Inquiry 4 reflection essay:

As we enter the end of the semester, I have looked back on all of my inquiries, reflections, and
blog posts. After reflecting on my writing I can see a definite improvement in my work as well as
common themes and things that need to be fixed. re!writing and organi"ing my ideas was something
that helped me the most during this class and I will take away skills in that area. #verything that a
paper entails stems from the brainstorming and drafting processes. $his is so crucial to writing because
it sets the tone for the entire writing process. $he amount of time and work put into this first step of the
writing process will only make your writing stronger, and that is why I chose to focus on this for my
reflection essay.
%eading through my reflection essays I found a common theme of pre!writing and
brainstorming. &efore each essay that I wrote for this class I spent an extensive amount of time writing
down my thoughts before composing them in my paper. In Inquiry ', ($he easiest part was getting the
brainstorming process started. ( In Inquiry ) I also did a lot of pre!writing but in the form of research. I
had to conduct a few hours of research about my topic before I could actually start drafting. *inally in
Inquiry +, ($he process of writing this story started with a lot of brainstorming and free! writing. I
started by writing down all my thoughts and ideas for the topic and then once I had filled up a couple
pages I pieced it all together. $his made it a lot easier because I had so many options and could cut out
and add whatever I wanted.( $his is a common theme in my writing and it was definitely helpful to me
during this class. If I had started writing a draft without any pre! thinking or brainstorming, my papers
would have ended up being extremely disorgani"ed. $his common theme is something I will continue
in my future writing because it is so helpful.
After moving on from this class I think I need to continue to work on developing my personal
voice in my writing. After I met with ,r. -i about Inquiry ) he told me that my writing needed to have
a more personal tone to it and I needed to develop my own voice. Although I believe this has improved,
it is something I need to keep working on in order to make my future writing better. ,y main take
away from #nglish '') is the knowledge of analy"ing text and researching for writing. I have learned
to utili"e the steps of the writing process from pre!writing to reflection. $he reflections were extremely
helpful because they allowed me to look back at the writing I had .ust completed and talk about why I
chose to write the way I did. $he peer reviews were also generally helpful because it is nice to have a
different set of eyes look over your work occasionally. $he papers we wrote were tough to complete,
but the way I look at it is this is the last #nglish class we are required to take. *rom now on we will
have to write papers for classes without time to work on them in class and without direction from the
teacher. $his is where we will need the skills we learned in both #nglish ''' and ''). $he main take
away from this class is the knowledge of how to write a solid paper for almost every situation. /e
wrote analytical papers, research papers, and creative stories. $his was such a wide range of writing
that I believe I am now skilled in many different genres of writing. *inally, I have learned the discipline
required to write a good paper. A great paper does not come from writing the whole thing the night
before it is due. A great writer must be able to start a paper well in advance in order to complete all
steps of the writing process, with time for revision, and produce a solid paper.
In terms of grading I believe I should receive an A for participation because I have not missed
more than + classes, and I have turned in all ') blog assignments. In addition to .ust completing the
blog assignments, I put a lot of time and thought into my responses. I would give myself a &0 for
engagement in the class. I was usually focused on the discussion going on in class, but I sometimes fell
into the temptation of technological distractions. I was always willing to contribute my thoughts during
class discussions but I wasn1t always the first one to raise my hand and usually had to be called on by
,r. -i. *or devotion I would give myself an A! because I spent a lot of time working on my inquiries,
blog posts, and reading of the two novels for class. I think this class required a lot of outside work and I
kept up with it pretty well. *or seriousness as a student I would give myself a &0, I think I was
generally serious but could have taken myself a little more seriously during class discussions by
participating more willingly. I also think I could have taken myself a little more seriously during my
Inquiry ) writing. 2ome of the suggestions I was given by ,r. -i were very helpful and I do not believe
I fully carried them out. 3verall I would place myself in the A! range because I dedicated a lot of time
to this class. 4ot only did this class require writing papers, but also the pre!work such as blogs, pre!
writing and drafting, and reading the books that helped us write our upcoming papers. #ven though
these may have seemed tedious at the time, it definitely benefitted me to do all of them.
3verall, I learned a lot about writing in this class and improved my own writing skills. After this
class I will take away gained knowledge of analy"ing text, research, and creative writing. Although this
class was required for students to take, I think I would have taken it anyways because it was so
beneficial to me. /riting is so important in the world no matter what field of study you go into. &eing
able to write a good paper is a skill that comes in handy in many situations. *or me, writing is very
important for my ma.or in 2trategic 5ommunications. $his ma.or requires me to take many writing
courses as well as complete many writing assignments. $he material from this class has carried over to
my other classes and benefitted my writing abilities. #nglish '') is a great course for students of all
ma.ors because it helps us gain necessary writing skills.