Reflective Essay--Final Exam

Reflective Essay



         Looking back over this semester I have remembered how much I enjoy writing. Although I prefer writing about issues I enjoy and care about, I have come to realize the importance of writing about things I “have” to as well. Several of the assignments we have had I have done while gritting my teeth, but I understand the importance of doing them and what they have taught me. And while looking back at those papers for this assignment, and reading the comments that were given, I have laughed and cringed.

         I feel as though overall I did a good job on the writing assignments and tried to be mindful of past mistakes, such as punctuation issues. I made a concerted effort to pay attention to detail in what I was trying to convey in my writing, but somehow, in the professional article review I managed to get off course and not complete the assignment correctly. I am still not sure exactly how that happened. Based on the grades I received—as well as the comments given—I think I got the writers notebook responses down pretty well, with the exception of the one about working in groups. It seems I used the word “you” which is informal, and that will now be something that will stick in my head to not do in the future.

         Looking back at my reflective narrative essay, I see a few mistakes that appear to be minor. I think those are mostly because sometimes I question myself as to what is correct and what is not and I can never decide so I just take a chance and hope for the best. I think sometimes that is all we can do. I still don't think I have a “process,” however. Take this paper for instance: I am writing it off the top of my head as the words just come to me. Sure I have all of my writing assignments in front of me to look at for reference, but other than that, I'm just writing. I think I write better when I do it that way.

         My favorite paper this semester by far was the argument paper. I love a good argument! Especially when it is about something I care about and I can logically lay out why someone else is wrong. I was so excited about doing this assignment because it is not often I get to actually argue my point on these issues I feel so passionately about in school. And to see an “OMG!” and an “Amen” in the comments helped me realize that I had definitely made my point effectively.

         The discourse community analysis paper was probably one of the harder papers for me to write. This would fall under the “gritting my teeth” category. It is not that it was a hard assignment so to speak, but rather it was just one that I did not enjoy as much because discussing writing within the political science community is somewhat boring. Again, I know that I will not always enjoy everything I have to write about, but writing about writing took me longer to do than most of the other assignments.

         Although there was not an enormous amount of actual writing involved in our group project, I feel that it is necessary for me to include a short discussion here about it anyway. This project ended up being very personal to me. I feel like it gave me some closure to my own situation and this great group of people that I worked with on it helped me get it. Every one of them was wonderful to work with and I think we all had a good time working together, planning and brainstorming in the library and online via Facebook and email. I hope that we will continue to keep in touch beyond this class.

         Overall, I think I did a good job of reaching the course objectives for this class in the assignments that were given. I see that I still have some areas to work on in the future, but I think for the most part I have progressed nicely and feel confident about my writing abilities going forward toward graduation in the spring.