Personal Narrative: Improving My Writing Skills

Throughout this semester, my writing has grown stronger and better as I gained the knowledge to present my knowledge in a new professional manner. With what I have learned in this class not only improved my writing skills, but it also improved my thinking skills in many subjects beyond composition. The proof of my improvement is reflected in my grades which have improved steadily over the semester. By simply learning these new techniques of research and process, I can use them in the other classes I take. I now know the proper process of writing an academic paper and how to add personal elements into my writing. These are great skills that I have developed over the semester, from responses and warm up writing to this final project, have improved …show more content…
As I approached writing this paper, I looked at it as I had many papers before it. The day before the first draft was due, I through some words and stories together that I thought matched the topic. My inexperience in the proper process of college writing was very evident in this first draft of the first paper. It started with my introduction where there seemed to be no thesis at all. Also this first draft was not well developed; the topic was very broad and jumped from idea to idea. Even on the final draft, there are still some place where it is very evident that I did not know the correct techniques of college writing. For example, the thesis on my first paper was very weak and was not near as developed as it should have been. The thesis in the final draft still did not answer “How?” or “Why?” This is the biggest example of my inexperience that can be found in my first paper’s final draft. Although there were still many problems with my final draft of the first paper, one could not help but notice the improvement in my writing in that short amount of time. As I was introduced to this new in depth writing process, I began to learn new strategies for drafting and revising my papers. Also, I learned how to allow myself the proper amount of time to make sure what I am expressing my ideas in the way I want them to be read. In the short amount of time between paper one and two for this semester, a big …show more content…
I began to notice that I was beginning to use these new ideas of college writing in my other classes. The more I learned about improving my writing skills the more I began to use these skills in my classes to give my notes and other assignments a boost. In two classes in particular these skills helped me very much. In Jesus and His Teachings and American History, I began to use my new found writing strategies for each them in their own special ways. For example in Jesus and His Teachings, there were many assignment which required writing papers. There were four responses to movies we were required to watch. As I approached these movies, I used the same techniques I would use to write an academic paper. While watching the movie, I would take notes and pay close attention to the parts we were asked about. I would then turn my notes into a draft and make the necessary revisions to make sure all the questions were answered. Also in American History, I was required to read and interpret historical sources. From these sources, I had to develop well thought out answers, connections, and conclusions for the questions provided. Answers had to be given in a coherent, essay form. Because my new knowledge on the importance of knowing the information before writing, I was reading and analyzing the sources deeper which made my answers stronger and more thought out. Then, like I did in

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Personal Narrative: Improving My Writing Skills