Project One: Reflection

I learned even after you revise an essay multiple times, there is always something new that can be revised. Over the past few months I have noticed I’ve gotten better at writing multiple drafts and revising my essays. I used to write one draft, read it over once for grammatical errors or issues with organization and then I would turn it in. I enjoy writing, but I never put much effort into my work because I just expected to get an A. I’m glad we had to submit multiple drafts for each of the essays. I feel like by “forcing myself” to write multiple drafts and put an effort into my revision process(es), I was able to improve my writing skills. I also think the personal aspect of project one allowed for me to get away from writing the stereotypical five paragraph essay and experiment with different writing styles/techniques. I really enjoyed writing this essay because it was so different than all the other ones I have ever written. I am a very black and white kind of thinker. I don’t read between the lines or think deeply about ideas often, so English and writing can be very difficult for me. So when this essay was first assigned, I wasn’t thrilled about not having a “specific” community to write about because I don’t like change. It was a little difficult to get started because there were so many things I could’ve picked to write about, but the more I got into the flow of writing the paper; I realized not having a strict prompt made writing so much easier and more enjoyable. My first draft was decent: it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever written, but it wasn’t the best either. I’m so used to writing papers with such proper and formal language that when I was writing my first draft I didn’t know how I was going to make it personal and more descriptive because I didn’t want to sound “stupid.” I understand now why being descriptive in writing is so important. Successful writers like J.K. Rowling use very descriptive writing techniques and she definitely doesn’t sound “stupid.” The discussions in class made much easier for me to come up a way to describe my community so it was interesting to read. In my high school it wasn’t often to have peer reviews. Typically, the teacher was the only one to read our papers, so I feel it helped that we had multiple people to give us feedback as well.