My writing methods have progressed somewhat since the beginning of this course. At the time of the writing of my first paper I was not familiar with the concepts that I have learned over the past couple of weeks. I was not able to fully grasp the purpose of the rhetorical method, and as a result my writing on the subject was fairly weak in certain areas. My writing was also fairly redundant, and dealt too much in summary rather than analysis. Since then I have learned to better project my own thoughts into what I am writing. I have learned where it is necessary to elaborate my thoughts, and where it is better to leave things unsaid. I have also learned how to structure my introduction, summary, and thesis in a much more effective way than I had done before. My revisions on my first essay helped me to realize these things. Also, the comments I received from my peers helped significantly in improving my writing. They did this by lending me perspective on what readers respond well to, and what they respond poorly to, and the instructor’s comments on my first essay pointed out to me where my writing is weakest.