Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

Dave Adams "William l'Anson - 1962 Jaguar E-Type at the 2015 Silverstone Classic (Photo 1)" July 25, 2015 via Flickr
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In this blog post, I will consider my writing process in light of a number of questions provided by Professor Bottai.

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?
I know this question is probably supposed to be about challenges I faced in this  course but I can't think of any particular challenge I faced. Yes, the course overall was challenging but I think I got a pretty good handle on the workload fairly quickly. My biggest challenge this semester was adapting to becoming self-reliant enough in my education that I can solve my own problems when they come up as your professors are not as immediately available to help you as teachers are in high school.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?
I think I had to overall takeaways in this regard from this semester. First off, I work very well under pressure and unless I behave unreasonably stupidly, will usually come up with the required work by the deadline. The second takeaway is that when I am writing, I will do a lot better if I simply take the time to consider the rhetorical situation of the piece that I am trying to write.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.
A genre is the constraints of a piece of writing. Genre have conventions which help readers better understand what you are writing. As a writer, your primary goal is to communicate effectively to your readers so you have to be aware of the conventions and styles of the genre you intend to write in in order to more easily communicate with your writers.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?
I don't think this course did a great deal to educate me more in the mechanics of writing. However, I think that's okay. As I see it, writing is not something you get good at by watching; you have to practice. I believe the major part of what I gained from this course was good writing practice in interesting topics that we each (hopefully!) care about.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H? 
I think undoubtedly my most successful moment this semester in writing was writing my own public opinion piece. This is because I actually published it on a car blog and the article generated a lively discussion and a number of comments. The published piece on OppositeLock (part of Kinja) can be found here.

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?
I think my least effective moment was writing my literary analysis. I know this is not really a satisfactory explanation of why I don't like it and I got an 88% so my score was not even that bad. Somehow I am just not satisfied with that piece of writing.