Post-Course Reflection

            It is now beginning of June, and I realize that I have come a long way since the beginning of this class. I realize that this class improved my writing skills immensely. This was the first extensive writing course I’ve ever took in my whole entire life, and I’ve never had this much homework in my other English classes. However, the hard work paid off.

Before taking this class, I cringed away from any form of writing; especially from the personal writings requiring me to reveal myself and convey my belief. I was willing to write any reports that involved other people’s point of view and never mine. I feared telling my honest opinion. If I was required to write such personal essays for my English class, I would often get remarks that said “not clear” or “confused with this paragraph” from my teachers. I had no confidence whatsoever; for me, creating a sincere personal essay was far out of my comfort zone.

 I consider “When You Hate Your Father’s Appearance” my best piece mainly because it is my most honest personal essay. I have never written an essay that was this personal before and actually handed it in as a school assignment. To me, this one is more than homework; it is my confession and it will always remind me of my father’s sacrifices. In contrast, I did not enjoy writing the letter to the author. I knew that I should not make any rude comments or complain about his autobiography. As a result, my book review and the letter have totally different tones.

 To be frank, I produced better essays during this 1-semester writing class than I did in my entire high school life. I was surprised to find nice remarks from my peer-editors and was completely astounded when I found statements saying that my essay was “funny.” Now that I’ve taken the course, I have a pretty good idea what my college essay is going to be. I also know the strong and weak aspects in my essays and what people like and don’t like about my writing.