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Reflecting on writing process
There is nothing as important to me as growing myself intellectually and improving my writing skills. Looking back at how far I have come, I can say without a shred of doubt that this class has been a real success. As I ponder and reflect on myself as a writer, I am confident that this class has equipped me with writing skills that I will carry forward throughout my academic life. When I was starting this class, my goal was to increase my knowledge base and improve my writing skills. This is why I want to take you through my own reflection of the things I have learnt through this class.
My individual writing process has grown tremendously. When I started this class, I had so much trouble compiling a full essay and I did not have the confidence in my own abilities. I honestly thought I would fail this class. However this notion changed with time. Through relentless commitment, this class has helped me in a number of ways. First, I have learnt how to structure my work in order to bring out flow in every essay. I now understand that organization is a key ingredient in writing good essays. Secondly, I have increased my grammar and vocabulary so much and this has been instrumental in making my school work a success. A good mastery of English vocabulary provides a variety of ways to express myself and this gives me the best feeling. Two years back, my vocabulary was so shallow and I had a very rough time trying to express myself through writing.
The writing processes that are taught in this class have also been very effective. Writing is a process which incorporates very distinct processes- drafting, revising, editing and finally making the final copy. Through drafting I was able to put all my ideas and complete thoughts into sentences and paragraphs. Drafting helped me in organizing my ideas in ways which would make it possible for readers to understand my message. Majorly, my drafting process involved making up a good introduction and then coming up with a very clear conclusion. Through proper organization, I was able to come up with a “rough draft” which served as the basis for my writing process.
Editing and revising processes helped me tremendously during this class. Upon finishing my rough draft, I always sought to edit my work in order to check for errors. Basically, I checked for spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and formatting errors. For me, editing is an important and compulsory process since the last thing I would want to do is submit work with so much errors.
The discourse community essay will always remain memorable and vivid in my mind. I took so much time compiling this essay and had to do a few revisions. In the end, I was proud of my finished essay. My essay was centered on Catholicism as a discourse community and this helped me learn so much about Catholics. Considering that I have grown up surrounded by Islam all my life, I have very little knowledge about other religions. Now I can say with confidence that I know so much about Catholics and their way of life. As a writer, this essay helped me grow so much because it was defiantly challenging. I had to do a lot of research in order to obtain the data to be used in compiling this essay. As protocol stipulates, I started this essay all the way from pre-writing, drafting, revising and providing a final draft. This was very tasking and challenging but I am proud that I made it.
I found it very beneficial to read my work out loud while editing and revising. This gave me a good chance to see any inconsistencies in writing and made it easier for me to see a variety of mistakes. Editing was my chance to polish up on my work and come up an excellent piece that viewed reflected all my ideas and thoughts. For me, the editing phase is not the chance to criticize myself negatively. Rather, it is a time to take pride in my growth as a writer and to encourage myself to do better. In every essay, my goal was to do editing at least two times; one time before compiling the essay and another last time after it was done.
Writing can be a big challenge for people. In my case, I was always hesitant to start because I felt like I did not have the right strategies as a writer. However, through this class, I have learnt that writing is a rather flexible process as opposed to a rigid one. I have come to understand that there is always room for improvement in writing. As a writer, I am presented with many ways to make my work better and more appealing to readers. Writing provides the best chances to verbalize my thoughts and make my ideas come to life.
When I first started, I remember thinking to myself, “How in the world will I finish 8 straight pages?” However, when I started doing research on Catholicism, I realized that there was so much relevant content to consider and this gave me a lot of confidence. I realized that the essay only needed me to organize myself and get everything together. Writing the first draft was an uphill task. There was so much to write but flow was hard to maintain. However, through the help of this class coupled with online research, I was able to compile a convincingly good first draft which I used as the basis for completing my final essay.
I learned a few things when compiling the essay on discourse communities- Catholicism. First, I learnt how to use internet resources to get the information I need. Secondly, I was successfully able to practice editing skills on to my rough draft. These include, reading the essay time and again, checking for plagiarism, and ensuring a coherent flow of ideas. Thirdly, the essay improved me as a writer by increasing my knowledge base. I was able to learn so much about Catholicism and their traditions. It is amazing how structured and well organized Catholicism is. To some extent, I was able to see some similarities between Islam and Catholicism. These two religions have deep traditions that have been developed over centuries and they both have a huge number of followers.
My research assignment titled, “difficulties and strategies for writing essays by Arabic students” was also very eye-opening and insightful. This essay exemplified my personal challenges that I have gone through as an Arabic student. I grew up speaking and writing Arabic and had very little exposure to English. As such, I am not a native English speaker. That being said, I have struggled with the art of writing essays in the past. However, this has not discouraged me from wanting to achieve more and improve my skills. As Arabic students, we struggle so much when it comes to writing because English is not our first language. Compiling my research gave me the opportunity to highlight the challenges we go through and come up with solutions too.
In conclusion, I have learnt so much from this class and I will clearly be a better person when I am done. I am a strong believer in self-improvement and growth through hard work. As such, I am looking forward to taking more English classes and conducting even more in-depth researches. As I press on through my academic journey, I hope to constantly improve my writing skills and maybe one day write a book. Looking back at where I have come from as a writer, I am immensely proud of my efforts and I am certain and hopeful for better days. As I continue to strive for excellence, I feel it is important for me to say thank you to my teacher and everyone who has helped me through this journey.
