My Writing: Rebekah Hartshorn

I did it!!! I've been procrastinating this class for as long as I could and turns out that my trepidation was well placed. However, I'm really grateful for Dr. Burton's help this semester.

I learned a lot from the processes we worked with this semester, and the key for me is finding a balance between having a system and using variety. Breaking things down the way we did helped me to understand how I do that better for myself. The social aspect  was particularly helpful. When I was stressed or stuck, just talking with someone (usually my sister) got my ideas flowing again and helped me get back to thinking in straight lines. I discussed almost every aspect of my final paper with my sister in elaborate detail. The in-person, social parts of the class and the blog were more effective for me than some of the other things we tried. The blog had a pretty good sense of community since we were reading and commenting on each other's posts.

Writing takes a long time. I'm just starting to get the sense for that, though every time I work on a paper I am floored by how long it takes me. I learned I need to start right away on researching (at the very least thinking about it), brainstorming, and even cranking out that first draft as early as I can. The principle behind that is being diligent is REALLY important for me and working through things little bits at a time

I tend to try to take on part of a topic that is MUCH TOO BIG. That is extremely overwhelming. I have to work really hard to get the topic narrowed down enough that it isn't so outrageous to write about. In this class I was pretty successful at getting my ideas focused on specific aspects of the topic. I ended up using the exercise of writing all five kinds of theses a couple times in order to understand the kinds of things I could say in my paper and it helped me to narrow down my focus.

A difficulty for me is writing things in an order that logically makes sense. I am able to pull it off for the most part, but it is a very belabored process. Something else I'm still a little bit confused about is writing about formal elements of the literature. In theory I understand how it works, but in practice there is a little more of a disconnect. I probably just need to practice more.

I feel like this class was a success for me even though it was hard, and I learned tools that I will be able to use and apply as I continue to improve in future classes.