I’ve always been a good student, but writing has been a weakness of mine. I was hoping that by this point in my education I would acquire the reading and writing skills needed to be a successful college student. Even though English is my toughest subject and this has been my first fully online course, I’ve really tried to focus on becoming a better writer during this class.
In this class I’ve learned the importance of being a critical thinker while reading, analyzing the source, motive, and point of view expressed in the materials. I’ve learned the difference between summary and analysis which will be very important moving forward in my education.
“The things they carried” stands out as a great example of how to write. It seams that the author was always thinking ahead to how the material would be perceived and did a wonderful job making the reader perceive it the way he wanted them to. I’ve never really considered how points that I make in my writings are considered by the reader. I guess I’ve just assumed that the points were expressed as I meant them, but without considering the ways they could be misunderstood there was no way to be certain they were understood correctly. This is something I plan to be better at in the future.
My writing process has changed in a few ways as a result taking this course. In the past, when writing an assigned paper, I’ve typically just started writing then went back and organized the thoughts. This has resulted in short papers, barely meeting length requirements and not always the most clear in relation to the main thesis. This has been a challenge of mine for quite some time. Now, I plan an outline of what ideas will be covered in each paragraph and what sources I will be using for each idea. Using this more organized approach has allowed me to have more material available and has resulted in more organized papers in all of my classes.
I will take what I’ve learned in this class and use it to help with my success in the rest of my education.
Here's a link to a news artcle that tells about the importance of writing for a business career.
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteLike you I have a hard time with writing and English classes. I too have found that I tended to just write and would assume that the reader would understand what I was trying to tell them. I have found like you that if I make a detailed outline of the paper or essay that I am about to write it helps out a lot. I have the tendency to go off track at times and talk about something not related to the topic of the paper and have a hard time finding my way back. That is why I use the outline idea. Keep up the good work.
Denise
Hey Stephen,
ReplyDeleteI too have had a struggle with writing at least in the correct format. This has also been my first full online course which has been somewhat of a challenge for me. I like your idea of planning out an outline and have discovered that is a great way to organize thoughts to create better work. Length requirements have always bugged me just because some times you either have too much to say about a topic or can not come up with enough. Organization is key to help create many things not just an essay, and if you get in the habit of doing things a certain way it will just become a norm. I liked how you put in a link for how important writing really is because many people believe it is just a have to not a must. I wish you the best on your education and golf endeavors and enjoy the rest of the summer.
Augie Molina