Jaime Yap Dr. L. Robinson ENGL 1130.008 5 August 2 Essays

Jaime Yap Dr. L. Robinson ENGL 1130.008 5 August 2015 Reflection This course has opened my eyes to the many obstacles to scholarly writing, and I have found myself nodding my head in agreement many times as I went through the readings. I find myself having the same problems with writing intelligently and sounding like a bad writer with an overdose of jargon and badly constructed sentences that run on forever, or writing without emotion when it comes to scholarly writing as it can get a bit dry. I have always done better with writing descriptive compositions rather than scholarly essays and trying to make it sound more interesting for the reader, but I have learned to counter that after reading Emotional Scenarios in the Writing Process: An Examination of Young Writers ' Affective Experiences . I learned that I am in control of what my essay is going to be, so if I am not bored by the subject, my reader would not be bored too. To me, that essay is the most helpful in the course as it pin points many of the writing obstacles I face and offers helpful insight as to how to overcome it. One of the writing processes that I enjoy the most is topic development. I enjoy reading up about an issue, doing my research and finding out all kinds of information about it. It makes it easier for me to pen down my thoughts once I have gotten a comprehensive understanding on the topic. A close second would be the peer review as that would be my chance to get a better understanding of what level my writing is at compared to my peers and it motivates me to write better if I feel I am not up to par. It also serves as another reason for me to expand my knowledge on a given writing theme. Some of the things I have learned from this course is setting clear goals that are not overambitious for myself, like completing an essay ahead of time with room to spare for last minute editing, and setting myself a challenging topic that would test my writing ab ilities without compromising my stress levels. I feel that I have managed to put these lessons into good use in my research paper. George Orwell ' s tips on cutting out words wherever I can is also useful in critical summaries, though challenging at times when I feel strapped by the information I am not willing to leave out. Last but not least, I find that I work better when I write analysis rather than in-class writing as I do not like the limited time constraint. For analysis, I feel like the answers are all there and I simply have to dissect the information to get it while in-class writing stresses me to put all my thoughts onto paper as fast as possible and I get worried that I do not cover everything I need to in time. All in all, this course has been very helpful in improving my writing skills as I am able to reflect on my abilities, identify my weaknesses and work on them with useful insight.