Personal Narrative: What I Learned In My Writing Class

When I first stepped foot into your classroom, I was overwhelmed with anxiety; lacking the imperative writing skills, thinking skills and problem solving skills for an undergrad; having graduated from a school that cared little for their students academics. I vaguely knew of MLA formatting, appropriate punctuation, developing thesis statements and conveying personal opinions in both informal and formal essays. However, through the duration of this course, I noticed that my writing was improving. By completing the in class writings, reading responses, discussion notes and mandatory formal papers; these writings helped me to become a better scholar. I soon knew of the appropriate ways to cite sources, incorporate rhetorical questions into personal

Though I did answer the questions being asked, I answered it simply, when I could have made it unique and interesting. The purpose of daybook writings are to allow for creativity, as well as in-depth thinking. I clearly did not convey these elements in the first in class writing. Not to mention, I wrote the entry in an informal manner, when my intended audience was you. I shouldn’t have wrote as though I was conversing with a dear friend about the events that unfolded over the weekend. I should have wrote the entry in a formal manner since I’m writing to someone with authority. I also wished to take note of the fact that this writing spoke of my expectations and goals for this course. Looking back at the entry, everything written holds true. I did end up finding the class enjoyable, and the readings interesting. In addition, I made sure to actively participate in discussions and take the class seriously. Comparing this daybook entry to the last documented entry (focusing on the gallery crawl feedback) was far more detailed and professionally written. Given the little feedback received from my peers, I expanded on what they said, which clearly displayed growth in my writing. I went from short and simple paragraphs to writing beyond what was expected. These in class writings not only improved my writing skills, but thinking skills as well, having to break down the questions being asked. However, the daybook

One of them being, I found the topic I chose too personal, considering it focused on my experience with sexual harassment. I barely spoke to anyone of my experience with sexual harassment; hence, I found writing about it (for all to see) hard. However, once I got through the introduction I was no longer uneasy about sharing my story. Nevertheless, I found myself stopping multiple times while in the process of writing this essay, due to the fact that I was having issues linking my narrative with the information gathered. After going to the writing center, I learned that I needed to find an area of transition in my narrative, and then redirect the discussion to the research gathered. The advice given, helped me to complete my essay. After receiving my grade for this paper, I began revising. I made sure to incorporate more data (considering I was lacking beforehand), such as in my third paragraph when I included statistics from RAINN about sexual harassment. I also made sure to correct errors in punctuation by moving unnecessary commas, periods and semicolons (this can be seen throughout my paper). I made sure to reword some sentences as can be seen in paragraphs 3, 6-10, and 14-15. I combined some paragraphs that could have easily gone together, such as paragraphs 9-10 and 14. I added new information to my narrative, such as in paragraph 9 when I wrote, “I recall storming out of the auditorium with