College Essay
Writing Reflection
My first writing goal is to complete my pieces of writing before it is a pressing task. I tend to wait until the last minute to finish my essays and they would most likely be much better. In my Toqueville essay, for example, I did not even start until the night before it was due, and I got a low grade for it. Whereas, my college essay was written a week or two in advance and I am confident enough with it that I am actually using it to apply for college. When my writing is rushed I do not use the right format and it seems like I am rambling. In order to fix this I plan on using my class time more effectively. In humanities, I will make myself work on humanities instead of other classes. The best way to make myself do this is to take small break in-between and allow myself break from the writing. Without breaks I get bogged down and do not complete whatever writing I am doing.
My second goal is to work on my flow. I am really good at writing well thought out paragraphs when I give myself the time, however the paragraphs don’t fit together most of the time. Every paragraph is working towards explaining a main point, however each paragraph usually does this in a different way. For example in my college essay I had a difficult time with an introductory paragraph. Lori caught that the flow was awkward and showed me how to fix it. In order to stop this from occurring again, I will need to review my essays and do more self-critiques on them. To make sure that I am actually doing myself, I will make a goal of having at least two drafts (the second one with my revisions) before I give it to another person for critique. Then If they see that the flow is strange, they can help me fix it.
My third writing goal is to be less poetic in my writing. It is not always a bad thing, however poetic can also sound like rambling in a professional essay. For example, from my Toqyeville essay I say, “Humans will always wield their power to someone who they believe is more intelligent and credible than they are. It’s nothing new, and it’s nothing that hasn’t been said before.” While what I am saying is true, it is not prevalent to the topic of my essay. This piece seems like a blog to me, not an essay. In order to avoid this in the future I will be more aware and use my TEA paragraph format. To make sure that I do this, I will highlight each part of the paragraph before submitting it, just to check and see if I am following the proper formatting.
In my college essay, my biggest growth was learning my flow. I knew that it didn’t make sense and I struggled with it for a long time. Then, when Lori suggested switching a few paragraphs, I realized that that same technique can be applied to more essays. The first draft of my essay was really short and didn’t make a point. Once I realized that it had nothing to do with who I was, I put a few extra paragraphs into the essay, which pulled it all together. Some of the feedback I got in revisions, was mostly about how the readers didn’t have context to where I was in my essay. When I tried writing an intro paragraph I got too wordy and then completely cut that paragraph and rearranged my essay.
My second goal is to work on my flow. I am really good at writing well thought out paragraphs when I give myself the time, however the paragraphs don’t fit together most of the time. Every paragraph is working towards explaining a main point, however each paragraph usually does this in a different way. For example in my college essay I had a difficult time with an introductory paragraph. Lori caught that the flow was awkward and showed me how to fix it. In order to stop this from occurring again, I will need to review my essays and do more self-critiques on them. To make sure that I am actually doing myself, I will make a goal of having at least two drafts (the second one with my revisions) before I give it to another person for critique. Then If they see that the flow is strange, they can help me fix it.
My third writing goal is to be less poetic in my writing. It is not always a bad thing, however poetic can also sound like rambling in a professional essay. For example, from my Toqyeville essay I say, “Humans will always wield their power to someone who they believe is more intelligent and credible than they are. It’s nothing new, and it’s nothing that hasn’t been said before.” While what I am saying is true, it is not prevalent to the topic of my essay. This piece seems like a blog to me, not an essay. In order to avoid this in the future I will be more aware and use my TEA paragraph format. To make sure that I do this, I will highlight each part of the paragraph before submitting it, just to check and see if I am following the proper formatting.
In my college essay, my biggest growth was learning my flow. I knew that it didn’t make sense and I struggled with it for a long time. Then, when Lori suggested switching a few paragraphs, I realized that that same technique can be applied to more essays. The first draft of my essay was really short and didn’t make a point. Once I realized that it had nothing to do with who I was, I put a few extra paragraphs into the essay, which pulled it all together. Some of the feedback I got in revisions, was mostly about how the readers didn’t have context to where I was in my essay. When I tried writing an intro paragraph I got too wordy and then completely cut that paragraph and rearranged my essay.