Jaiden Dale
Professor Harmon
August 15, 2019
Reflective Essay
Writing in the Summer Bridge program for the past five weeks has been very interesting, I faced many obstacles over the past five weeks. Finding my voice in my writing and learning different techniques were very enjoyable thought and I appreciate the opportunity. Throughout the semester I was able to improve my writing skills. While the term was hard, it made me a better writer because I had to think outside the box for some of my work. I honestly didn’t know what my view of writing was before I came to Professor Harmon’s class. English was my favorite subject when I was in high school because I felt that it came natural to me. We were provided outlines to help us write papers, this all changed when I arrived at the summer bridge program. I thought I had it all figured out and assumed it was going to be a cake walk but I was wrong. College English is way more intense than high school English. My view of writing changed tremendously as the semester progressed, because the work that we did challenged me to think outside of the box and use my creativity to bring the piece together. It gave me a positive perspective on writing because I found that it is a good way to voice your opinions and express yourself as well. I don’t feel that my writing was inspired by the work of any of the professional or student writers we read this semester. Because I felt that I was my own inspiration for my own work, I say this because I had to inspire myself to get through this semester and use that inspiration to write papers and get assignments do in order to be successful. My best piece of work this semester was my “Remembered Event” I say this because I felt that this was my most detailed paper. I put a lot of passion and emotion into it because it was a memory that will be with me forever. It was very detailed and I relived the moment giving detailed accounts of the events and the conversations that occurred during the event. I feel that this is one of my best pieces of work simply because of the emotions I put into it. My weakest piece of writing this semester had to be my research paper. I say this because I feel that I made a lot of mistakes in the process. If we had more time I feel that the paper would have come out better. I didn’t do a very good job formatting the essay, and I had a lot of errors. One of my weaknesses when writing a piece is staying on topic. I tend to get really into my work and veer off topic, which makes it hard to write a paper at times because I can go I so many directions which can cause me to easily lose track of what I was discussing. Yes, I feel that I can trace my development as a writer this semester. When I first arrived I thought I knew all about English but it turns out I don’t. My pieces from the beginning of the semester have nothing on the pieces I wrote towards the end. I say this because if you compare the pieces from the beginning to the pieces from the end you can see the improvement in the pieces from the detail, structure, and evidence. I learned a lot about myself as writer this semester. I learned that I really enjoy writing because it is a way to express yourself. This corresponds with what I knew before the semester because coming into the summer bridge program I knew I had a passion for English because I enjoy writing and telling stories. As the weeks progressed the assignments began to get even more challenging which challenged me to think and work harder. Coming into the program I knew the work would be challenging but I didn’t know it would be this challenging. I would have defined the term “audience”, as a group of people who are watching someone or something. I would have defined “purpose”, as the motive for an individual to do something in order to achieve what they want. I would have defined “voice”, as an individual that was able to put words together to create a sentence. I define the term “audience”, now as the person or group the paper is intended to educate. I define the term “purpose”, now as the authors motive for writing his/her piece. I define the term “voice”, now as the author’s way of voicing his/her opinion through their work. Yes, this class has changed the way I view the world, how I view others, and how I view myself. It has changed the way I view the world because now that I am in the real world I see that everything you do has to be earned, nothing will just be given to you. This is evident in life and college, Professor Harmon made us earn everything that was assigned to us. I view others differently as well because we all have opinions that we are entitled to which make all of our writing styles unique. Finally I view myself differently because coming into the program I did not feel that I would be good writer but as the weeks progressed I learned more and more writing techniques that improved my writing skills. When I first arrived in the summer bridge program four weeks ago I honestly did not know the meaning of “Voice in writing” as the weeks progressed I began to get an idea in Professor Harmon’s class. He gave us all of the tools necessary to write essays but never gave us an outline. He allowed us to voice our own opinions while doing these things, he never told us what to write about or even research. He allowed everybody to be themselves with their work and pour their thoughts emotions onto the paper while still guiding us on the piece. Although at some points it was challenging, it was also enjoyable because you were able to say what you wanted to and be yourself through your work without being judged. although we all came from different schools where we all learned different writing techniques it sometimes confused me on how to structure the paper the way he wanted me to, but as the weeks went by I began to understand the meaning of “voice in writing” more and more cause it was just being myself and writing what I felt was right.
In conclusion, throughout the semester I was able to improve my writing skills. While the term was hard, it made me a better writer because I had to think outside the box for some of my work. Some assignments that had helped me were the blog post. The blog post made it so I learned how to free write and express my thoughts. The museum helped me as well because it taught me how to deeply analyze the work I was viewing and giving a detailed explanation of what I was looking at. Finally, the research paper helped me a lot although I struggled I had a lot of teachable moments that helped me improve as a writer overall
Jaiden's Journey 