Reflective Cover Letter
Reflection Letter
For my freshman year in college I made the choice to choose English 10 over English 5A/5B, it has been a challenging decision to deal with but has taught me a lot. When I came into this class I didn’t know a whole lot about writing proper essays, let alone ones that had conversation in them. But even half way through this semester I learned how to use my sources better, organize my thoughts better, and all together become a better writer. I still have my troubles in writing but this class is letting me work through them and teaching me a lot.
In many of the articles we’ve read they use a lot of complexity and many sources, which was something I was not use to. In the essay I chose to analyze “Our Cell Phones, Our Selves” by Christine Rosen, she uses so many complex ideas that I really had to re-read the essay to understand every thought. With reading deeper now it has also affected my writing by showing me how a good writer, writes. Instead of just dropping a quote into an essay to help it explain my point, I can now introduce a quote and explain it in order to support another’s point. I do still need to work on this more as I feel like I try to use too many quotes to fill up my essay, rather then using a few quotes and going more into depth with them.
With peer reviewing and the help of others I have also learned how others write and viewing others essays helps benefit my own. In doing the peer review of this essay the first essay I read just blew me away. I looked back at my own essay and just felt it was horrible. It really gave me idea’s of a good essay and tools I could use to make my own better. I also took the writing center class and it made me feel comfortable sharing my work and I’m getting to read a lot of different essays. Most essays’ I’ve been reading are what I consider “spicy” and it helps me realize what I want to put in my paper. They really lure me in and get me involved in the essay, making it actually interesting to read. This is a great way to stand out with your audience, which is something I feel like I could benefit from doing. Even though sharing might be hard because you don’t always want others to see your essay, it really is a very helpful tool in giving you good and bad examples of essays. Which in the long run, if you actually pay attention, will benefit your own essay.
Rhetorical writing has been a major part of this class, but is still a bit confusing for me. I feel like we should be going over more of what rhetorical writing is and examples of how to do it more. We obviously are using rhetoric in writing this essay by having to side with the author or not side with the author and by using examples from others. But I feel as if we should be given more examples of how to write rhetorically because it would benefit our writing, and because it is one of the major goals of this class.
Some major ideas that have helped my writing are defining a “So What” of an essay and of each paragraph. You need to have a clear idea of what the essay is talking about and each paragraph should relate back to your main point in one way or another. This has really helped me keep my essays on track and allowed my audience to get the picture of my essay better. In my high school writing we never were graded on how well we used rhetoric or our sources. As long as you had a good amount of sources and met all the requirements, you were given an A. Now I have to really step up my writing and take my time to get my point across. The materials we have been given in this class allow us to understand how we should really write. The book assigned to this class I find surprisingly interesting. It shows me how I should write. And learning how to write better is always something I will always strive to achieve.
I am nowhere close to the writer that I want to be, but I’m hoping by the end of this semester I am one step closer. I now have all the information to be a great writer I just need to put it all into play. In order to become the writer that I want to be I feel like I just need to keep writing and paying attention in this class. I need to learn how to make the flow of my essay better and learn how to go more in depth for my examples from my sources. Hopefully in time my writing will just get better. But already in the past two months I have seen an improvement from this class. A college writing class is a major step up from a high school writing class. And if you actually pay attention it will benefit you in so many ways, just like it has already benefited me.
For my freshman year in college I made the choice to choose English 10 over English 5A/5B, it has been a challenging decision to deal with but has taught me a lot. When I came into this class I didn’t know a whole lot about writing proper essays, let alone ones that had conversation in them. But even half way through this semester I learned how to use my sources better, organize my thoughts better, and all together become a better writer. I still have my troubles in writing but this class is letting me work through them and teaching me a lot.
In many of the articles we’ve read they use a lot of complexity and many sources, which was something I was not use to. In the essay I chose to analyze “Our Cell Phones, Our Selves” by Christine Rosen, she uses so many complex ideas that I really had to re-read the essay to understand every thought. With reading deeper now it has also affected my writing by showing me how a good writer, writes. Instead of just dropping a quote into an essay to help it explain my point, I can now introduce a quote and explain it in order to support another’s point. I do still need to work on this more as I feel like I try to use too many quotes to fill up my essay, rather then using a few quotes and going more into depth with them.
With peer reviewing and the help of others I have also learned how others write and viewing others essays helps benefit my own. In doing the peer review of this essay the first essay I read just blew me away. I looked back at my own essay and just felt it was horrible. It really gave me idea’s of a good essay and tools I could use to make my own better. I also took the writing center class and it made me feel comfortable sharing my work and I’m getting to read a lot of different essays. Most essays’ I’ve been reading are what I consider “spicy” and it helps me realize what I want to put in my paper. They really lure me in and get me involved in the essay, making it actually interesting to read. This is a great way to stand out with your audience, which is something I feel like I could benefit from doing. Even though sharing might be hard because you don’t always want others to see your essay, it really is a very helpful tool in giving you good and bad examples of essays. Which in the long run, if you actually pay attention, will benefit your own essay.
Rhetorical writing has been a major part of this class, but is still a bit confusing for me. I feel like we should be going over more of what rhetorical writing is and examples of how to do it more. We obviously are using rhetoric in writing this essay by having to side with the author or not side with the author and by using examples from others. But I feel as if we should be given more examples of how to write rhetorically because it would benefit our writing, and because it is one of the major goals of this class.
Some major ideas that have helped my writing are defining a “So What” of an essay and of each paragraph. You need to have a clear idea of what the essay is talking about and each paragraph should relate back to your main point in one way or another. This has really helped me keep my essays on track and allowed my audience to get the picture of my essay better. In my high school writing we never were graded on how well we used rhetoric or our sources. As long as you had a good amount of sources and met all the requirements, you were given an A. Now I have to really step up my writing and take my time to get my point across. The materials we have been given in this class allow us to understand how we should really write. The book assigned to this class I find surprisingly interesting. It shows me how I should write. And learning how to write better is always something I will always strive to achieve.
I am nowhere close to the writer that I want to be, but I’m hoping by the end of this semester I am one step closer. I now have all the information to be a great writer I just need to put it all into play. In order to become the writer that I want to be I feel like I just need to keep writing and paying attention in this class. I need to learn how to make the flow of my essay better and learn how to go more in depth for my examples from my sources. Hopefully in time my writing will just get better. But already in the past two months I have seen an improvement from this class. A college writing class is a major step up from a high school writing class. And if you actually pay attention it will benefit you in so many ways, just like it has already benefited me.