Reflection letter

Dear Prof. P,
During this class, I have noticed new things about myself as a writer. First of all, I have
noticed that I am more of a creative writer than an essay writer. I like to express my ideas
through poetry and not through the structure of academic essays. I have noticed I have limited
language to discuss my ideas and find myself repeating stuff I have already said. I would like to
learn more “sophisticated” words to make my writing more professional and stronger. I have also
noticed that I say the same thing but in slightly different ways. Lastly, I have noticed that my
writing process is hindered by procrastination and a distracted mind.
After taking this class, I feel more confident in my writing than at the beginning of the
semester. Words counts are also less daunting to me. Before I wrote each paper the word count
was scary to me because I thought I wouldn’t be able to write that much but now I have learned
that I do have the ability to make my points in those amounts of words.
This class has helped me realize the power of rhetoric and how prevalent it is in everyday
life. I have learned that rhetoric is in ads, speeches, essays, newspapers, and even on TV.
The most difficult part of writing essays for me is organization. I often start my essays by just
brainstorming and making a list of what I want to talk about. After that it is hard for me to
organize all of my random ideas into an essay that flows and makes sense. Tying sources into my
essay is also sort of difficult for me. I feel like when I add quotes into my paper they just
awkwardly sit in there and interrupt the flow. It is also hard for me to discuss the quote without
just repeating what it said.
My greatest writing success in this class was honestly just finishing the final paper. I was
stressing a lot about it, but I managed to get it done on time and I am proud of what I wrote and I
think it was an important topic to discuss.
One mistake I have learned from is not to avoid distractions during your writing time and
focus solely on writing. I tried to work on my essays almost everyday but most of the time I
would just sit there and do other things and end up with only a few sentences written after hours
of working. If I avoided distractions such as my phone while writing I feel like I would be more
productive.
Something I value about writing is the ability to use language to communicate ideas. Strong
writing can inform and persuade people to get behind certain causes. With my final essay I
would like to inform people about the injustices of private prisons and hopefully bring about
change.
Regarding my final drafts, one thing I would do differently if I had more time is that I would
add stronger quotes, transitions, and just make my evidence stronger. For my final paper, I would
add some eyewitness testimonies from prisoners in the private prison systems that discuss how
bad the conditions actually are. Doing this would help the reader sympathize with the prisoners
and get a better picture of private prisons.