Coming into this class, I knew I would have tons of writing to do based on the name and description. What I didn’t know was that the topics would be so intriguing and I would actually enjoy the writing.

Writing is no longer a burden, but an opportunity to expand my thinking. Although I am not great at writing and I have more to learn, I now enjoy exploring ideas and putting pen to paper. I have been challenged almost to the brink of insanity and pushed to the edge but I have grown not only in my studies, but as a writer.

While this semester progressed toward its end, I have learned new writing skills and gradually learned how to engage with audiences. These skills were very useful in meeting my course goals in this English class. I believe that I have grown at organization and carefully stream my thoughts as well. Before, I would just begin writing my papers without any plans or organization, along with no definite idea of where I would be going with the assignments, but throughout this course I’ve learned how to control that. Another skill I took from this class was to value my classmate’s responses. The peer reviews came in really handy before it gave me a chance to be corrected and to get other opinions without being penalized.

The first writing piece we were assigned was the “Letter of Introduction”. I looked at this paper as less of an assignment and more of an icebreaker. This was easy to write because it was basically me introducing myself giving a little backstory and telling my expectations of the class.

The second piece that I wrote was the “Informative Review”. The topic I chose was “Gender Bias in Healthcare”. I chose that topic specifically because it is something I have been seeing on the media for a minute and something I feel doesn’t get enough awareness and so I said maybe talk about it. Since it was an Informative Review, I wanted the readers, which would

include my professor and my peers, to know that gender bias is real and women are treated significantly differently in healthcare. Sometimes you are not aware of something unless you experience it but not because you don’t experience it doesn’t mean it’s not real. Though I was fully interested in the topic, it was a little difficult to write because we had to use sources and we had to really explain our points. Writing a paper like this makes it easier to get confused so I had to be really careful in writing.

Afterwards was the ‘Rhetorical Analysis’. I wrote my Analysis based on the ‘Writing for the Science KEY TERMS’ handouts. The handout served as a guideline for how I structured my essay. I listed the article, author, genre, medium, audience, tone etc. Doing it helped me stay organized and not miss any key points.

The next paper that we had to write was the “Position Report”. We basically had to discuss the opposing position on a scientific topic or a research issue. I chose healthcare and technology. Before attempting my paper, I read ‘Fracking Contributes to Global Warming’. This was the perfect example of a position paper. The title stated its position clearly and elaborated on that.

The Science Controversy paper was probably the hardest for me. I would say it is the hardest because not only did I have to find a problem in the scientific feel, but I had to analyze it on a more specific level and convince the reader to accept claims using both evidence and counter arguments. That is something I have never done before so it was a little difficult for me to write. Yes I did get a good grade, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a very trying piece of work for me to finesse. I basically used my ‘Module 7 slides’ as a guide.

The Children’s Book was my favorite. This gave me a chance to appeal to a different type of audience, and be a little more laid-back. My group and I decided on the topic and it was fun and different .

In the past few months, my overall essay writing process is much different. I used to have a prompt and not know how to even start my paper. I might have had an idea of what to write but not know how to express those thoughts. Essay writing has always been my weakness, but this course was more straight-forward. The paper I am the most proud of writing is my “Rhetorical Analysis”. It shows how I had my thoughts pretty well written. Like I said, it is sometimes difficult for me, mostly becauseI just overthink assignments, but this paper showed improvement in my eyes. We had deadlines each week so there was still that pressure you get to complete your assignments. In order to make this course function more effectively, I would just say that it is up to us, the students. Because it is a online course,it is so easy for us to fall behind. But this course can only function as well as each student puts into it.

References
Fracking Contributes to Global Warming​.

“Module 7 WfS.” ​Google Slides​, Google, docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YuHP-DvnXEz5hyOdh1DjBo92edgKaHjkB3haow0A0 WU/edit.

“Writing for the Sciences KEY TERMS WE WILL BE DISCUSSING THROUGHOUT THE COURSE.” ​KEY TERMS WE WILL BE DISCUSSING THROUGHOUT THE COURSE.​