Daniel Jolley

English 2010

Reflection On Personal Growth

Throughout this course, I have been able to develop my writing skills further, which not only has helped me develop more of an understanding of writing, but will also prepare me for my future. Through writing the memoir, argument, and proposal papers, I have been able to achieve the goals of English 2010. In addition, through developing an efficient and personally tailored writing process, addressing challenges encountered and overcoming them, I have progressed into an overall better, well-rounded writer.

In these papers, you can see a versatility in the ability to write toward a variety of audiences. For example, the memoir is intended for a wide audience that may be looking up information about World War II, and Korean War veterans. In contrast, the proposal is intended for a school administrator for the purpose of persuading them to consider a new direction for the program they oversee. The argument is intended for an audience who either flies on an airline, is a student pilot, or a recreational flier.

I developed a personal process which includes brainstorming for a topic and some points to cover, making an outline (either a bubble chart, or a traditional outline), drafting the first paper, then revising the draft several times for the final paper.

I faced some challenges with learning how to properly format and cite certain types of papers. With the assistance of my professor and personal research, I have been able to learn how to structure new kinds of writing.

These three papers also demonstrate a versatility in the ability to write toward different audiences, with different intentions for each.

I believe the most important skill I learned was to be able to adapt to the very wide criteria that the professional and even college world requires. Previous to this class, I only knew how to write traditionally designed academic-style papers, and did not know where the standard format applied to styles such as MLA, and what parts of this style should be applied to other styles. However, I learned that all styles of writing have one basic, common structure: introduction, body, and conclusion.

Despite the difficulties encountered during the learning process in this class, there have been vast improvements to my overall writing capabilities. I now feel that my abilities and skill-set are polished enough to be used in the real world.