Reflective - 308J Blog

Throughout the different writing assignments that I have had to do for 308J I feel as if I have only improved. At the beginning of the course I tried to write a lot, but it seemed like nothing was really being said. By the end of the quarter I feel like I have a much better grasp on how to stay on topic as well as a point to the whole essay. I remember my first blog that I had to post. It was a very standard, "by the book" kind of blog. I made sure I had the appropriate amount of words and covered every aspect of what the prompt wanted me to do. But as I did that, I noticed that I was only writing "by the book" and not freely. As the quarter went on though I was about to create ideas and use them to only better my blog posts. The posts have also helped me to analyze readings and articles better than I used to. I am able to pick up on more than just the obvious subject. I have gained the ability to pick out the authors ethos, pathos, and logos as well as think about these things critically instead of just one-dimensionally. One of my favorite parts of the class though was peer critiquing. The first time I did a critique for someone else in the class, I absolutely hated it. I thought it was a huge waste of time and left me without energy to edit my own paper. But the second peer critique that was done in class was so much better. I felt that it went way smoother than the first one. I was able to really help out the person I was critiquing. I do not know if because we had already done a peer critique earlier and so I knew what to expect, or if I really did just end up liking the process for a different type of topic. Over all I believe this class has been a great success for me and has improved my writing skills, as well as more confidence in my ideas.