Reflective letter: Final Draft

When I started this year at PSEC, I really didn’t know what to expect. I thought that it would be like all of the other writing classes I have ever taken, and that with a little bit of effort on my part, I could coast through it, A+, no problem. I soon discovered this was not the case. I found that this writing class would be the toughest one I have ever taken, specifically because unlike previous writing classes, it wasn’t just write about a certain topic, for a certain number of pages, and then turning it in. I would actually have to apply my writing skills, and use them to pass this class. Based on the outcome of my first essay, an F, I learned very quickly that I would really have to be diligent in my work, and actually start learning how to write if I intend to pass this class.

The first step I realized I must take in order to pass, was using the, they say/I Say book. At first, I thought that it wasn’t needed, because I had always gotten good grades on my writing, and last year, I got 108% in my previous writing class. I thought, “Pshh, this is going to be easy.” But when I didn’t use the book on my first essay, and saw how it turned out compared to others, I found myself banging my head against the table saying “stupid, stupid, stupid!!” I realized the book is the one thing I should have not blown off when writing anything. It really is a good source of information when it comes to sentence structure and writing techniques.

The second step I concluded was a major in terms of passing was my use of quotes. I didn’t use any backup information in my first essay, and probably didn’t use enough in the second one either. Once I had re-read my essay after I had had it critiqued by my teacher, I realized that backup information was the one thing that was probably the most important next to having a thesis and an outline. Here’s an example, “Sir Nathaniel Bacon was a wealthy man. A rich landowner, but at the same time, he was very observant of his surroundings. Day after day, as he would go about doing his job, he would observe his surroundings, as well as his fellow man, and in a short amount of time, he discovered that the poor people living there were not happy about there conditions.” First essay: “Bacon’s Rebellion” (2008). As you can see, this is very poor sentence structure, not very detailed, and most of all, how the heck do we know that this was the case? There are no backup quotes/sources! I realized that without backup information, I had no sources to hold my argument in place, which was a major mistake. I learned this by the third essay, when working with my group, I went through many pains to use extra sources, and it made more sense not only to my peers, but to me once I had included quotes.

I think the third and last thing I have realized I should have done was come up with a decent thesis. When my teacher had first mentioned that I had to have a thesis in my document, I kind of thought it was ridiculous. My brain was a jumble of ideas, and questions about why it was needed. Again though, once I put it into my essay, it made more sense. I was starting to realize more and more, that there was a reason he was called the teacher, and I am the student. I learned this one the hard way as well, but not in my first essay, but my second. I had misplaced it in my paper, as you can see from this quote. “Now, if I’m going to be a “loyalist” then I have to understand where I stand on the subject, and be willing at anytime to explain, and perhaps persuade people to join at any moment.” Essay #2, A Maryland Loyalist. (2008). This is what my teacher THOUGHT was my thesis, and as you can see, it’s very wimpy. When I read it, my eyes were opened to the fact that without a thesis, your paper, document, essay, or whatever has no real place. In other words, there’s no class that it falls under. For all any random reader may know, you could just be arguing about something totally irrelevant. But with a thesis, it’s like a mini summary of your ideas.

All in all, I believe that I have added a lot of interesting techniques to my “writing utility belt.” I also believe that I will be exercising these new learned abilities for years to come. If I just remember thesis, outline, and they say/I say then I believe I can’t go wrong. That is of course, if I discontinue moving forward and learning new techniques and tricks in this upcoming quarter here at PSEC. Even though my start was rough, I believe that I can achieve greatness here at this school.