Self Reflection Essay

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Self-Reflection Essay

Writing is not merely a process of utilizing letters, alphabets or punctuation to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable way rather it is the process of depicting one’s perception and creativity as well. Many people are there that choose writing as a profession as in this profession one is free to share his or her opinions with the reasons or present arguments about a specific topic.

Reflecting upon my experience, before taking this course, I also thought that writing is something that only a professional and experienced person can do but with the help of my professor, I was able to understand that anyone can write. In this course, the two most important things that I learned are about elements of writing along with the importance to use authentic sources while writing. Previously, whenever I used to write an essay, regardless of the type, I always used to search the internet without considering the authenticity of resources. I just write the essay using the data I searched without considering the authenticity of the resources. However, after taking the class, I have become well aware of differentiating authentic sources from non-authentic websites.

While discussing elements of writing, previously, when I used to write, I never made the draft or brainstorm ideas. I used to select the topic and write an essay or report without dividing the data into paragraphs and then proofread it. However, in class, when I came to know about the importance of data gathering, rough drafts, final draft, along with the process of editing and proofreading, I started to follow all the steps when writing on any topic.

Another important thing that I learned in the course was about plagiarism. I used to be careless whenever I had to write an essay or article, etc. on any topic. However, when learning about plagiarism and how important it is to give credit to the writer whose ideas we are using in our essay or report or even articles, I have started to use citations whenever I write anything by using someone else’s ideas.

Although, I have learned a lot in the entire course however one thing that I need to focus while taking another writing class is the organization of paper especially while transitioning from one paragraph to another. I believe that I have a few sentence structure mistakes that require immediate attention and a lot of practice. Specifically, I think I need to work more on dependent and independent clauses while I use subordinate conjunctions to join them. Additionally, after learning to use the quotations during a story, or critical analysis of a story or a book, I will focus more on the quotations explanation as well. It is observed that many writers just use the quotations and forget to explain the context behind the quotation. However, in this course, I have learned not only to use quotations but also how to cite them and explain them accordingly.

Another thing that I believe still needs improvement is punctuation. In the course, I have learned a lot about punctuation however, I think that I need to practice it more by writing not only the assigned homework tasks but also writing essays on random topics. In the future, I will be more focused on learning and practicing precis writing as well so that I can accumulate my ideas in a precise manner rather than using irrelevant words to elongate the content. This will facilitate me in polishing my writing abilities even when I am writing an essay that is of more than two to three pages.

In short, the journey of taking this course was great. I have learned a lot of things such as creative writing, essay types, elements of writing, etc. that facilitated me in improving my writing skills.