Writing is something that improves with practice and focus. What steps will you take to ensure that your writing continues to improve throughout your college experience?

I will continue to take my time and not rush through anything just to get it done. Making sure my papers are APA formatted will also help me with keeping it professional in the business and academic atmosphere. Getting enough sleep and making time to just relax instead of pushing myself to do something will also help me improve. The more I keep at the same way of doing things in my classes will cause me to improve more too.

What is still your biggest challenge with APA formatting? How might you overcome it?

The biggest problem I had with APA is that I wouldn’t space right. I would just begin typing and not thinking about the spacing until my instructor say something to me about not having my writing doubled spaced. When I did my rough draft I had used Microsoft word to complete my writing so double spacing honestly wasn’t even on my mind. When completing my final I remember that in my last COM class my instructor had mentioned something about Riverpoint Writer and that we should down load it because it can be very helpful in their class and classes to come. I used it and let me tell you it was the easiest thing ever. I now see and understand the difference in my writing and how it is presented. Not only did I have spacing as a problem but I also never typed up a title page. It looks very professional and I actually will be doing my essay from it for now on.

This course has provided you with several writing strategies and skills you can use to improve your writing. Which strategies or skills from the do you think will be most helpful as you develop as a writer and researcher? Why?

I have actually become a better researcher because of this class and my other class, I used to just quote phrases from my research and not provide the information of where it came from. I now know how to do in text citations. At first it was a struggle because I didn’t understand of how it should be done but for doing it for 9 weeks I really have the hang of it. On week 6 when we had to turn in our rough drafts I was actually shocked at the results of the Plagiarism because when I did my writing for my last COM class it was stating that it wasn’t 100% my work. Now I see why it said that. This time I stated in my writing where I got it from and this time it was 100% my work. That actually put a smile on my face because I figured out how Plagiarism and citation works.

In which areas do you think you need to improve? How will you make these improvements?

My areas of needing improvements are when writing an essay depending on what it is I need to find out if it should be written in 2^nd or 3^rd person. I have a habit of writing in 1^st person a lot. I also have a problem with being too wordy. In all honesty I think that comes from me being a talker. I can talk a whole lot. I need to work on using the right words and taking out unnecessary words that are irrelevant to my writing. Most of the time when I do writings it is always something that I like or what I have did and that is where writing in 1^st person comes from. I just have to remember writing in 1^st person can give me a weak essay and I want my essay to be strong for my viewers.

It is sometimes difficult to be your own critic and to see clearly the changes that must be made to a paper. There are several reasons for this, including the effort you’ve put into the paper. Can you become your own editor and review your writing with a critical eye? How?

Yes you can become your own editor and review your own writing. Honestly it is kind of hard because you believe that your work is great and there are no changes to be made. We all fall short of that sometimes most of all of the time but it is okay. Here are some steps that I am going to follow of which are stated in the text:

*Print out a hard copy of your paper
*Read through your paper, paragraph by paragraph. Highlight your thesis and the topic sentence of each paragraph.
*Using the thesis and topic sentences as starting points, outline the ideas you presented-just as you would do outlining a chapter in a textbook. Do not look at the outline you created during prewriting.
*Next, reread your paper more slowly, looking for how ideas flow from sentence to sentence. Identify where adding a transition or recasting a sentence would make the ideas flow more logically.
*Review the topics on your outline. Is there a logical flow of ideas? Identify any places where you may need to reorganize ideas
*Revise your paper to improve organization. Move around paragraphs if needed. Than go into adding transitional phrases if needed. Take out words you don’t necessarily need. Tweak topic sentences if needed.

It may seem like a lot but really it’s not. Take your time and good luck.

How do you know when to accept feedback from another source? What makes feedback valuable? Should all feedback be considered valuable?

I think taking feedback from another source should be accepted at any time. I on the hand except feedback when I feel like I have touched everything that I need to in my paper and to me there are no other mistakes. Having feedback from others is valuable because what you have missed or over looked that person or people can point it out for you. Some people think that it’s like criticizing your work but really when you are doing any type of writing you will get others feedback. I look at it like they are helping me to give a better paper to turn in or read to my audience. All feedback should be considered valuable rather it’s good or bad. Bad feedback is there to help you do better, and good feedback is to let you know you are on the right track just keep doing what you are doing.

The purpose of a conclusion is to summarize all your support and to state how they combine to substantiate your thesis. In this way, the introduction and conclusion are like bookends on a shelf, with the supporting statement like the books in between. What kind of conclusion do you think would be best for your research paper? Why?

Summarizing the rest of my essay will be the best conclusion for me. The reason I say this is because after you have written your essay there is nothing left to do but to end it with pulling the most important points to your conclusion; along with my thesis statement. These two are the most important things for your conclusion because the thesis lets your readers know you are coming to an end and the main points emphasizes the importance of your topic.