Entering Shepard hall, I climbed the endless flight of stairs all the way up to the second floor, where I finally made it to my English 110 class. My emotions were running high. I was out of breath, nervous, motivated and yet slightly embarrassed. I looked to my right and then to my left. I felt self conscious, but  I realized these were my peers and future friends. Friends who would help me get through the semester’s journey, who I would become close to, and most importantly friends from whom who I would gain knowledge and emotional support. This realization transformed my anxiety into creative energy. I knew I would become a creative writer and thinker, as well as a more thoughtful person.

Through the course of the semester, our English professor,  Professor Pringle, presented three different essays: The Literacy Narrative, Exploratory Essay, and Critical Analysis, each being artistically unique and significant in nature. Each assignment illustrates rhetorical situations, leaving behind a purpose, audience, stance, genre, medium and design.
  Each essay consisted of first drafts and second drafts prior to the upload of the final draft. However, after each draft was submitted, there was an in-class peer review done the following day, allowing my peers and I the chance to revise our work together, so that we could develop a better final essay. We gave constructive feedback to one another, so that each of us could see the strengths and weaknesses of our papers, and make the revisions necessary for our final papers. I strongly felt that peer review was useful, because reading my peers’ essays gave me perspective and exposed me to new writing styles. I learned to use different writing devices, which helped me enhance the quality my writing. From my peers’ feedback, I was able to see new perspectives and become a more concise writer, as I learned how to use short sentences. Shorter sentences made my writing flow better, and I believe my main ideas became clearer. In addition, through peer review and the duration of the course, I learned the importance of diction and the impact word choices can have on both the writing, the writer, as well as my readers.

Furthermore, while I understand the importance of class discussions, I did not find them particularly helpful as I often felt lost and confused.  However, when I attended one-on-one individual conferences with Professor Pringle, I was able to better voice myself and learn more about my writer’s process. We worked collaboratively, which allowed me to learn from Professor Pringle herself; I utilized her suggestions and techniques, which were eventually applied in my final submissions. Applying the techniques and suggestions from both peer review and my individual conferences with Professor Pringle, I saw my literary understanding and writing skills improve across the three essays. The first essay I conquered was the Literacy Narrative. Writing this essay was the easiest since it was a personal anecdote, in which I recalled true events. I really enjoyed writing this essay, for I remembered my my connection to the characters of the book, which ultimately motivated me and helped me become a good reader. However, one thing I struggled with was my ending, as I tried to conclude the narrative and tie all the details and mains points together.                           

On the other hand, the Exploratory and Critical Analysis essays both required topic proposals before the first draft. The topic proposal for each essay consisted of an annotated bibliography and our working thesis statement. My Exploratory essay titled“Flight of Syrians” was challenging because Professor Pringle asked us to keep a neutral stance, however this was l difficult for me because I already had a position on the matter and I desired to voice my opinions. I also had trouble initially formatting my works cited page along with the in text citations in MLA format. In addition, my paragraphs had to be organized with headings (signpost language), so that my  reader could have a gist of the paragraph before reading it. Taking my professor’s feedback, I made the appropriate changes to my exploratory essay, with which I had a rather difficult time formatting, organizing and tying all the information back to my main thesis. But through the experience of writing the exploratory essay, I gradually learned how to better organize and expand my ideas.

Fortunately, with the Critical Analysis essay, I was able to take a stance and make an argument, thus it became my favorite essay of the semester. I was able to show my audience a current problem in society and how people go about acknowledging the problem. At first, I chose to write about the Syrian refugees, but as I was having a difficult time giving thought to both sides of the story, I changed my topic to Media. Even though the essay took up 11 pages and involved 14 citations, I was able to explore a topic I was genuinely passionate about and practice formatting in MLA, using the MLA 8th edition to cite all the sources. Doing MLA citations for the critical analysis was also difficult for me, as I took my time reading through Purdue Owl, though ultimately I ended up using the Norton Guide for my citations. Nonetheless, the topic of media was very compelling, and it motivated me to further develop my organization, flow, and of course, my thesis.

Moreover, the latter two essays helped me understand the importance of sources. The Exploratory Critical Analysis essay were both research-based, so they related to topics which had massive amounts of information. For both essays combined, I had to read over 20 articles to inform my paper. The reading strategy I used was skimming through the text, finding keywords, statistics, and making notes on the margins of the article. Using feedback given to me my by peers and Professor Pringle, I was able to learn how to paraphrase the long quotes and summarize the author’s main points. I then learned how to better use and integrate quotes, as well as how to present information to my audience in an interesting and thoughtful way.

Lastly, other resources I had to use in English 110 was Blackboard, Microsoft Outlook, as well Citymail. These resources played a significant part in my journey of writing these essays, because they helped me track my progress (through my grades), as well as keep in contact with peers and Professor Pringle. Ultimately, by writing these essays I was able  transition from a personal to a more academic writer.