2801 Hornet Road
Chillicothe, MO 64601
December 13, 2015
Dr. Jill Watkins, Adjunct Professor
North Central Missouri College
1301 Main Street
Trenton, MO 64683
Dear Dr. Watkins:
This semester I have grown more as a writer than I thought possible. I have looked at the process of writing from new perspectives and have been surprised at how those perspectives have made writing much clearer and more enjoyable. Over the course of the semester, I have discovered how to improve my weaknesses, develop my strengths, and use the writing process to my advantage.
I have learned that my greatest weakness as a writer is wordiness. Many times, sentences that were twice as long as they needed to be caused my points to become lost in a sea of unnecessary words; however, I have learned how to fight this weakness using rephrasing and word choice. This weakness especially became a problem when writing thesis statements. The effect this had on my writing varied between assignments. For example, my editorial essay was much easier to trim than my argumentative essay. I found it more challenging to cut down the thesis in my argumentative essay because the scientific terminology from my research was much more difficult to explain than the opinions of my editorial. Another example was my weakest essay: the summary/response essay. I was not very interested in my topic, so I kept trying to use wordy sentences as filler. In the end, I still had to cut out quite a bit and find real evidence, and I had wasted time. Obviously, I still have much work to do to fix this problem, but the more I write and learn, the more confident I become that I will succeed.
In contrast, I believe that my greatest strength is incorporating my own voice into all of my essays. I love writing in a way that sounds like me, and I feel that the different types of essays written this semester have provided me with many opportunities to inject my voice into all manners of assignments. Specifically, I found it easy to write using my voice during the narration and pre-/post-writing essays, but more difficult in the argumentative essay. In the narration and pre-/post-writing essays, using voice was easy because I was writing about my own life and could be as openly heartfelt as I liked. Conversely, the argumentative essay was mostly factual information, so I had to work harder to more subtly include my voice through selective word choice. My best essay to me was the narration essay because I feel like my voice really came through when it was combined with my topic choice and organizational style. In any case, my sense of voice and how to appropriately include it in my writings has grown exponentially.
The resources available this semester have been invaluable to me in learning how to use the writing process to my advantage. As far as time-management goes, I am a horrible writer in class, so instead of wasting time there trying to draft, I can organize all of my thoughts in class and then write by myself at night when I work best. In addition, there is no way I could have produced papers of good quality without utilizing the pre-writing, peer-editing, and instructor support opportunities available. I now feel equipped for college because I know that I am capable of organizing my resources in a way that works for me. The pre-writing guides make sure I have all of the essay requirements accounted for and my thoughts organized in a linear way, and peer-editing is far more helpful than I initially expected. In the past, peer-editing has just meant checking for surface errors, but this year I have been able to use it to also make sure my papers have good flow and are understandable.
Another discovery I have made is that assignments call for different writing processes because they are targeted toward different audiences in the hopes of achieving different goals. A simple example of this is that I needed to do research for the argumentative essay and not for the pre-/post-writing. The purpose of my pre-/post-writing essay was to explain to how I have developed through my life to a person trying to understand me. That required no research because I was simply trying to explain my life as it appeared to me. In contrast, the purpose of my argumentative essay was to convince parents and physicians that my opinion about premature baby treatment is best. This required research because it was necessary for me to thoroughly understand and prove each of my arguments in a logical way.
On the subject of audience, the most important thing I have learned from this semester is that writing is not just about me. In actuality, writing is about the audience. Yes, writing is a way for me to express myself, but the point of writing, even in the case of self-expression, is to make my thoughts accessible to others. Figuring out who my audience was for any type of assignment allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of why I was writing. That understanding then helped me phrase my ideas to better aid the audience in understanding my thoughts.
