Blogger-Post-Numero-Twenty

A. This course as a learning experience.

I don't think I'm entirely sure how well I write anymore. I used to/still would like to think that I'm a fairly good writer for your average college student, but there is absolutely no way I am ever going to remember enough about the writing processes of rhetorical, object-oriented, etc. essays to be an English professor.

As far as my views of writing, I think I now have more respect for (good) essay writers, having seen everything that they have to remember about each style of writing in order to turn out a respectable (among other writers) piece. I was amazed to find how hard it can be to do a good example of rhetorical or object-oriented writing.

I think work-shopping with other students is god as far as finding out how easy to read and interesting your piece is, but as far as technical stuff, like grammar, punctuation, etc., peer-reviews are pretty useless. For this reason, I think conferencing with writing teachers is extremely important when working on any sort of writing project - only your teacher can give you exact, accurate pointers on how to improve your work.

MY definition of ''good writing'' is a piece that is easy and interesting to read, relates to the reader in some fashion, and is free of spelling, grammar, and/or punctuation mistakes. This is how I evaluate everyone's writing - both my own and the writing of others.

I think I can now successfully recognize a few different types of writing, but as I'm planning to be an artist, I don't really think critical essay writing is going to be too prevalent in my life after college... but, really, who knows? Several people in my family have had career-changes over the years. It could happen to me.

B. Your own development as a writer during this course.

I would like to think that my writing has improved somewhat over the course of the semester, having gone back and read some assortments of stories I'd tapped out on my laptop and realizing how much now needs to be changed to make them easier/more fascinating to read. I think I've also become a bit more 'descriptive' in my writing (as far as physical descriptions and sights, smells, sounds, etc.).

I think my strengths as a writer are in physical descriptions - smells, sounds, etc., and grammar, etc. I need to work on 'emotional' writing, though. Right now I try to avoid emotional writing because it's very touchy-feely. I think this is why I had so much trouble with object-oriented writing - it's all extremely nostalgic.