My Writing: Nicole Ratliff

Whelp. It's over. I guess this class was not what I was expecting to say the least, although now that I think about it, I don't even know what I was expecting to be honest. I think in all reality I thought that this would be just like my AP English Language and Composition course where I wrote my first 15 page paper on The Grapes of Wrath... I even chose that to be the same book I would write my final paper on for this semester! But this class was wayyyyy different! Yes, there was structure. Yes, there was a goal. But I really felt that I was constantly being pushed out of my comfort zone. Although not everything I wrote was perfect, I feel that every thing I did this semester improved my writing and now I know what I enjoy as well as what I don't as well as I think I am really beginning to understand myself as a writer.

Although this first post isn't necessarily anything important, I feel like this was the first time I really expressed my love of writing to others through writing! And throughout the semester I used this piece as inspiration and a reminder of why I am an English Major especially when I didn't do as well as I would have liked and felt discouraged.

Besides the first blog post I feel that the first time we tried writing our essays in an hour which can be seen in this post, "Flashback, Flashback!" Giving myself only an hour- a productive hour to write- really helped me to focus on the important themes and concepts that I wanted to address in addition to creating an outline that would make filling in the rest of my paper much easier! I learned that I really like this way of writing in addition to the ways that we built upon it aka being accountable to someone else in class and helping others in their writing process. It was amazing to see how much talking to others really helped me flesh out my ideas for my papers and really understand what I was writing about and why! In my future writing I would love to take more of a social approach, including posting more on facebook and other platforms and really understand if my "why" is important to others!

Although I do have to admit that I am not the best writers of literary criticism, I learned a lot about how to improve my formal writing as well as what kind of writer I am. I am extremely lengthy and sometimes my writing is as complicated as I am! I love to bask in the creative aspects of the writing process and enjoy looking at my work feeling accomplished because of the improvements I have made as well as the successes I have had. I like to compare stories and love to see how to bridge the gaps between generations. I am glad that I was able to learn social aspects of writing as well as improve my formal writing habits. This class was another way I could develop myself as a writer, and I enjoyed it!

Happy End of the Semester! Idk about you guys but I'm ready to hit the beach!