Portfolio: Writing Reflection

___In writing 101 to demonstrate how I have progressed, I have prepared a writing portfolio. It will have what I have written this quarter that presents my strengths and weaknesses. Naturally, as the quarter went on, I have learned much from professor, Craig McKenney. His expertise and personal help has helped me come a long way in my writing.
___To end on a higher note, first I will discuss my weaknesses. My worst habit in my essays were being too conversational. I was too focused on having my voice in my writing. I was focused on this because in my previous years at high school I struggled with using my voice. As I focused more about my voice, I was distracted from the other qualities of writing. Being in writing 101 had brought me to this realization as much as others. One of these others would include writing in chronological order. In my essay number 1, to support my topic of bacon’s rebellion, I used unjust taxes as a way to justify how the British were hindering the American economy. When I used these examples I stated them out of order and referring to things I had said before. Being in writing101 helped me be orderly in my writing and gave better transitions in my writing. Which brings me to the next point of how my transitions in my papers were, well, so to say, there were none. In each paragraph I started a whole separate topic that had no relation to to my original thesis or previous paragraph. I was self consciously assuming that
people knew where I was going with my story. In writing 101, working on these habits have gotten me out of them. I know that I have learned a lot about writing, but I know there is still much to come.
___Though my weaknesses have affected my quality of writing tremendously, my strengths have equally effected my writing style. Along with my problem of being too conversational, it has also been complimented that I get ‘to the point.’ Naturally, I don’t want to “go around the world to get across the street,” (as my grandpa would say) to get to my point. I do this because it keeps a reader more interested to get to the justification sooner rather than, ‘use filler sentences.’ Another example of my strengths would be using different examples yet under the same topic. My goal when doing this is to create an argument good enough to [don’t build another point off of another.
___I have come very far in my writing this quarter. I feel like I have learned more than I ever thought I would before this class, but I know there is much more to discover.