Last and Final Blog!! Self Assessment

Jennifer Conley
Ms. Hughes
4 December 2009

Starting out at YHC my writing skills were definitely not where they needed to be and it was honestly part of the reason I could not go to my first choice college. Although I was disappointed about that I was still very excited about college life, but was dreading the horror stories of college papers. However, now that my first semester is over, I can say that those stories were only stories. From this class I have learned that I had more writing problems than I thought because none of my high school English teachers were ever hard on us outside of grammatical mistakes. Writers block has always been one of my biggest problems and sometimes still can be. Although, I have learned the more research I have, and the more I pay attention in class and to the readings, writing is a lot easier. Word choice was probably the worst issue that I have started to overcome. With the help of Microsoft Word’s thesaurus at first, I have learned many new words that are more acceptable in formal papers and I now use them without having to have help from the thesaurus. I have also learned a great deal from class discussions as well. Discussing our class readings and having the ability to talk or debate about them has improved my critical thinking and has opened me to new beliefs regarding certain subjects. This has greatly improved argumentation in my papers which has really improved some of the few writing strategies I have gained. However, I do not think my comfort level in those class discussions has improved a whole lot. I know at the beginning of the semester I did not talk at all and I do talk now, but I do not debate about the controversial subjects only because I do not want to get too caught up in the debate. I do believe however, it shows in my papers. I have done more writings for this class alone than any of my other classes and it has taught me to not procrastinate. I now set goals of when I want certain things done and try to get them done by that time, if another assignment does not come up in that time, which I think is impossible to avoid. I have also learned to not hate or dread writing papers. Most of the subjects brought up in class have kept my attention even if I was not that interested in them and having an interest in what you are writing really shows and stands out. Although my next English class will be a little harder and will expect more, I hope that it will keep me just as interested and willing to write like this class did. I also hope I do as good or better in my next class now that I have experienced my first semester and know what professors are expecting to read now.