Khan 1

Mahrukh Khan

Michele Tubbs

ENGL 1301

December 10, 2020

What have I learned so far?

In the past five months that I’ve been writing a lot. I wrote 4 essays using that writing

process steps. During this time, I have also been experimenting with small changes in my

workflow, my writing process, and the types of content I produce. The method of brainstorming,

outlining, and writing a post is one thing I have been playing with a lot this whole semester.

Usually, the editing process is simpler, and I am sure all of you will agree that one of the

toughest aspects of writing is to get those first few lines on paper. This course has taught me a lot

about how to annotate, self-reflect, review the work of my peers, writing an essay and many

useful techniques like free-writing technique.

Feedback is immensely important for my writing process. I sometimes miss minor typos

or grammatical errors if I don't spend much time on a piece. I don't craft my sentences as

carefully as I can, and I seem to repeat a little about myself. When my professor asked me to

review the work of my peers, I was happy because it meant that they are going to review my

work. I always appreciate good feedback as it helps me improve my work. I learned over time

that my essays and other work improve through the feedback of other people. I learned that the

best way to develop an idea is by supporting it, explaining its meaning, and illustrating how it

relates to the remainder of my essay and thesis statement. When I correctly started doing these

three things, I found myself writing solid, well-developed paragraphs for my essay.
 Khan 2

I like to make notes on paper first for the writing assignments that rely on my own words

more to get my mind around the subject. I find this helpful to get an outline of the whole article

and it also helps me to figure out the framework I am going to continue with. For me, I think the

most dangerous distraction was when I was reading an article for research purposes. Since they

were important for my essays, it was very hard to protect myself from losing myself to them. I

always felt an awful temptation to just keep on researching and reading articles. Finally, at some

point, I convinced myself that I just have to stop and start writing.

I also learned a thing or two about how important the audience is when it comes to

writing. When I was writing my essay, I kept in my mind that the audience is amongst the most

essential aspects of writing irrespective of my competence or expertise. My audience helped me

decide what kind of voice I am going to express in my writings, whether it was the basic literacy

narrative essay, intensive take a stand essay or this piece for my final exam.

This course taught me if I want my work to be noticed and taken seriously spelling, style,

and punctuation are highly important. I kept in mind that you are trying to show people that you

are a professional and can make a smart claim. If you use big words just to sound intelligent and

end up using the wrong words, it affects your credibility a lot. The use of ambiguous vocabulary

will also eliminate the consistency of your statement. Whenever I included an article in my work,

first I questioned myself if it supports my thesis or not and only cited if it had a clear connection

to my topic. Hopefully, I learn more about critical thinking, developing ideas, researching and

overall writing process when I take my next English course next semester.