A.

Max Beverly

English 102 Kirsten Kaschock

3/10/15

Reflective paper

The long term writing process that I experienced over this term is one that I have experienced before.  One of my English teachers in high school had us write papers on books like normal, but instead of just moving on to the next book when we finished a paper, he always gave us the chance to rewrite the paper and improve on it based on the feedback, and we always got a better grade for it.  I feel like this is when I learned the most about how to write better.  I felt more connected to the work I was doing because I was able to learn mistakes and fix them.   My writing improved and I got a better grade for it too.  That’s why I was glad to hear that this term we would be working on one paper throughout the term.  If this class (ENGL 102) is about writing skills, why do we need to write 5 papers to learn these skills?  If we are able to practice the same skills in one big paper that I am proud of, then I see it as a better writing experience.  I think my strengths as a writer really only come out when I write like this, where I truly care about the paper.  Dr. Kaschock told me that my paper was severely off topic after my midterm.  In the paper that I wrote for the midterm, I basically defined what liberalism is in 1000 words.  She told me that the paper shouldn’t be a definition of our identity, but how we view the identity in society and it’s culture’s dynamics.  After I understood the true topic at hand, I began writing personally and with inspiration.  I found it incredibly easy to write about how I fit into liberal culture because I have been living in it all my life, I just haven’t been defining it all my life.  I was able to talk about my grandmother, my sisters, and myself.  Even more, I was having fun!  The research also meant so much more when I could apply what it said to myself, rather than just a boring definition.  I could talk about how public schools affect me, and how I feel about them.  I wish I got into the writing more earlier in the course, so I would feel this way about all of the writing prompts that we were given.  While I enjoyed the topics at hand, I didn’t take them all as seriously as I should have.  I think I could have grown more as a writer if I did.  For example “http://thinkprogress.org/about/” was my post for week 6.  While I do look on this website sometimes because I find the topics interesting, I didn’t really take the content to heart as something that I really care about and something that I want to be apart of, which is how I felt in my essay.  Perhaps second most rewarding is gaining a connection between other writers by responding to their work each week.  I actually got a really good friend out of it too!  Not only could I respond to others viewpoints on something that I wrote about, I could connect on a personal level, too.  I really enjoyed the format of the class.  It was casual and I felt a part of a community of writers exploring modern topics.  Thank you for an exciting term of writing.