Personal Reflection

Throughout this semester, our class has read four powerful and influential pieces by James Baldwin, Gloria Anzaldua, Haunani-Kay Trask, and Nick Bear. The first piece we ever looked at was Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” This was our first writing assignment, focusing on using generative writing to get our ideas from our heads onto the paper, to then develop later. However, we were still supposed to focus on the PAR criteria, in order to get an idea on how we would need to develop our writing and our own pieces to pass the class. One of the first mistakes I made as a writer was as follows: “I really enjoyed the latter quote, on page 263. The importance of this quote, to me anyway, is that in every language, there is a common language. You know, English, French, Spanish, Italian, that sort of thing.” (Barley, Ass. 3)
Though it was early in the semester, and we hadn’t developed our writing skills to fit college requirements, you can still see a lot of the high school style in the writing. By using “that sort of thing,” I made this piece seem informal, almost as if I were talking to a friend. The point of this assignment was to generate ideas, however, by using the high school informality, I created more work for myself, and that alone was a defining point of the essay. In Nick Bear’s piece, “The Word,” he is speaking in an “informal” style, but in a way that it’s almost like he’s giving a speech. His piece was made to be spoken. Just by reading, you still don’t get all of the true meaning behind his work. However, my work wasn’t designed this way. I know that I was going for the style of writing where you can either speak or read my work.
Later in the year, our professor had one-on-one discuss...

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...ally doesn’t make sense, and then I’m adding more and more to this already poor connection.” (Barley, ass. 17). This passage describes exactly how I feel about my work at this point. However, compared to when we first started, I have developed much more. When we first began writing, it was like I was coming right from high school, which I almost was. I hadn’t needed any kind of writing in the first semester other than summaries, which is what a large majority of high school writing is. So when we had to start developing ideas in our essays, my work faltered. Through discussions, editing, revising, I begin to develop as a college writer. However, I’m still developing, and I personally believe that the rest of my class is. That’s not insulting their work. I’ve read their work, and I have been impressed throughout the whole semester. However, we can all always improve.