Final Blog

Jonathan Dishon
ENG 1101
Dr. Hughes
December 4, 2009

At the beginning of the semester the main problems that I felt that my writings had was a lack of conviction. This was mostly due to the fact that I thought that my writings were never going to be fantastic, but that they would always be bottom of the pack compared to everybody else. This class helped me to trust in my writing and showed that I did not need to follow what everyone else was doing or to take the path that I thought was easiest. Because in actuality the side with which you have the most in common with as far as views go is definitely the easiest path. This is because you are able to actually put yourself into the writing and people are able to see that you truly believe in the subject that you are arguing about. I also knew that in all of my writings the introduction was always subpar and that I would always rely on good body paragraphs to bail me out. Since being in the class though I have seen vast improvements in my writings. I always knew how to write a proper introduction and what it took to make a good one, but not until this class did I ever fully understand and be able to show that I did understand. When it came to the in-class arguments I was usually quiet because I was not really used to arguing in class over stuff that actually mattered. In high-school it was always arguments over dumb stuff that would never actually happen, but in this class we actually debated stuff that were either happening or had happened in the past. That was one thing that I really liked about the class even though I did not put in my two cents about the subject most times. I feel though towards the end of the semester when I started to engage in the arguments which we were doing that my argumentation skills became a lot better. Because not only did I learn to find all the information I could to back up my own side, but I learned to find information that supported the other side and involve it in my argument to show that I have knowledge of the other side as well as my own. I have also made improvements in my ability to think critically about the subject at hand. Critical thinking is a very important facet of writing because it allows you to think in depth about the writing so that you can cover everything that you need to. Since being in this class my goals have not really changed, but the way that I plan on achieving them has. This class has taught me a whole lot about not only writing, but also about ways to achieve things that I want to do, and to believe in what I am writing.