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Emma Barrow
Sally Griffin
UWRT 1103 090
29 February 2016
Midterm Reflection
On my first evening of class, I was very excited for this course. The videos we watched
of different cultures and their languages caught my interest and encouraged me to think about
how my culture affected my language. I thought about possible essay topics I could write relating
to that subject. I did not expect that our first assignment would actually be an essay about a
writing experience. I went with my college application process because it was the first
assignment that came to mind that I had a clear recollection of doing. Even then, it was hard
coming up with enough material to reach the page requirement. If I had known this would be a
multiple part assignment, I wouldve chosen a different topic. I am still refining my essay writing
process. I believe it largely boils down to predicting how an assignment will affect other
assignments in the future. If you rush on your plan, you will not have much to work with for
your final plan. Since I am always trying to find time between my assignments in other classes
and the delay in the assignment information being posted online, I dont usually have time to
sleep on my decisions.
I have always tried to use the best grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting I know
for my assignments. Unless otherwise specified, I make sure my papers follow the MLA format.
I have not received much direct feedback on my writing style, so I continue doing what I think is
best. We have talked about grammatical conflicts in class before. Indeed, when I was

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proofreading some of my classmates papers, I wasnt always certain whether to count something
off as an error or regard it as a different but valid variation on our language. Overall, Im mostly
confident about that aspect of knowledge of conventions. Now that were working on a research
project, I will need to master the process of writing a research paper. I havent received feedback
on whether my research proposal is sufficient for a research paper yet. I hope I can learn more
about that.
Our online readings provide are very in-depth about the relevant reading topic of the
week. Even though I occasionally only have time to skim because of how verbose they can be, I
still try to take what Ive learned from them and apply it to my work. One of the first selections
that were posted was about a Native American author and his battle against the standard of
illiteracy in his community. I had actually read the passage before back in high school. When I
reread it this time, I was able to apply it to the first weeks lecture. When I wrote about an artifact
of my family community, I used the definition of artifact talked about in that weeks selection
and applied it to a family photograph. I argued that an artifact is any item that provides
information about a culture or time period. Critical reading is an essential skill for a writer.
The most important part of this class overall, is learning from and improving on your past
work. A writer needs to listen to themselves speak in order to know if they are getting their ideas
across effectively. They should pay attention to and address criticism, especially from those with
experience. I also learned that my writing development goes back much further than this class.
Starting at a block of facts for an ostrich diorama in the second grade, to the hand-written fiction
prompts from the fourth grade, to the inappropriate font and color choices for a book report in
middle school, to the heavily-guided but still very challenging research papers in high school, to
the work Ive done in this class, and everything in between, my writing has evolved significantly.

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I would never get better if I didnt practice. I will work as hard as I can to improve my writing
skills with this course so I can write better essays and reports throughout college and career.