Reflection on Open Letter Draft

In this post I will be talking about the people's drafts I reviewed and reflecting on my writing process for the final.

First off I reviewed both Isaak's and Chloe's drafts.

Did you demonstrate an ability to think about your writing and yourself as a writer?

I think that I did successfully reflect on my writing abilities. I showed that I was able to display what I learned in my writing through writing a letter, and also that I was able to reflect on my own writing in doing so.

Did you provide analysis of your experiences, writing assignments, or concepts you have learned?

Yes, After each detail I gave, I provided way to which it improved my writing ability and what it did to my writing style. 

Did you provide concrete examples from your own writing (either quotes from your writing or rich descriptions of your writing process)?

I included several links to my blog that showed my writing style and then how those writings changed later. I also provided examples to my analysis.

Did you explain why you made certain choices and whether those choices were effective?

Yes, while writing I had to make a choice over which blog posts I wanted to use as well as which writing experiences from high school I wanted to use. I think that the experiences I chose were most effective and conveyed my meaning well.

Did you use specific terms and concepts related to writing and the writing process?

Yes, I used specific terms like time management and such to talk about my former writing experiences and how this class helped me develop those skills.

Draft of Open Letter

Here is a link to my draft.

I think that my conventions are alright, but if you would like to provide what you found to be effective conventions of the style please share.  I also would like you to look at the length of the sentences and if they need to be reworked.

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

In this post I will be answering several questions about my writing experience in this course.

Lim, Walter, "Aren't these husky puppies the cutest things ever?" uploaded 11 July 2014 via flickr.com, Attribution 2.0 Generic.

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?

I think that the biggest challenge I faced this semester was time. It seemed as though I never had enough to complete everything I wanted to or needed to. I often just completely missed homework because I forgot about them, or missed class because I overslept. With that said I was able to still balance work, school and my social aspects pretty well.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?

For my time management, I realized that I need a lot more time to plan and write than I originally thought. My writing skills were also not that good because of my writing process where I just put my thoughts down in however they come about. This way actually really helped my editorial skills because it forced, once I had finished, to sit down, slow down, and read my paper at a slower speed to really check for mistakes. This along with the mandatory peer editing, really helped me focus on what was necessary and what was just fluff.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.

The concept of genre is the style a writer is able to get his or her thoughts across. This is one of the most basic things a writer must understand because it is how the argument is being conveyed. The conventions of a specific genre for some audience may be more effective then for a different audience. A writer must understand who his or her audience is to effectively choose the genre that is right for them. Therefore, the genre forces a writer to think about what will be most effective for the audience he or she is trying to reach.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?

I think the time management of spacing out my work before sitting down and writing will be something that I will continue to use throughout the rest of my life. In addition to this, I think the most critical skill I have learned in here is probably the consideration of who I am writing for and writing for them, instead of writing for myself, because I already know what I want to say.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H? 

I think my most effective moment in from this semester was when I finally realized why there was so much homework and how it all tied together. After complaining about all the homework to my friends one day I eventually realized that all the blog posts and various assignments were used to have us really think about what our project should be and how we should go about doing it.

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H? 

My least effective moment from this semester was when I just didn't have enough time to write my blog posts and essays all at once. I got overwhelmed by everything so I decided the best course of action was to just go home sit in my room and sleep for a day and then get back to work.

Revisiting My Writing Process

In this post I will be reflecting on my very first posts. I will also be giving a forecast of where I think my time management skills and self motivation are heading.

hot4sunny, "Master Yoda Do or Do Not, There Is No TRY", uploaded 3 February 2013 via flickr.com, Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic.

After looking over my first two blog posts, I realized just how optimistic I was about the start of this semester. For my Calender reflection, I told myself I was going to have a lot of time to get homework out of the way at night, usually around 7-10 and what ended up happening was that I would get home and either sit on the couch playing video games or just fall asleep. My time management was not that successful on other parts as well because I also thought I was going to go to every single class especially in the morning, but what ended up happening is I would oversleep or just not want to go that day, which says a lot about my self motivation.

However not everyday was bad, there were some days where I stuck to my schedule and got all of my homework done on time and everything was good. For this class, I mainly focused on getting all of my homework done on the Friday and Saturday, due to the fact that those were my most free days and I was able to just sit down and accomplish all of my tasks.

In the future, after reflecting on this semester, I have noticed several things.

• My time management skills suck. With that said, it is always great to know where to improve. For the coming years, I hope to get into a set rhythm and pattern to be able to accomplish things easily and effectively.

• 8 am classes do not work for me. I think that part of my problem was that after getting up so early in the day and then going until I get home at around 7 I was just too exhausted to get anything accomplished. However, one thing that I face is that I am not able to sleep much past 8 or 830 which means that 9 am classes are probably best for me.

• My self motivation also is pretty bad when it comes to things I'm not the best at. I am not that good at writing which is why my motivation for this class was bad, but I really did like the class overall. With this said, I think that my motivation for things that I find interesting and that are easy for me is what I focus my attention on when I should be evenly distributing my efforts.

Of these three things, I would say that one of the most important things I got out of this class was how to work effectively and get the jobs done. My writing style changed from a procrastinator to a mainly a heavy planner, making it really easy to just sit down and put my ideas on paper (or computer). I think that this reflects the way that the next several years of my life will turn out because I have learned that even though things may not be fun, they still have to get done (did I just rhyme?).