My view on Writing 101 (so far)

• In the beginning of this class, we were asked to talk about the reason(s) on why we took writing 101. I had two reasons, one being that this course is a requirement at NEIU and the second is that I need to better my writing skills in the fields of revisions, vocabulary/word choice, common mistakes and not repeating myself. Seven weeks into the semester, I feel that I have made some progress in some of my goals. I believe that I have improve my skill at reediting my paper without another person pointing out mistakes and not doing common mistakes. I feel like that I haven't improve the vocabulary/word choice in my essays and that I don't repeat myself in my papers. I feel this way by that in my first essay, I found many mistakes in my rough draft by myself and these two problems go with each other as well. I feel the way I do about the other two goals because they are dependent on me and me alone. I need to find/use other words to express the same meaning I am looking for and I need to pay attention to what I am writing because I typically repeat items in areas that I don't need to or to help me get on track with my paper but forget to delete it.

• I don't feel like there is any specific aspects of the class that has been particularly helpful for me as a writer. We haven't done a lot of writing in the class other than our essays to see if there is any aspects that is helpful for the students. I can say that when we went over the rules of comma splices, run-on sentences and how to write better sentences, it did help students understand why or how we make the mistakes we do. So if this is an aspect of the class that has been helpful at least for me, then the aspect of reviewing the common mistake has been helpful for me as a writer.

• If there is anything that I would change about the class is that I would like the professor to go over the format of the particular essays that we are going to write about in class. I had trouble writing my rough draft of the ad analysis paper because I didn't know the format of it. I used my textbook to gain ideas on how to write my paper but still, it didn't help me. I am the type of person who needs an outline for when I write a paper. Also I would change the fact that we don't have a lot of homework that can help students better their writing skill. If this class is suppose to help students better their writing skill, this class as of right now, isn't doing that. Those are the two most important things I would change about the class.

• My writing process has changed since the beginning of the semester. Before this class, my process has always started off with me writing an outline of my essay and the specific ideas I would talk about in my essay. Since the beginning of the semester, I have had trouble writing an outline for my essays and now I just write down what comes to mind, so that my mind can focus on the idea of the essay. other than this, my writing process is still the same. I keep on writing until I feel like I am done and then I fix some grammar and spelling mistakes. Next day, I do some major reedits to my paper and then I do a second draft. After the second draft, I would go my writing tutor and see what I can make better in my essay, what are the best aspects of my essay and to see if I did everything my professor wants me to do. After seeing my tutor, I make the edits that my tutor told me to do. By the time the essay is done, I have written at least four drafts of the paper.

• Overall, I do think that my writing has improved. I feel like I do focus on what I am trying to write about and if my audience will understand what I am trying to talk about. I also now pay attention to the word choice I use in my paper and that if I use any vivid description, I need to make sure it isn't cliched or overdramatic. Also, I have reach some of my goals that I have set out for this class and the ones I haven't reach, I just need more help and hopefully by the end of the semester, I will reach all of my goals. Another thing is that I now know that I can write a paper without having an outline of it done beforehand, but I would like to have an outline done beforehand because it helps me keep my though on track and not go off topic.