Essay #1 Reflection Post

How do you think you did?
Honestly evaluate your performance...
In my own opinion, I felt that I did very well on this essay. I think this because I worked very hard on it to get a perfect draft that I felt was suitable in the end and because I tried my very best to fulfill what was asked of me. Granted, could it have been better? I suppose, yes, it could have been better. But, nobody smacks down Paul Goghan cause he couldn't paint like Van Gogh, that was just his talent. He was doing it to the very best of his ability. That's why I thought that I did very well, because I worked hard on my essay. I researched it thoroughly and applied my research to back up my reasons as support for my thesis. I worked hard to structure my essay in a format that made sense, was easy on the reader and followed a conclusive line of logic that is understandable. So, if you were to ask me how I did and to honestly evaluate my performance, I would say that I think that I did pretty darn well. In all honesty I probably more effort into that essay than any of the essays I wrote last year for world history and felt that it was better structured and supported in relation to the topic.


What have you learned about your writing process and philosophy?
For this essay, I was exposed to several new concepts. I encountered the outline, something that I have always dreaded in my personal experience and have never much cared for. It isn't so much that I disliked the outline because it constricted what I was writing, but simply because I didn't care for outlining my ideas. I prefer to go straight into what I'm talking about otherwise I'm afraid I might lose what brilliant ideas that I might have had while writing the outline. I think that I am a little more open to outlines though now. It was really difficult for me to write one this time because I had never done one before and it wasn't a set part of my writing experience. Because of this it was difficult for me to train my mind to think in that sort of a format, but I think now that I have done it once, if I keep doing them I might someday come to the point where I always do them. Or I might someday come to the conclusion that I was right all along and that I never did like outlines nor were they a part of my writing process. I think I might go either way. Obviously I'm somewhat obstinate because I didn't particularly like them before this assignment, but I'm open-minded enough to give them a try and maybe, who knows, they'll come to be an important part of my writing process after all?

Something that I've also never done so much, not to say that I haven't or that I don't, but I don't care for the process, is the writing of several drafts. I don't particularly like to revise or edit my work. I'm not sure why, perhaps my personal attachment to the words that I wrote. I suppose that that's a little bit odd if you think about it, but when I write well and I like to think that I do most of the time, then I really fall in love with my writing. You could say that that's a hindrance or a help to my writing. The first would be because I'm not looking at what I'm writing clearly and seeing what could obviously be changed for the better but on the other hand you could say that that was clearly a positive thing because if I'm confident about my writing other people are likely to believe in me as a writer too. So, I suppose it could go both way. But, in relation to drafts, I think that it's something that I've always secretly had somewhat of a grudge against, and maybe still do a little, but if I think I do a better job at training myself to be more critical and discerning, then it's something that I can grow into. Sort of like when you buy a jacket that's too big when you're a little kid and you don't fit into right away, but your mom makes you wear it anyway because you'll grow into it? I think you might use the same sort of philosophy for this. Right now I'm still maturing as a writer and certain methods like outlining or drafting might not fit me right now at the moment, but if I continue to mature as a writer, I'll grow into them. It's just all about whether or not I'm willing to wear the jacket and I think that I am willing to wear the jacket.

My writing philosophy I suppose then really hasn't changed much. I still believe what I believed before, but I'm more open-minded at least to new ways of a writing process. I'm willing to take on new method to improve my process for a test spin and if it turns out they work out for me, that's absolutely fantastic. But, if I turn out to not like the jacket in the end, then I can always just stop wearing it, but at least I gave it a chance, right? I think that's good.


What have you learned about college writing vs. high school writing?
I suppose that I've learned that college writing as opposed to high school writing is more focused and more demanding. I've written history essays before but I've never been held accountable so much for researching and defending my position based upon my sources. So, in that sense I think that college writing is much more demanding because it demands that you as a person are credible. I had to prove that my sources were credible and reliable and apply them to my thesis in order to support it. It was a lot different in comparison to what I might do in high school where I didn't have to research as much and apply. So, that definitely would be something that I've learned about college writing: research, apply and support. Additionally, I think I've learned that it's a lot more focused. I learned about the art of the thesis in my ninth grade English class and we learned about how to narrow down and be specific. However, I think that definitely the writing that we've had to do for history has been a lot more focused to a certain topic and a certain idea more so than I've had for essays for English, history or civics.

What changes will you make for next time?
Some changes that I think I will implement for next time will just to start sooner and to research more. I felt that I had quite a bit of research and enough to back up my points, but I felt that because I was still learning about researching well while I was in the process of the essay, I wasn't able to utilize what I learned as much in what I was doing. So, definitely I think that I will work harder to apply what I have learned in the wiki class to what the essay is asking because I didn't completely understand it all while I was starting the process of the essay. I will definitely start sooner as well, not that I didn't start on time, but just I think I'd like to go through a lot more process and maybe write a few more drafts than I did just so that I can compare and contrast what is the best essay. Also, there were a few times that I thought about changing my position just because of the research that I was finding, so perhaps next time I will take more time to explore a few different theses and perhaps write a few different drafts for a couple of theses before I choose which thesis I'm actually going to take and run with because it'd be nice to have a few options when it comes down to choosing what I'm turning in for my final draft.