I started this class on August 27th and finished the course on December 12th. When I first started writing class for sciences, my first thought was, “Oh, another writing class, what is the purpose of this?” I was inexperienced and didn’t know a lot about writing and why we needed this. When I first was introduced to the class, our first assignment was to write an introduction letter about ourselves. The assignment wasn’t difficult at all, I wrote about how I was introduced into science and why I enjoy it. In the beginning I thought to myself how this will affect my writing or develop it, but later I soon to realize the importance of it. When Jane introduced us to the City College Motto “Respice, Adspice, Prospice”, it hit me. The writing assignment was about how I looked back to how I was introduced to science, make me think of the present and how I want to continue the science career, and looking into the future by using my present skills to succeed in my future path. The motto was a guideline in our class, we would always use the phrase to reflect on ourselves beforehand as writers and after to see the progress we have made.  

I looked back at my old writing habits and thought to myself what type of conditions I used to write in. Well, it depended, whenever I make a first draft, I usually write it on my laptop while I lay on my bed in the afternoon. I always tend to struggle coming up with ideas, so I look back at past ideas or even present events to spark ideas to help write assignments. I typically do no write in the dark as I sidetrack always, although I do have my phone with me. Whenever I write, I usually ask my partner to see if the ideas I come up with are suited for the assignment.  

I believe as a writer I did improve and learnt many things throughout the course. In the beginning, I was clueless of what an audience was. Professors never stress about audience, until now. Jane has made me realize that your audience is the most important thing, because without a targeted audience, no one will understand your different style of writing. I got comments in my rhetorical analysis paper about who the audience is and saying why? I always thought it was for the general audience, but she spoke of various word choices and how the information was displayed and where it was located which showed me at all writing prompts have different audiences. Also, be specific, I always have struggles being specific in my paper, and to this day I still do. I hope in the future I can fix this issue of being broad, by doing so I will look back at my old writing assignments and see the improvements I can make. 

Peer reviews and collaborations have helped me throughout the semester. The peer reviews assisted me in my writing because someone can catch mistakes that I couldn’t have noticed. Also, they give me advice on the paper which needs improvements. Although peer reviews can be at first tough taking constructive criticism, later you will be thankful they have insulted your writing, because they try to make your essay more eligible to the audience. Since then, I continue to peer review my friends work to catch mistakes, this is now a habit of mine to review others work. Although, unfortunately I do not review my own work because of my laziness. The class has definitely improved my writing, but my bad habits in writing still exist in my life. 

Writing can be difficult at times, but whenever I start to write and continue to write, I get in the flow and can’t start writing. Although the draft may be “shitty”, you have a baseline of what your essay is about, so later you can edit and correct your mistakes. This course has helped me come up with ideas quicker because of all the ideas, newspapers, and items Jane brings to the class. It has expanded my knowledge in writing and knowledge of what is happening around us. 

In the end, I still believe that I am a writer, but not a good one. I still have many tweaks that need to be done, but mostly it comes down to me editing my work. Overall, I have learnt various writing styles like the IMRAD format which I never knew existed and writing in a field study research. These were all great experiences which had different writing styles, since one was personal while others were more informative. I wish to continue writing in the field even if I switched my major, I might not enjoy writing but I believe now that it is an important aspect in my life as I look back at the past, look now in the present, and look into the future career.