rough draft reflective essay (not really done cuz the sweat party)

Derek Tremblay

Major Garriott

ERH 101-03

5 December 2016

Reflective Essay

This semester, in taking ERH 101-03 at VMI, I have made many progressions in my writing from high school. My writing in high school, and when I first came to college, was often unorganized and uninspired. I didn’t know the correct way to organize and write a paper, I would just try and follow the questions that I was expected to answer and I could not write about my own ideas. My thesis statement was always in a random place or not even in the paper at all. The teachers never actually taught me how to write and it would always result in a grade on papers that I was not happy with. I was confused and I learned to hate writing. I would always have trouble coming up with ideas and I thought writing was useless, because I didn’t understand how I would have to use my writing skills at a real job or life in general. This semester I have learned more about writing and the way I write than I ever have. From assignments, like readings in the Writing About Writing book, and conferences with Major Garriott, my literacy has grown and my writing has improved tremendously. This semester I have better attacked writing by writing more often, reading various texts related to writing, being more engaged in class, and planning out my writing more effectively.

Writing papers in high school had always been a point of anxiety for me the whole year. I wrote very few papers before college, but the ones that I did write would be announced at the beginning of the year, and at that moment I immediately started dreading writing that paper, even though it was due months down the road. I didn’t know how to write and get a good grade, and I didn’t know how to plan out my essay in a helpful way that I could use. The anticipation of cramming in all of my brainstorming, research, and writing into a few days (like I knew I would end up doing) would stress me out and make have a negative attitude toward that class. This was also true for ERH 101 at VMI, but I realized there was no way I could avoid writing in college, so I decided to keep an open mind and to do my best.

When I began writing papers for this class my papers were often unorganized, I didn’t explain myself to the reader, I didn’t explain what the sources I used meant, and I had weak topic sentences. In one of the first papers I wrote a really weak topic sentence stating, “Dr. Bednar fits very well into Gee’s definition of a Discourse” (Rhetorical Analysis of Professor Bednar’s “Economics 301: Business Economics”, 3). I didn’t explain how, and the topic sentence didn’t really fit the rest of the paragraph. However, in my revision, I made “Dr. Bednar has credibility in the econ and business discourse community. Technical terms used in the syllabus set the tone for the class and the expectation to act like a professional” (Acting as a Professional: Professor Bednar’s “Economics 301: Business Economics, 4) the topic sentence. This topic sentence better explains what the paragraph is about and gives more information about Dr. Bednar to the reader.

This semester I have learned the importance of organization in my papers. I have learned that in order to have an effective paper that relays my message and thoughts toward the audience I need to have a strong thesis in my introductory paragraph, and I need to connect my body paragraphs to my thesis. I need to have a strong topic sentence at the beginning of my paragraphs, and my paragraphs need to adequately describe my topic sentence. I also need to have a summary at the end of the paper that ties everything in and restates my thesis.

My writing techniques have improved visibly from the first paper at the beginning of the semester up until the psychology paper I turned in last week.

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