Joseph Henning ENGL 1103 Professor Presnell 3 December 2012 Semester Reflection I came to English 1103 as a very deliberate

and reserved writer. A first draft of my work could pass as a final, but only because it would take me hours to write a simple page. I suffered from terrible writers block, and minimum word requirements were my enemy. I wrote meticulously, but I had trouble getting thoughts to paper quickly. As I reflect back on my writing in August, I realize just how far I have come. Freewriting was a familiar concept to me, but in just the first day of class I realized how I had never before taken advantage of it. For one thing, I had never before done a brain dump, writing everything that comes to mind. This sort of direct, thought-to-paper, no reservations writing was entirely new for me, but I soon found that wild mind writing could work wonders for me. I finally began to learn how to put down thoughts quickly, unfiltered, with nothing holding me back. Rather than placing words one at a time, I could pour my thoughts directly onto the paper. I soon began making use of this style with assignments in English and for other classes. I would take an idea and run, typing everything that pops into my head and not looking back until I began the revision stage. It allowed me to take on the new workload of college by attacking writing assignments with newfound force. As I had more time leftover to revise, the quality of my work actually did not drop from my hurried methods. My writing may very well have improved as I gained confidence in my abilities. I could now actually write without struggling to find enough words.

The person and place essays were a good chance for me to develop my descriptive abilities. While I dont think they changed me as a writer, they got me thinking about the show, dont tell concept. They served as a good warm-up for the personal essay. The personal essay was a pivotal turning point in my life as a writer. I wrote the zero draft late on a Sunday night in a frantic I-cant-sleep-till-its-done fervor. Inadvertently, my procrastination had forced me to really embrace the concept of a zero draft. I wrote exactly what I felt, without ever stopping to overthink it. I wrote without fear of embarrassment, without fear of the reader over my shoulder, without worry about judgment. I wrote with more honesty and heart than I have ever before, and held nothing back. Just a month earlier I would have been far too timid, too reserved to write what I did. What surprised me most of all is that I wrote well over double the minimum word requirement, something I had never done before in my life. That is not too say I was entirely confident in what I wrote. My essay was so personal that I actually had trouble reading it. Parts of my essay made me shiver because I felt exposed having written what I did. Not to mention, I hated reliving the moments described in my essay. It took me a long while to become proud of the essay which I now regard as the thing best I have ever written (so far).

While I did gain a bit of writing confidence with my personal essay, the inquiry paper still scared me at first. Research papers usually mean hours of struggling with research and citation formats, and inevitable writers block. In the past, I would inevitably lose interest in the topic during research and hit a wall with writing the paper as soon as I typed my name atop the page. While I had beaten writers block in my passion fueled personal essay, a half-hearted research paper could bring it back with a vengeance. I am pleased to say that none of these fears came true. The inquiry paper allowed me to branch out and to explore as I researched. Since I did not have a point to prove, I could look at whatever seemed interesting. I discarded information only because it was boring. I did not have to worry about a

thesis. I also had a chance to get much more personal with the paper. It could reflect my feelings personally, instead of relying purely on a data driven thesis to explain my viewpoint. Research actually became fun, because I could sit at my computer and explore what interested me. The research paper did inevitably require some technical work with MLA citations, but the three to five source limit meant the focus was on finding strong articles, rather than making a massive works cited. Also, by transitioning away from parenthetical citations and introducing sources instead, I finally wrote a research paper that did not feel choked by ugly parentheses. Best of all, by breaking the paper into chunks, each with a talking header, I was able to freewrite each section in a negative one draft. I actually wrote most of each section of my paper, in less time than it would have taken to do a full outline. Before long, I had a zero draft of my paper in just over the amount of time it took to write my personal essay. Best of all, my inquiry paper shows who I am, so it fits into my portfolio quite neatly. It was a challenge to make my inquiry paper a mix of sources, fact, and personal experience, but in the end that was what kept the paper so interesting and relevant. As I look back at the semester to make my portfolio, I am genuinely surprised at how each and everything I have written this semester is distinctly me. The place and person essays give insight into my interests. The personal essay gives insight into who I am on the inside and my struggles, explaining my deepest pain amidst describing what thrills me. Finally, the inquiry paper lets my technical side loose. Never before has my inner engineer been so excited about a research paper. When I put all these things together in my portfolio, I realize I am not describing a semester of work so much as who I am. I leave English 1103 with numerous unfulfilled expectations, but no disappointments. There were few concrete lessons on topics like grammar or structure. If you ask me what I learned on a given class day, I might be hard pressed to say anything concrete. If you asked me what I learned over the semester, I would say I learned to write like I never before thought I could. I can write freely and confidently. While that is not necessarily quantifiable knowledge, it is an invaluable skill which I had

been missing for years. If I feel in any way disappointed in at all, it is only in knowing that the passion with which I wrote my personal essay did not accompany my other assignments. I wish I could give my other papers a boost, rather than feel that all my writing before and after the personal essay is not on par with my strongest work. Regardless, I have to say I am proud of what I accomplished in 1103. It was a tremendous semester, and one that has undoubtedly changed me both as a writer and as a person.