Reflection on Open Letter Draft

In the post below I will be reflecting on my draft for the final and the peer editing that we all did. For my peer review, I looked at Austin and Gabee's drafts of open letters. (I can't believe the semester is almost over!)

Anon. "Teacher Gives Until Friday To Do Essay." Screenshot. 6-11-2014.
Public Domain

Revision Process:

1. I think all of the reflections we've done in class this semester has made it easier to look back as a whole to reflect on all the coursework done. I think I was able to honestly look at myself as a writer and see how I've improved and what still needs to be worked on. 
2. During my reflective letter I talked about past projects and how specific revision strategies helped me, since this has always been a problem for me in the past. I think by adding links to projects or post I will be able to better analyze past work. 
3. By adding links into my letter, I have provided a lot of examples for what I discuss. 
4. I think I could explain more so how or why I did certain things. I think by adding a little bit more to my letter I could have good explanations for why I write in certain ways. 

Draft of Open Letter

Here is the draft of my open letter. When reading please look for any awkward phrases or words. I also ask to look out for rambling, as I'm worried that in a reflection letter like this I may go on too long. Thank you so much for reading!

William Arthur. "Letter." May 24 via flickr.
Public Domain. 

Reflecting More On My Writing Experiences

For the following post, I will be answering some questions about my experiences in 109H in odrer to help me reflect more on this semester.

"Taco Dibbits answering questions at James Boyle Lecture." 7-4-2014 via wikicommons.
Public Domain

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?
I think it was really hard for me to estimate how long projects would take. When I actually got to writing the paper, I felt like it took a lot longer because I had prepared so much to go into it.

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?
I learned that I still need to work on my time management, I'm very good at wasting time. But I think my writing and revising processes definitely improved through each project. I feel more confident in my writing and like I can actually produce something I like myself.

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.
A genre is a style or form of writing, like movie genres. Different genres require different looks, conventions, and different tones. And genres are useful to have, because it allows you to attract different audiences based on your topic. When you are a writer, knowing the appropriate genre for your audience allows you to more so target them directly.

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?
I will most likely get better on time management the longer in college. I'll get used to the amount of work and delegate my hours better.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H?
I really liked Project 3. I thought I learned a lot from actually finding my own genre and then also trying to recreate it.

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?
It was definitely the first week, before I fully realized the conventions of blog posts. Since I missed a point or even part of a point on all of them, I got really bad grades the first week. Which kind of freaked me out.

Revisiting My Writing Process

At the beginning of the year, I wrote about my writing style and my weekly calendar (in order to see how much time I had for homework). In the post below, I'm going to do some reflection on the changes to these responses.

"knowyourmeme.com." 12-4. Public License. 

When I wrote about my writing process, I knew that over the semester that could easily change. Throughout the semester, the blog posts kept me really on track with my projects, and this helped me learn that when I devoted roughly equal times to each part of the project, I felt more confident writing and produced better work. I think it's awesome that I was able to learn this about my writing style, because I think being able to plan on paper and break down arguments before I actually start trying to write about it is very beneficial to my writing. However, my calendar reflection still applies. I have a fixed work schedule for school, so it is hard to change that too much.

Now, I think I am a much more balanced writer. I think that as I write more and more, I will be more motivated to break down the process piece by piece. I think that this course has helped prepare me for getting a variety of assignments. Even in my history class, I had to learn how historians write papers and then use that style while writing. I think that being able to adapt of different types of projects will be extremely useful throughout college.