Postcourse

On the writer ladder scale provided in the assignment I would have to rank myself as an “articulate ‘good’ writer at the top.”  Writing is something that has never really been any sort of a problem for me, and because of this I do not really remember any paper I’ve written aside from the papers I have written for this class.  In terms of the papers I have written in Expository Writing I would have to say that the paper titled “My Sisters Head Injury” is my best piece.  This can be attributed to the fact that I very much enjoyed the topic, and found it easy to write this piece.  My process essay, on the other hand, is probably the worst piece of writing I have done for this class.  I’m pretty confident in the assessment I have of my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to writing. 

One of the most important strengths I have in writing is that I actually enjoy writing.  I am a completely different person in my writing than I am in the classroom. I don’t really like to talk in class; this is mostly because I’ve found that talking in class does not effect how I perform on the assignments and tests that make up my grade.  Also, I feel it’s best to let my work speak for itself.  Aside from the fact that I enjoy writing my other strengths are that I am articulate, I have a pretty good vocabulary and I have a knack for manipulating the language – and, to keep from coming off as conceited, I’m only reiterating what has been written by teachers on my papers as they grade them.

Though I have been in many classes that have required me to write many papers, I have never before been asked to write a one-page, single-spaced paper on a simple question like the one posed here.  Do I think of myself as a good writer?  Well, in my attempt to fill this page, I believe I have discovered one of my weaknesses as a writer.  Creativity (assuming I stay on topic) is apparently not my strong suit.  I am comfortable when asked to critique or react to something I’ve read, but now that I’m being asked to analyze my own thoughts I’m finding it very difficult to write.  Come to think of it, I would now like to retract the statement I made in my introduction and to say that this is one of the most difficult papers I’ve had to write; however, I will not go back and remove that earlier statement because doing so would ruin this documented self realization that has occurred as I am writing this paper, which in turn supports the responses we wrote in our first class about how our lives teach us who we are. 

I chose to take Expository Writing this semester to better myself as a writer.  I am coming away from this class better prepared for the writing I’ll need to do in college, but I did not take this class for that; I took this class only to become a better writer just for the sake of being a good writer.  Writing is something that is extremely important, and I have very much enjoyed learning about writing, and analyzing my own writing in this class.  I have learned a great deal about what I need to do to be a better writer and I will be able to apply it to my writing for the rest of my life.  Though I’ve had to do a ton of work for this class over this past semester I do not regret taking Expository Writing at all.  I feel this class has improved my writing significantly and for that I am grateful.