Writing is a complex and complicated process that I have developed over this semester. I have had a significant improvement in my writing skills. The practice has helped me to eliminate many of my problems and to understand easily writing proses. As a result, my writing skills have changed considerably. My improvement in the writing and my professor’s comments have helped me to see my strengths and weaknesses as a writer.
I want to start with my strengths. My first greatest strength as a writer is a solid overall organization. I have spent a lot of time on the pre-writing step considering the most important part and base of the whole writing. Brainstorming and outlining is vital to writing. In the beginning I always research the main facts and information about the topic, take notes, and after that I make my outline. Planning helps me to decide how I will organize the main points and how my paper will look in the final. The outlining helps me to stay on the topic and I do not write about irrelevant ideas and information. As a result, my second strengths are unity and coherence, focus on one idea. That means my body paragraphs strong support my thesis and conclusion paragraph summarize what I explain in the body paragraphs and other words repeat my thesis statement. I do not write irrelevant information just to increase the length of my essays. Also, this semester I learn how to use correct the outside sources that supply evidence to support my idea and lends credibility to the essay. This is an important skill that takes my writing to the next level. People always learn from their mistakes, including myself. I still have different weaknesses that influence my writing negatively.
One of my important weakness is vocabulary. My native language is Romanian, and sometimes for me is difficult to find correct words to express my opinion or feeling. I have spent a lot of time to inform about my writing topic, to read other writer’s thoughts, and to build my vocabulary. Sometimes, I prefer to include outside sources (quote, paraphrase, or summarize they) to avoid incorrect using words. I want to improve this skill of using my own voice to communicate my idea and to use the outside sources just in the way as the support they. Second, my writing problem is grammar errors. Proofreading my own paper is the most difficult part of my writing process. It is normal to make sometimes grammar mistakes, because to write, type, and think at the same time is hard. Many times, during proofread step I catch obvious errors, like structural problems, but grammar errors, such as Subject/Verb agreement and missing definite and indefinite articles I cannot. I realize that these errors have a significant impact on clarity and reader understanding. In my last two papers I followed my professor’s
suggestion to read my work out loud and slowly. Also, I had read Backwards. Following these two elements of revision proses I have started to cough my errors. I know that the best practice to avoid these grammatical mistakes is to continue reading and writing and do not neglect these “small’ errors.
To conclude, writing is a universal tool that is extremely useful in many domains. Overall, this semester I have improved my vocabulary and learned how to organize my ideas, edit, and add to them on the paper. I will carry my achievement through the next semester. I know that I have the skills to become a better writer, but I still to improve my writing skills. I hope I will achieve my goal and I will write a “perfect” paper.
