Naomi Huff

ENC 1101 Comp 1

Professor McGriff
Dec 4,2017
Reflections
This year, in Composition One class I have learned a lot. I did not think this class would

challenge me as much as it did. This class has helped me articulate myself more in my writing,

and has made me a better writer. The amount of essays that were assigned allowed me to become

more comfortable with my writing, and helped me express my thoughts in an easier way. This

class has helped my writing by showing me how to properly map citations in works cited pages,

exercised my grammar skills, and also helped me to plan my essays and write with structure.

Composition One has helped me by showing my how to properly map citations in my

paper. Until recently, I had no idea how important different citations were in writing. I also was

not aware of how many different writing styles there were, as well as the citations that go along

with the writing styles. For example, in MLA format the citations page is called a Works Cited

Page and in an APA formatted essay it is called a References page. This class also allowed me to

become confident in citing different authors on my own. I did not understand that you had to use

quotes and cite different authors while writing argument and critical analysis essays.

Throughout the semester we went over different lessons on grammar. The program that

helped me with my grammar the most was Inquizitive For Writers. The different exercises and

review modules allowed me to get more comfortable with things like misplaced modifiers and

showed me that I was making a lot more grammar mistakes than I thought I was. We also were

introduced to Grammar Girl this semester. Grammar girl is a podcast that we listened to
throughout the semester, that taught us different grammar skills. This helped me review for the

final grammar exam, as well as different grammar assignments throughout the semester.

Lastly, Composition One taught me how to properly map out my essays. My essays now

have more structure and have an outline. I used to write all of my papers without an outline or a

plan, but now I am aware that I need a thesis at the end of the first paragraph. I am also aware

that different essay formats may call for more or less paragraphs. For example, and

argumentative essay may have eight paragraphs rather than five because of the opinion needed

from both sides of the writer. Before I joined this class I believed that all essays were created

equal but there are lots of different writing styles and methods.

Composition One has influenced my essay writing more than anything. It has made me a

better writer and now my essays have more structure, better grammar usage, and I can now cite

authors properly. Essays used to be an assignment that I could not stand and would dread doing,

but now I am very comfortable writing and Im not afraid to truly express my thought through

my writing. My comfort level with writing has definitely gone up and allowed me to write more

freely. I feel like I can tackle any and every writing assignment in the future.