reflection (porfolio)

I am embarrassed to say, but this is my second time enrolled in writing 101. I know that writing is a difficult subject for me. This is why I've been avoiding this class by taking other prerequisites until other prerequisites required writing 101. So here I am...

Writing 101 surprisingly turned out not to be as bad as I imagined. Not that I'm trying to score brownie points, but it all depends on who teaches it. We do a lot of activities that made me realize what my strength and weaknesses are. For example, Craig class we do peer review. I'm glad that it is on blogger. Blogger I can take criticism without feeling embarrass or want to kill the reader for making that comment. I’m beginning to love blogging. I used to hate internet and barely used it for my other class, but since it’s required in this class. I’m beginning to love it. I can decorate and write my comment to my peers in regards to their essay. Blog has also helped me with my essay by letting me look at what other ideas my peers came up with and their writing style.

Compare this writing 101 to my last. This one I can accept criticism because it’s on blogger, but my last writing 101 we had to read out loud in groups of five. I passionately hate that idea! I felt as if I was in an AA meeting where my peers felt pressured to make an opinion so instead of being honest and helpful. All they did was complimenting me to my face because they didn’t want to hurt my feelings. I felt that because of the compliments I received instead of helpful advice. I was still left with fustration and that made me not want to work or improve on my paper.

Some of my weakness that I learned from this class is whether I'm writing the topic I love or hate I still need to write it and get it done because I can always come back and fix it. So there's no reason to procrastinating. Essay 1 to be honest was not my favorite essay. The topic was Neighborhood Watch Program. I had the hardest time finding interest in this topic and yet I chose to stick with this topic because I procrastinated, so there's not enough time to change the topic. I wrote how I feel about the community needing to form a neighborhood watch for many reasons such as decrease in crimes, property value, and build relationship with neighbors that way everyone is more aware when a strange car or person is in the neighborhood. Because lack of interest I learned that it truly shows in my essay. I had trouble with "I say" in my essay. I gave many sources like Sheriffs, Real Estate agents, and director of Cuyahoga County, but not having much "I say" decreases readers interest.

My other problem that I have is I need to learn to be open minded with criticism and think of it as a positive thing. I need to think of it as a helping tool for success on my papers. When the essay was assigned, essay 3 topic was to write about whatever comes to mind. I started by having a lot of great ideas, but one of the greatest for me was my trip to Vietnam. Finishing my essay of course comes with peer review. I need to learn from my last essay and take criticism or any comments into consideration. I learn that writing is a progress and it is never perfect the first time around. Essay 3 had four comments from my classmates. They love my topic and details of my trip but my main problem just like the last essay is grammar and run-on sentences. I learn from the last that at least this time around I have a lot of "I say" just because its my trip so that made it easy for me and interesting for the reader.

My problem with grammar is I start talking as if it was in the past tense, then I jump to present. That causes the reader to be confused. In essay 3 where I mentioned "I am in Vietnam," as saying, "right now I am there at this very moment", but what I should’ve said is, "was," to show the reader that my trip to Vietnam was in the past. I also have a lot of problem with run on sentences. I just don’t know when to add a period to show reader that he/she can breathe or pause to start off a new sentence. Essay 3, I went from talking about my family and I, eating at a restaurant full of bugs crawling around the wall, to talking about how I felt sorry for the anorexic animals. Without adding a period’s or comma’s reader gets confuse that it is another subject I'm mentioning.

A lot of time what is on paper, is not how it’s bobbling in my head. This is a huge problem and I recognize that I need to work on. I need to read my papers out loud to see if what I want to say makes sense. I’m sure if I read my essay 1 & 3 out loud like I should, I would be able to catch the little mistakes that my readers notice. Such as when I meant “there” but I put “their.”

I’m proud to say I also recognize the strengths that I picked up along the way. I understand how to read my peers essay and be able to recognize and make comments on their mistakes. To also not worried about hurting their feeling because in the long run, I’m only helping them out, which is to improve by making them a better writer. Throughout this whole writing class I learn that it is okay to make mistakes and its okay to go back and fix it. I should always remember that criticism or comments from peer review only helps to improve my papers. I need to think more positively and use my time wisely.