Letter Learning Outcomes

This semester has been quite a challenge for me, but I learned many skills from it. I have continued to improve as a writer. I believe that as my writing progressed throughout the course I have moved closer to my goal of successfully achieving the learning outcomes.

In the first paper, the reader response, I made many mistakes. I attacked the author and falsely accused him of hating women. In reality, the author was simply demonstrating how sexual bias exists in the English language. He was presenting the facts and did not even state an opinion. I spent more time responding to his argument rather than analyzing why his writing style affected me the way it did. I learned that in order to better comprehend the text I need to take the writing piece-by-piece and read and reread the text. Many problems in diction arose in my first essay. I misused commas, changed verb tenses, and demonstrated a poor word choice and a limited vocabulary. The reader response essay taught me to spend more time thinking and planning my essay rather than throwing words on a page.

I felt I did better on the second paper, the analytical essay. I spent a great deal more time planning my paper. Because I missed the author’s purpose completely on my first paper I wanted to make sure I did not do that again. I read the essay multiple times to make sure I grasped the meaning. I learned to back up my points with examples and refute the opposition’s arguments. Overall I felt my essay was much improved from the first. However, my paper turned out to be extremely wordy. I used five words when two would do. I made the mistake of analyzing a lot of things at a very shallow depth. I learned that instead of listing many literary techniques, I should pick one or two and create a deeper analysis. My diction greatly improved in the second essay although I still had many grammatical errors. The error could have been prevented had a spent more time proofreading.

Although I was disappointed with my effort on the third paper, I still noticed some improvements and can consider it a learning experience. I did not use my time wisely on the synthesis essay. Instead of diving into the works and attempting to understand the assignment. I convinced myself that the assignment was too hard and decided to procrastinate as long as possible. I wrote my rough draft but was so disappointed with it I shredded it. The final draft did not have a well-developed thesis.