Midterm Class Reflection

Through this course so far, I have begun to understand writing as a creative process rather than something structured. At the beginning of the course when the idea of portfolios was introduced, I was quite skeptical as to why something like that would be necessary and how I would be able to provide drafts for different revisions or steps in my writing process. Now, I am beginning to realize that it is important to be able to save your different drafts of a project in order to see what you have really learned. The portfolio project will be an illuminating look into how I will grow as a writer this semester.

There are a few things I believe will definitely stick with me after this class is over. So far, the thing I have enjoyed reading about and listening to is the design principles. Out of what we have learned so far, this topic makes the most sense to me, and the discussions from class seem very logical. Who would not want to make their writing look more intriguing? I have really enjoyed reading the Williams book, so I think the ideas from it will continue to influence my writing projects after this class is complete. What has been the least interesting so far has been the Kolin book and many of the articles we have read. The Kolin book just seems so dry and repetitive, and much of the information is not new. Many of the articles have been so far over my head in discussion that I have had a very hard time just trying to summarize their main points. I will probably not remember things from the articles very well for this reason.

The lessons learned from class discussions have helped with assignments for this class and others. One thing that has been a very good lesson is the process of revision. I have learned that restructuring your entire paper is good – and probably is to be expected. This has been useful in papers I have recently written for other classes. For our projects so far in this class, the design elements have been helpful in creating professional looking documents. As we get into further assignments, I expect to use more of the lessons we have learned.

In the next eight weeks, I hope to get a deeper understanding of writing, including rhetoric, and also to learn more about what it means to be a professional writer; for example, what are some more things I may be doing at a future job in this field? I hope to learn more about putting together a portfolio – what to include and what to leave out, how to organize it, design it, and how to add personal touches to it. Our syllabus says we will be making websites soon also, which I think will be a wonderful skill to have. I have never done something like that before, and so I hope by the end of the semester I am able to gain this knowledge and feel confident and comfortable in designing a large project of my own. I want to feel like I can effectively use a Mac computer to create and design artful writing.