The only difference between writing in my other classes at Alabama University and high school is the amount of time given per paper to write and the number of papers given to write per semester. In high school, I would have to write 2-3 research papers per semester whereas here at Stetson University I have to write 4-6 research papers per semester. Also my high school teachers would offer 4-5 weeks to produce a solid research paper, whereas my Alabama University professors would offer 2-3 weeks to produce a great research paper. Generally, the writing format and professors expectations remains the same in my classes outside of Writing and Rhetoric as it was back in high school, the only difference is that more papers are assigned per semester with less time to complete them.
My proudest moment this year was when I successfully completed a ten-page research paper for my intro to philosophy class. My topic for this paper was arguing that souls do exist. Writing the paper took 2-3 weeks to develop ideas and gather information. Finding statistical and credible information for a philosophy paper is difficult because philosophy in general is mostly about theories and ideas. The topic was particularly hard because souls are not tangible objects and it’s hard to make an argument about something that cannot be observed. There are not many concrete examples to use other than analogies that I can come with in my own head. Nevertheless, researched concrete info was key to the success of the paper. After I found the information that I needed, it took 2 weeks to write the actual paper. This was the first time I sat down and wrote a research paper that long before. It was not a paper that could be completed on an entire Saturday; it took awhile to complete. I had to break it up into chunks because I would at times get lost in what I was saying in my paper and have to go back and sometimes rewrite an entire paragraph. After it was done, I turned into my professor with much relief that I had completed a ten-page research paper on time. As an added benefit, I received an A- for the paper. Completing a ten page paper on time in my philosophy class and receiving a good grade on it was my proudest writing moment this year at Stetson University.
Unlike my writing style in high school and other classes at Alabama University, the writing style required of me in Writing and Rhetoric was rather odd and much more difficult. The course required me to be much more informal when writing research papers. My professor often encourage adding, “I think” and adding a bit of story telling or observational stories into research papers. This has been difficult for me to adjust to because I have been drilled to write formally since freshman year of high school. I often have found myself straining to find a way to write creatively and still be taken seriously when constructing a research paper. This course also offered vague prompts and vague grading rubric. Many times I became quite frustrated with myself because I did not know exactly what my professor was looking for and had to meagerly gander at it in the dark. At several points throughout the semester, I felt that I was writing without direction or purpose because I did not know how to write a paper that met my professor’s A quality expectations. Overall, this course has felt self-defeating because I have been getting A’s on my other written assignments outside of this course and have been struggling to get B-‘s on my written assignments in this course.
I suppose that that is the purpose of an English course, to be more difficult when it comes to writing papers. Writing and Rhetoric’s purpose is to teach students how to write research papers more creatively, so when students have to write research papers for other classes, theirs will appear more attractive to their professor than students who have not taken Writing and Rhetoric. I may not have enjoyed this course, but it did help me to improve my writing style with teaching me how to add more creativity to a boring research paper.
Though I may feel I have not changed my writing style, it is evident in my Writing and Rhetoric first and last research papers that I have altered it. The grade result may be the same for both papers, but there is still a change. In the first paper, I was formal as that was only way I knew how to write. I never used “I” once, which made it difficult for my professor to distinguish my thoughts between a quote. It also didn’t help that the majority of my paper was composed of quotes and one or two short sentences explaining the quote and how it applies to my argument. My professor appreciated that I knew a plenty of information about my topic on my first research paper, but she wanted me to develop my voice and creativity in writing more. I took in her suggestions and applied them to my final paper. In my last paper, I showed more of my own voice and used less quotes. I used phrases such as, “In my own view” or “my opinion is that…” There were still times that my professor had difficulty distinguishing my voice between a quote which is frustrating to me since I was trying hard not to fall back into a formal writing style in the last paper. There were also other times when she wanted a specific quote for something that I knew off the top of my head. I suppose that I should not have used the word “about” when attempting to give a statistic from the off the top of my head. I have changed from writing formally and using quotes to take up the majority of my research paper to writing more informally and inputting my voice more over use of quotes. There are many more improvements that I could make to my writing. My professor has suggested that I can develop more of my ideas and dive deeper into my arguments and thought processes. I could also try to have a more exciting intro with the use of a short story or personal experience. Grammar could always be improved. There are times when I write long run on sentences. Some times I can’t help it when I have an idea flowing through my head. In addition to run on sentences, I have a hard time with remembering the right tenses to my verbs sometimes. However, that is what revising and editing is for. I could also try increasing my vocab and varying the length of my sentence to make my paper seem more interesting. The biggest things I need to improve upon are transitions. I have relatively great points made in my research papers, but I have difficulty making my points connect and flow from one to the next. I am relatively adequate at putting together an outline that makes sense. It just those two sentences between each body paragraph that I have to work on. These are just some of the few aspects that would help me turn a mediocre research paper into a fantastic research paper, there are more I am sure.
By knowing what I need to improve upon and what I learned from my Writing and Rhetoric course, this knowledge has better prepared me for my psychology major. The grammar and vocab is always a must and have good skills in that regard will help my writing to be more professional. Adding my own voice and creativity, will make lab manuscripts seem less dull to the readers and help to feel confident in my own knowledge. Learning how to make good transitions will help to maintain clarity and fluidity when I communicate with other peers, professors and eventually my colleagues. Overall, this knowledge will help to me become more professional when I write and verbally communicate in the psychological field.
From high school to completing my first year of college, a lot has happened as far as my writing style goes.
I have found it easy and systematic to write good quality papers in high school and some of my classes at Alabama University because professors gave clear prompts and I knew what to expect as far as grading goes. My proudest moment so far came from a ten page research paper I did in my philosophy class and that was mostly due to the fact that put a lot of time into constructing it. Writing and Rhetoric was a challenge for me. The course caused me to rethink of how I write my research papers. I have changed from writing formally and drowning my papers in quotes to becoming more informal and using my own voice more than quotes. Grant it, there are still many improvements to be made in the way that I write. The lessons that I gained from this course and becoming more aware of my weaknesses in writing, will help me to write and communicate more professionally in the psychology field, which is what I plan to go into. Writing and Rhetoric has truly improved my perspective in respects to how I write and I will feel more confident as I write in the
future.