Reflective Letter - Portfolio

Writing 101 challenged me to grow in such a way that I did not know was possible. I have grown up in an educational system that is strictly supposed to follow a format and guideline to earn a simple grade. The structure I grew up with did not focus on quality and depth of writing. I have always felt very aware of the fact that I was not able to develop my own writing personality when it came to school work. This was a major reality check especially after participating in writing 101. I came to Puget Sound Early College eager to learn with a motivational attitude. Because I was willing to learn, I was able to see many strengths and weaknesses within my ability to write. Throughout the quarter, I have come to a point of accomplishment with what I have learned and although there were some difficult challenges, every moment was definitely worth it. Today I am more confident when using my writing skills and it will be shown as I express my strengths and weaknesses from two pieces of my writing: Bacon's Rebellion and My Writing Philosophy.

In October, our class turned in Essay #1 about Bacon's Rebellion. The end result of this essay pointed out more of my weaknesses than strengths. My initial reaction was discouragement because I put a lot of hard work into this essay with it's planning and several rough drafts. After looking at my graded rubric, I realized why I received the score that I did. I took advantage of my weak points from my essay so I could learn from them. Having a strong voice in our pieces of writing was something that was taught as very important and needed in Writing 101. I did not apply a clear voice to my essay and when my tone was there, it was quite vague. For Example, the first two sentences of my essay are "The time period in which Bacon's Rebellion occurred was a compelling moment in history. This is true no matter what angle it is looked upon." I started out the essay poorly with a faint protest of truth. Every situation in life is looked at from many angles so I was not proving anything strong by stating that in my essay. Writing 101 is the first place I learned to use my voice as a significant part of writing and because of this, I feel that the more practice I had, the more my voice was heard in my writing towards the end of the quarter. Engaging the audience in our essays is another fundamental point when writing. This is something I learned to acquire over the quarter because this was also a technique that was not familiar to me before taking this class. The essay on Bacon's Rebellion was my first essay in Writing 101, so engaging the audience was something I also did inadequately on.

At the beginning of the school year, one of the first assignments given to us was to write about our personal writing philosophy. At this point, we were new to this class so the first couple of assignments were to be written as free style. I have to admit that I over analyzed and did not believe that there were no strict rules to follow as we wrote. I followed directions anyway and wrote everything without worrying about having to follow unsparing commands. This was very enjoyable to write and I felt like I was not only writing from my mind, but I was also writing from my heart. An important point from My Writing Philosophy is "Writing is giving and receiving information that you can be compelled to share with others; whether it be emotional, intellectual, or spiritual" This is an important part to me because when writing this essay, I truly meant everything that I wrote, I was not just writing down nonsense in order to receive a simple grade. After writing about my philosophy, I know that I can carry these truths into any writing style which is something that is beneficial and powerful.

Looking back on Writing 101, I definitely know that it was a great learning experience in my life. Coming into this class, I did not know exactly what I was going to overcome and learn. Writing at a college level was an adventure for me and I am looking forward to using the skills I achieved and earned for my future pieces of writing.