Overall, as a writer this semester, I have been able to correct my weaknesses, grow my strengths, and manipulate the writing process to help me produce quality work. I have been able to look at the concept and execution of writing in a fresh, new light, and I sincerely hope that as the year continues, I continue to grow further. My goal is that I will develop more strengths in new areas and that my weaknesses will continue to dwindle, and I plan to achieve these goals by approaching each assignment with an open mind to criticism and suggestions. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Claire Chapman
Chillicothe, MO 64601
December 13, 2015
Dr. Jill Watkins, Adjunct Professor
North Central Missouri College
1301 Main Street
Trenton, MO 64683
Dear Dr. Watkins:
This semester I have grown more as a writer than I thought possible. I have looked at the process of writing from new perspectives and have been surprised at how those perspectives have made writing much clearer and more enjoyable. Over the course of the semester, I have discovered how to improve my weaknesses, develop my strengths, and use the writing process to my advantage.
I have learned that my greatest weakness as a writer is wordiness. Many times, sentences that were twice as long as they needed to be caused my points to become lost in a sea of unnecessary words; however, I have learned how to fight this weakness using rephrasing and word choice. This weakness especially became a problem when writing thesis statements. The effect this had on my writing varied between assignments. For example, my editorial essay was much easier to trim than my argumentative essay. I found it more challenging to cut down the thesis in my argumentative essay because the scientific terminology from my research was much more difficult to explain than the opinions of my editorial. Another example was my weakest essay: the summary/response essay. I was not very interested in my topic, so I kept trying to use wordy sentences as filler. In the end, I still had to cut out quite a bit and find real evidence, and I had wasted time. Obviously, I still have much work to do to fix this problem, but the more I write and learn, the more confident I become that I will succeed.
In contrast, I believe that my greatest strength is incorporating my own voice into all of my essays. I love writing in a way that sounds like me, and I feel that the different types of essays written this semester have provided me with many opportunities to inject my voice into all manners of assignments. Specifically, I found it easy to write using my voice during the narration and pre-/post-writing essays, but more difficult in the argumentative essay. In the narration and pre-/post-writing essays, using voice was easy because I was writing about my own life and could be as openly heartfelt as I liked. Conversely, the argumentative essay was mostly factual information, so I had to work harder to more subtly include my voice through selective word choice. My best essay to me was the narration essay because I feel like my voice really came through when it was combined with my topic choice and organizational style. In any case, my sense of voice and how to appropriately include it in my writings has grown exponentially.
The resources available this semester have been invaluable to me in learning how to use the writing process to my advantage. As far as time-management goes, I am a horrible writer in class, so instead of wasting time there trying to draft, I can organize all of my thoughts in class and then write by myself at night when I work best. In addition, there is no way I could have produced papers of good quality without utilizing the pre-writing, peer-editing, and instructor support opportunities available. I now feel equipped for college because I know that I am capable of organizing my resources in a way that works for me. The pre-writing guides make sure I have all of the essay requirements accounted for and my thoughts organized in a linear way, and peer-editing is far more helpful than I initially expected. In the past, peer-editing has just meant checking for surface errors, but this year I have been able to use it to also make sure my papers have good flow and are understandable.
Another discovery I have made is that assignments call for different writing processes because they are targeted toward different audiences in the hopes of achieving different goals. A simple example of this is that I needed to do research for the argumentative essay and not for the pre-/post-writing. The purpose of my pre-/post-writing essay was to explain to how I have developed through my life to a person trying to understand me. That required no research because I was simply trying to explain my life as it appeared to me. In contrast, the purpose of my argumentative essay was to convince parents and physicians that my opinion about premature baby treatment is best. This required research because it was necessary for me to thoroughly understand and prove each of my arguments in a logical way.
On the subject of audience, the most important thing I have learned from this semester is that writing is not just about me. In actuality, writing is about the audience. Yes, writing is a way for me to express myself, but the point of writing, even in the case of self-expression, is to make my thoughts accessible to others. Figuring out who my audience was for any type of assignment allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of why I was writing. That understanding then helped me phrase my ideas to better aid the audience in understanding my thoughts.
Overall, as a writer this semester, I have been able to correct my weaknesses, grow my strengths, and manipulate the writing process to help me produce quality work. I have been able to look at the concept and execution of writing in a fresh, new light, and I sincerely hope that as the year continues, I continue to grow further. My goal is that I will develop more strengths in new areas and that my weaknesses will continue to dwindle, and I plan to achieve these goals by approaching each assignment with an open mind to criticism and suggestions. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Claire Chapman