Durboraw 1

Addison Durboraw

Mrs. Litle

ENG 121001

29 April 2022

Writing Reflection

At the beginning of this class, I was incredibly apprehensive about writing papers. I wish

I could say that I am an incredibly competent writer now that we are almost done with this

course but hopefully that will come with time. I have however greatly improved my writing

abilities thanks in no small part to my college English instructor Mrs. Litle. I think I am always

going to be somewhat apprehensive about writing papers but at the very least I can say I can do

so with much more confidence now that I have taken this course. I learned the tools with which I

am able to write papers and am able to more easily apply them to future assignments. I also

gained the ability to add structure to my writing in this course which I have always struggled

with. Thanks to this course I now have an improved understanding of the writing process and

how to use it in various methods and writing styles.

Our first major assignment was a profile which I decided to write about Doctor Who. It

was an assignment that I was already familiar with and profiles are generally pretty easy to write.

I did learn a good bit about the backstory for the Doctor but that is not what this is about. This is

about my writing journey and how I have developed my writing skills over the course of English

121. I learned how to properly use the MLA format and what that looks like. While I wish I

would have spent some more time on this piece of writing it turned out alright. What I really
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learned from this paper was how to pick a time and sit down and write in an environment that

promotes writing with skill and eloquence.

Our second major assignment which I am most proud of was a visual rhetorical analysis

describing a quit smoking advertisement which is titled Quit Killing Yourself. I sometimes have

a hard time with writing which is why I'm so proud of this piece of work because it is an entire

paper about one single image. It was in this writing assignment that I learned about the different

rhetorical strategies used in writing and how to apply them myself. The ethos is the credibility of

my work. Pathos is the emotions that I draw on to appeal to my audience. Logos is the appeal to

the audience’s logic. By using these three rhetorical strategies you can really begin to put

together a paper that is able to sway its audience or send a powerful message. This is what my

second major assignment does, is send a powerful message. We all know it is bad to smoke and

that people should quit but my paper on quitting really sells the desperation that goes into being a

smoker by vividly describing what it is like to be a smoker.

The third major assignment was an annotated bibliography which I decided to write about

universal healthcare in the united states. This piece of writing taught me a lot about how to

properly format citations both in text and on the works cited page. I also learned a lot about how

to find proper citation and how to use it effectively to support my arguments.. Aside from that, I

learned a lot about why we should have universal healthcare in the united states so all in all it

was a very neat learning experience and work that I am proud of. I am now easily able to find

and cite sources for almost any type of paper.

The fourth and final assignment was a researched argumentative essay that was an

extension of the third major assignment. We turned an annotated bibliographie’s sources into an
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argumentative essay regarding the same topic as the bibliography. It was by this assignment that

I think I really started to hit my stride. I can’t say I learned a whole lot from paper four except

the fact that I am a decent writer. I know now how to effectively use formatting, source

information, and write in a concise manner.

All in all, thanks to this course and my own hard work I have become a more competent

writer that will be able to handle any future writing assignments college has for me. Not only am

I able to handle my assignments with confidence but I will also be able to apply my writing skills

in a professional setting as well. It has been an incredible journey improving my writing skills

one that I'm glad I have had the pleasure of going on. A journey that I'm ever so impatient to find

out where it is leading me.