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.

My Writing: Veronica Whelan

This class was amazingly beneficial to me. It allowed me to learn how to actually write a paper in a way that had really never been broken down for me before, and showed me a lot of things that I really needed to learn how to do properly, as well as letting me see what I was already good at. Previous to this class, my abilities to really break down and analyze something were close to nonexistent, and while they are definitely still in need of a lot of work, I have seen an infinite improvement in the way I approach the task of "writing a paper." I have learned how to really divide up my tasks and put an equal effort into every aspect, rather than rather hurriedly trying to shove as much into words as I could, and subsequently losing a lot of meaning and depth in my writing.

While it may not be evident to an outside reader, writing this post really caused a breakthrough for me in terms of creating a solid thesis. Before this specific assignment, I really was at a loss when it came to this basic skill, because I really didn't understand the mechanics of a "thesis." This assignment really forced me to teach myself how to break down an idea and then rebuild it in an exact pattern.

Another assignment that really sparked me was this one. The entire process that we worked through with our W;t essays really had an impact on me. I have to say, this may be one of the very first, proper rough drafts I had ever written in my life. And this is from someone who really, really loves to write. I literally didn't know how to write a draft. This was honestly a huge impact on the way I think about writing papers. It was actually kind of incredible.

Receiving feedback from fellow students as well as our instructor was, while at first a little strange, actually very helpful. It allowed me to see a lot of random perspectives, rather than a single person's. Also, it seemed that every comment had a different suggestion or compliment than the previous one, which helped me to see smaller aspects of my writing that were or were not helping my overall goal.

All in all, I enjoyed this class immensely. I know that I am not supposed to gush too much in my writing (sorry, professor Burton), but this is a response, not an analysis. This is possibly the most useful class, as far as my writing is concerned, that I have ever taken.

My Writing: Shelby Dana

This semester was really beneficial for me as a writer and a literary critic.  I learned a lot of different techniques that I had never considered using before!  While some of them I didn’t love, many were really helpful and I’ll definitely use them in the future.

One of my favorite things we did this semester was study the poetry of John Donne and then watch the movie W;t.  It was so good for me to see the difference between a play and film adaptation and all of the different aspects of it  (found here) I found myself not only going deeper into the film itself, but understanding the poem better because of the interpretations of the producers and actors, etc.

Another thing I really loved that we did this semester was working on thesis statements.  (Blog post found here.) This was useful for me because I learned that the type of thesis statement I use can very easily determine the direction that my paper will take.  I liked that there is a formula for us to follow because that helps me to figure things out better and organize them in my mind before I even start writing my paper.  This was a great tip.

Our process in the last paper was perhaps the most helpful for me.  Working with a partner helped me reevaluate my work and clarify my ideas.  I found that when I had to explain what I was thinking about to someone else, I was able to weed out things that were unnecessary, didn’t make sense, or didn’t contribute to the idea of my paper effectively.  Lizzi was an encouraging partner, and that motivation made all the difference!  I also really liked it when Kayla read through my paper and gave me a few ideas for edits that should be made. A fresh pair of eyes makes a world of difference!

While writing the last paper, I discovered a technique that made a semi-intimidating assignment a little easier to handle. At first it was really scary and I didn't do well, but the second time I tried was much better! Here's proof how bad it was.  I decided to just open up a separate Word Doc for each point I planned on making in the paper.  When I looked at it in chunks instead of thinking about the paper as a giant, scary whole, it was easier for me to complete. 

All in all, this was a good class that helped me grow as a writer and I’m glad that I was able to take it! 

My Writing: Courtney Smith

There were lots of opportunities for growth this semester. One thing that I had never done before was creating different types of thesis statements. (This post is "Thesis Statements" on February 1st.)  It was interesting learning about what types of thesis statements there were, which is useful because the thesis is such an essential part of the paper. I think I can use this as a tool in the future to fine-tune my theses and make sure I am expressing the right ideas. I've also been able to experiment with things that I had never been exposed to before; for example, when writing the "playful pre-write," (I posted this as "Playful Pre-writing" on March 14th) I was able to get a better sense of where my thesis was headed.  It was a great way to try different paths of thinking and use a variety of things to develop more solid ideas about what kind of paper I wanted to write. In the past I did not have creative ways of approaching a paper, so this brought in new ideas and helped me to really absorb the text. It was also good for me because I am an outline addict--I outline absolutely everything that I possibly can so that I can see my work start to finish. I did this thorough outline for the Donne paper (entitled "Writing Plan and Record: Courtney Smith" and posted on January 16th) but didn't for the last paper. I think it helped me to try different types of pre-writing and do whatever felt comfortable for me at the time, since getting started can seem impossibly hard at the beginning. There was also, of course, plenty of practice researching, which was a great experience.

One thing that was helpful for me was the partner writing that we did for the final research paper. There was enough flexibility that we could make this process our own while still having the structure of reporting to someone that you were writing. It was also nice to discuss ideas with other people, especially on the final research paper. Even just working through ideas out loud brought new thoughts to me that I hadn't had before. Sharing during any and all of the writing process is a stretch for me, since generally writing is strictly individual during most of my school years, but it was good for me to see the benefits of branching out a bit.