From the very first day I opened the syllabus for this class, I was shadowed by stress and doubt. That doubt was primarily due to the fact that I hadn't written an essay in about two years. I wasn't sure if I was ready to recall how to do citations or what a good thesis for an essay is. However, I feel as if all my stress started to fade after my Argumentative Proposal essay on narcissism.

         

Narcissism wasn't a new topic to me; it could have been a couple of years ago, perhaps. I ran into a situation in my life where I needed to study a lot about narcissism. When I saw that my essay topics could be over that personality disorder, I started to feel more interested in this class and excited to write again. Based on what I studied in the past, I had everything you ever needed to know about narcissism, or at least I thought. Studies for these essays have taught me much more about this topic, from how to treat it in my first essay to how it is shown throughout a person's career in my second essay. Now, with the mixture of new knowledge of my topic and old knowledge, I noticed a trend of having a hard time in-text citing the old research that I already knew of my topic. “Good start! Must have proof of all claims made and needs informal citations for those, as well” (Prof. Hammett Feedback in Blackboard). I started to see how important it is to cite the information I was writing if it was something I researched that week or even years ago.

           

I also noticed another foul trend in my writing: creating too many fragments or run-on sentences. “At times, it was difficult to understand the point he was trying to make because of these sentences” (Dayna, Peer Workshopping). I struggled with typing the way I talk with just ongoing sentences that never end, just like a conversation. It is now essential for me to be conscious of this. That is something I feel like I would have never picked up on if it weren’t for this class.

           

Overall, one of the traits in writing that I need help with the most is my citations and reference pages. “Wrong header and some wrong citations. APA, not MLA only for MSC comp two and required by college” (Prof. Hammett Feedback in Blackboard). This is still something that can be a little rocky for me, but I believe that practice will make perfect, which it very much has done. At first, I had no clue what I was doing. I have always had help with my citations and reference pages, and I was never too independent to buck down and learn. This class has pushed me out of my comfort zone to make progress in learning how to set everything up.

           

Although this class was only sixteen weeks in length, I had a clear vision of what I needed to start working on and the areas I needed to strengthen from the start after our Argumentative essay, thanks to well-observing peers and the help of my professor and all the directions and tips under blackboard I have slowly felt that shadow of stress and doubt leave me that I had from the first day of this semester. It has given me a guide on what to work on in the future to become a great writer. After this course, I feel as if I am headed in the right direction to becoming just that.