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Devon Williams
English 113B
Professor Ditch
7 May 2015
The Art of Writing
As a writer I have evolved as time passed and not even noticing it until I am given an
assignment. When I first started writing in my English class I was very doubtful of my writing
skills and doubted myself on getting A+ paper. It can be done to anything an individual wants to
improve in. My writing has never been perfect and never will be completely but writing is
circular and can always get better on my grammar and structure. Every time I do a writing
assignment I must always check my paper if I cited my sources correctly or check for minor
grammar mistakes. Some little things can make a big impact on your writing as I learned from
some instructors in the library. I am aware that I made a lot of mistakes and now I can recognize
them and can easily make them better. I still have a lot to learn from the different styles of MLA
writing format and how to improve on my comma splices. Over the months I have been writing I
have improved from when I first started and it shows on my previous assignments.
Project space was my first writing assignment it wasnt the best in my opinion. It lacked
so many things that when I look over now it couldve been fixed if I took my time. My first
essay was called The Gap Between Identities; I tend to have a good title of my essays. My
thesis didnt make any sense relating to the prompt. When first writing that essay I was
completely clueless of what to do and didnt clearly understand the prompt. I didnt even know
the first place to start to find some sources that can relate to my topic. With that in mind I always
attended any conference or advice from my professor which was very helpful. Reviewing the
prompt can be helpful for my future essays as I go onto harder courses. In the end when I
received my review on how I did I was kind of happy and kind of sad. I was hoping for a higher
grade but I earned what I did. In my project space essay the only thing I was very surprised was

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all my sources were accurate and I didnt have that many grammar errors. Even though this is no
expectation that little mistakes like that can be vital in my higher classes that I will get in the
future.
Before I heard about the next assignment Project Text coming up I made sure to go ahead
of the class and reread the book that was given. After I read about half of the epistolary novel
The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer I was very
interested on what the topics might be. Using a novel and then analyzing it was absolutely a
challenge to me. It was something that I always lacked and I never thought that I could literally
read something and then sync it and also connect it with the essay. The length of this essay had
me astonished at first. Five to six pages was long and I never did an essay this long. Although
this essay had to be five to six pages long it was good training and know Im prepared for an
essay that has to be longer than usual from the essays I have done. When writing my prospectus
on this novel I couldnt think clearly on the topic of gender and relating it to war and an
occupation. With the help of my primary and secondary sources they have a huge impact on my
thesis. Without that I would have lacked everything and did bad. They not only strengthen my
thesis, but they also make my writing believable as I use other author's ideas about the subject I
am citing to in my essays. When I received my essay back I noticed all my mistakes and made
sure to fix as many as I could. I didnt reach the requirements because I eventually ran out of
ideas I should have brain stormed more. I think if I would have talked with other classmates who
shared the same topic as mines would have improved my writing a lot. In the end the feedback
for both of my essays were very helpful and helped me learn from my past mistakes.
The main skill that I would like to improve in the future would be the structure of all of
my writing. I would often go to all the writing events not only for the extra credit but to learn
something new. I attended a MLA writing workshop hosted by my professor that taught me a lot

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of things I had not knew before like creating a header and citing sources. My professor was a big
influence to all my writing also her advice helped me not just in the course but in my day to day
life. I have gained a lot throughout this course. Learning how to use correct punctuation and
finding out new resources was very helpful. The lesson of the usage of colons, semi-colons, and
comma splices was a reminder of how and when it is appropriate to use punctuation. I analyzed
my previous two essays and I felt very proud of myself in the end. This course was not only
about writing essays and moodle post but also how to analyze many pieces of writing. The thing
I will carry with me was what my professor taught was the importance of ethos, pathos, and
logos and how to apply it in my papers. Conclusion this class was very helpful for me even
though I enrolled in the class later than others and caught up to everyone. My reading and
writing abilities have grown compared to previous semester. I gained knowledge of writing a
strong thesis and time management.