Final Blog 1

            I like to think that my writing has changed a lot over the semester. We wrote an analysis paper, a personal narrative, a persuasive essay, and an ad campaign, so these consisted of very different styles of writing. Before this class, I have been used to writing strict high school papers. The topics had to be precisely what the teacher wanted, and I never enjoyed doing this at all. This semester I finally had more freedom to write what I wanted to write, and I found this very enjoyable. The personal narrative is the paper I enjoyed the most. I was uncomfortable at first, but I found it very easy to write about something that has meaning to me. Although I do think that my writing itself improved in this class, the voice and emotion in my writing definitely got better. Something that I found very helpful with my writing was peer editing. Even though it can be awkward to have other people read your papers, it helps a lot to get multiple opinions and lots of feedback on how to make it better. I also think that the blogs helped, as well as the brainstorming activities we did in class before starting a paper. Reading samples in class and writing multiple intros to my paper during one class really helped me. I thought that I had a good intro, but after writing a couple more I ended up going with the third one. Although I never thought I would say this, I think that giving the blogs a specific due date would have been more effective. I know that this is not true for everyone, but I personally procrastinate on assignments that can be put off, when assignments in other classes have a closer deadline. The blogs helped me a lot with my writing, I just did not do them on time due to a lack of motivation, but I wish I did. The textbook was also a very helpful tool in improving my writing. By seeing examples of the styles of writing being asked of us, it gave me a better idea of what to do. The first assignment, which was the rhetorical analysis, really helped me understand the concepts of pathos, ethos, and logos. I also liked the ad campaign. This was a laid-back, fun project, but it improved my persuasive writing at the same time.