Midterm Essay

Matthew Benton
UWRT 1103-009
9/30/15

Since I started taking UWRT 1103 here at UNC Charlotte, I have learned a lot about my strengths
and weaknesses in my writing. Even though I have completed numerous writing assignments throughout
my high school career, I have not had to dig deep into writing techniques and had to inquire the way I
have been doing here in college. I do have to say that I am enjoying the style of writing that I have been
assigned so far in UWRT 1103 a lot more than the writing assignments from high school. I am pleased
that my newly discovered strengths outweigh the weaknesses in my writing. I hope to build upon them
and become an even stronger writer by the end of this semester. Out of the 10 Key Concepts, I feel
pretty comfortable with the majority of them but I could definitely use some practice with a few of
them.
One part of my writing that I am striving in lately is getting out of my comfort zone. I was
certainly not accustom to writing personal pieces of writing, and I initially thought that I would really
dislike it. But as I started writing them, I surprisingly began to enjoy it. It became easy for me come up
with quality content that I was okay with sharing to group in class the next day. I have never really
wanted to share any piece of my writing with anybody else because I was afraid of being judged and
criticized. But after the first peer workshop, I used the constructive criticism to my advantage and
improved my writing. It is also nice to hear other people say that my paper was well written or telling
me that they were engaged throughout the entire paper. Little things like that boosts my confidence
and allows me to be more open in sharing personal writings.

Another technique I am getting the hang of is inquiring on an independent level. Before this
year, the only way I could brainstorm was if I did it in a group. I have wasted so must time just sitting
down and thinking of ideas to write about. This was especially bad when I was taking timed essays and
tests. But with the help of peer workshopping and independent research, I am able to come up with
better ideas a whole lot faster. Without that, I wouldnt have been able to come up with this inquiry
question: Because of the continuing advancement in technology, at what point would golf clubs and
golf clubs be so advanced that golf would become too easy? (Blog assignment 3).
Perhaps the most improvement Ive had since starting this class has been my critical reading.
Before, I used to just point out spelling and grammatical errors when reviewing another piece of writing.
Now I am able to recognize others use of rhetoric, imagery, etc. I feel confident in giving back
constructive criticism that will help aid people in improving their writings. The peer workshop that we
did in class really did help me out especially in the aspect of critical reading. The book Who Says? By
Holdstein and Aquiline also helped me better understand the concept of critical reading. It is something
that will stick with me for the rest of my college career and especially in the job world.
Even though I have discovered many strengths in my writing, there are still weaknesses within.
But I am proud to say that I have not encountered anything so far that has completely stumped me. One
thing I have not quite adjusted to is recognizing multi-modality in writings. I often have to refer to the
multi-modality chart (home page on the course syllabus) when I need help with it. I tend to struggle with
distinguishing the difference between the gestural mode and the linguistic mode. I also have trouble
telling the difference between the visual mode and the spatial mode. I sometimes over think which ones
belong with certain pieces of writing and end up confusing myself. Im sure Ill become more familiar
with multi-modality by the end of the semester but for now there is a lot of room for improvement.
Another struggle I have encountered is taking responsibility for my own learning. This has been an issue
across all of my courses, not just UWRT 1103. Throughout my career as a student up until college, I was

used to being told exactly what do and how to do it. But in college a lot of work and studying is done
outside of class. This is something I need to get comfortable with in order to be successful in college.
My goal by the end of the semester is to overcome my writing weaknesses and become more
confident and comfortable in my writing capabilities. I just need to practice and adjust to all of the Key
Concepts and make it a habit to use them throughout my writings and throughout all of my classes that
I will take during college. I will not only use these concepts in the classroom, but I will do my best to
incorporate them into the real world after graduation.