Reflection Essay

Before this course, I had only taken one other English class. I didn't have proper
grammar or technical English education.
After taking the class, I can tell that I learned new techniques and formatting used in
English writing, especially when it comes to formal writing since I had no previous
experience with it.
Now when I am writing, I look and reread the text to see if it has proper prose, is
understandable for the audience, and most importantly, communicates what I want to
say in the most direct and easy-to-read way possible.
Even though I improved on my writing, I still need to practice more.

My goal for this class was to pass with an "A." Unfortunately, I didn't achieve my goal.
The reason I didn't achieve my goal was that the base level of writing I had before the
class was too low. Also, taking the class online, asynchronous, and over the summer
made it a bit harder since there isn't much interaction with the instructor and the time,
we have in between assignments is shorter than normal. These conditions make asking
questions for clarification on some assignments difficult. Where if I would have taken the
class in person, I feel I would have gotten an A. Thanks to everything I learned, I think if
I took the class again, I would easily achieve my goal.
Even though I didn't achieve the goal I set myself, I learned tons of new writing
techniques I will use in the future.

The class had three major assignments. Each one had different goals, audiences, and
the writing format that had to be followed was different. The instruction assignment was
a semiformal writing style where the goal was to guide someone through a set of
instructions in the easiest way possible. The formal assignment to me was the toughest.
I had limited knowledge of how to write formally so I found it hard to do without adding
emotionally charged language. The email and memo assignment were the one I found
most interesting. I am proud of the work I did for this one, and as a result, it was the
highest grade I got! I put the most effort into this assignment since writing emails and
memos will be something I will do frequently in the future. Since my major is computer
science, concentrating on software engineering. I will be sending lots of emails to
coworkers to inform them of what I have done, and I thought of the memo as
documentation with an in-depth description of the work. Also, it was written in plain
language, which I found easier to do.
If I had the chance to add a new assignment to the course, I wouldn't add any. I think
the three major assignments we did cover all the types of writing, formal, semi-formal,
and instructional. All the assignments were creative and allowed us to select from a
wide number of subjects. Choosing a Reaktion book was also fun. They allow for a wide
variety of subjects that are fun to read.