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Melissa Wolfe
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-013
December 11, 2014
Writing in Academia: A Change of Heart
I am always looking for different outlets to kindle my creativity. Writing is one of the
many ways I choose to express myself. When it comes to academic writing, that is a whole other
story. I always thought that academic writing was just a black and white formula that allows no
room for personality. The most important thing that I learned this semester in Writing 1010 is
that not only can you put some personal flare into your work but that you actually should. During
each assignment my classes teacher would stress how important it is to include your opinions
and what you make of what we were reading. I have a lot of work that I need to do before I really
feel comfortable voicing my thoughts in my academic writing. I plan to develop that aspect of
my writing as I continue classes at the University.
Apart from having a change of heart in regards to academic writing, I learned a lot of
concepts and skills necessary to write an essay. The very first thing that I learned is that I would
be a given a zero for improper formatting which can be seen in the first essay of the semester, the
literacy narrative. In this essay I dont even include a page count and also head the paper
incorrectly. Prior to this class formatting was never an aspect of writing that was stressed.
Comparing the narrative to the report is actually kind of comical. In the report I use section
headers and sub headers and obviously a page count. That kind of formatting was completely
unknown to me at the beginning of this semester.

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Another important aspect of writing that I have also been made aware of is that a
summary more importantly makes an argument which voices your opinions about what you are
summarizing. I have always thought that a summary was a condensed version of whatever was
read. I had no idea that a summary should not only include the they say but also include the I
say. It is just as important if not more to contribute your half of a summary which includes your
opinions and thoughts. Before Writing 1010 I had never written a summary in this way and it
took me a couple of tries and a lot of re-writes to get it mostly right.
Before the semester started I was thinking about testing out of Writing 1010 and into
2010. I didnt because I thought I could use a refresher since I had not written an essay in almost
two years. I am so glad that I chose to take 1010 because I did more than just refresh my
memory, I learned how I can become a better writer. I can apply the skills that I have learned in
this class to all of my writing assignment throughout the span of my college career.