The 2013 started off hectic, but rewarding. There’s no way to tell where it’s going to go from here, but I feel that it’ll be good.
This is my reflection on the 2013 Spring Semester.
As with the previous semester, I entered this one rather confident in my own writing ability, particularly after spending time improving in my Narrative and Descriptive Writing course. My Nonfiction Writing Course would once more show that I needed some progress to achieve my goal of being a writer. How this class helped me do this was forcing me to write in a number of creative and new ways that I had never had to attempt before. It wasn’t simply writing nonfiction essays, we had to write research papers and style essays on the work of others. I had to write a review of a story. This helped me expand the styles of writing I was capable of writing in, something for which I am grateful. It also showed me how nonfiction writing could be creative, something which I had previously had trouble grasping.
We also had to analyze the craft of various professional essays for the methods of writing composing them, such as simile, alliteration, and metaphor. This process aided me in figuring out how to use these methods in my own writing. I learned new ideas and how to integrate them into my own stories. This has helped me become a better writer.
The legend of King Arthur was something I knew of, it is so ingrained into the world’s culture that no knowing of it seems impossible to comprehend. However, what I didn’t know was how deep this legend was, how far back it went. Learning this helped me see one thing, and that is how something can grow and change over time to become more than what it once was. Seeing where our modern ideas of King Arthur came from makes it me respect the idea of how the other modern programs, books, and other media we have no may have grown and changed. I have used older myths in my writing before, that is an easy thing to do. But now I realize that looking into the origins of those myths can also give inspiration.
One challenge I had to meet was specifically from a class, but from myself. I have procrastinated in the past. This is something I’ve faced my entire life. I could complete my assignments and make good grades, but I always found myself waiting till the pressure was on me and I couldn’t afford to make a mistake. I finally managed to overcome this simply by forcing myself to complete my assignments according to a schedule. I decided to finish an assignment or make progress on it by the end of a certain day, or work until a certain time, and not stop until one of the two was done. This helped me beat the challenge my own procrastination presented me with.
My Publications Process class was another class dealing with my minor. In this case, it dealt with designing layout of documents such as newspapers, pamphlets, and magazines. This helped me realize that the way a work is presented can be almost as important as the content of it. How a paragraph is laid out, the word choice you use, this is all important. It also helped me respect that a lot goes into writing a newspaper. More than simply the content of the articles themselves.
I also took part in the school newspaper. This was my first attempt to write professionally and in a way in which I would eventually earn money by doing. This was challenging as I had to meet a tighter deadline and produce higher quality work because this was something I was doing as a job. I feel overall, this was a major help in becoming a better writer.
Overall, this semester hasn’t been easy, but I feel I progressed and learned a lot from it. I’m happy with how I did this year.
kmcdougal2 