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Caroline Ladd

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1102-026

March 2nd, 2011

Midterm Reflection

When I began my journey into this English class in January I was pretty

nervous. English classes have never been a strong point of mine, but I always try my

best to go into everything in my life with an open mind. Now that we are well into this

course, my whole idea about this class and writing in general have changed.

When I reflect back on all the writing pieces that I have done thus far, I sort of

shock myself because it doesn’t seem as though I have done as much writing as I have.

I love Dr. Rieman’s grading approach to writing that is that she doesn’t give grades. I

am always so nervous about making sure that I am going to make the grade that it

takes away from the potential that I have as a writer. I have felt more relaxed in this

English class that I ever have in an English class before.

Out of all the different writing styles we have tackled in this class I would have

to say that the style I enjoy the most would be the writing to explore pieces. When I

sit down to do my writing explore piece for that week, it is one of the few times that I

have actually been eager to write. The topics that Dr. Rieman has given us to write on

are very interesting to me, and some of them push me to think and write in ways that

I have never thought of before. I was especially challenged in the “Writers on Writing”

piece that I did, the topic where you had to watch the video and reflect on your own

writing process. I found this assignment challenging because I felt that before I wrote
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the piece I didn’t really have my own writing process. But after sitting down and

really focusing I figured out some things about my own writing style that I did not

know before, and I was really proud of my final product.

This English class has taught me a lot about my own writing process. I think

the most important thing that I have learned so far is where I write best. Before

reflecting on my own writing process I always tried to write wherever I was at the

time; now I know that if I really want to do the best I can I need to go somewhere that

is quiet and peaceful. When I have interruptions I loose my train of thought, and

therefore my paper suffers. Another thing that I have learned about myself

throughout the semester is that if I don’t stress out so much and constantly

concentrate on getting the paper finished, that what I’m trying to say will come to me

and it won’t be such a struggle. I am glad that I found this out about myself because it

has made my writing assignments much more enjoyable and easier.

I feel most challenged in this class when I am writing the blogs to the essays

that we are assigned to read. Whenever I get the email about what are we going to do

for the week, I cross my fingers and hope that an essay isn’t assigned. I feel that most

of my discomfort about the blogs comes from the difficulty of the readings. I know for

a fact that if the readings weren’t so hard for me to read, then my reflections would be

much better. It is a huge relief to me that we go over what the essays are about in

class because then I feel like I have a much better grip on them. This is really the only

area of the class that I feel challenges me.

When I re-read the course goals and look back on these past few months, I feel

that I have begun to accomplish all the things that are stated. I never expected to go
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into this class and learn so much about writing and myself. Like I said before, I feel

the most important part of this class and what much of the class focuses on is each

student’s own personal writing process. This is the first English class that I have

taken that has really brought to life my own writing process, instead of focusing on

the literature and works of others. Even though we do read essays of other authors,

Dr. Rieman always bring the focus back onto us, and that is something that I really

like and appreciate. I also think that getting a peer’s feedback to your paper is very

important, I have never done something like this in a class before and I really liked it.

Also forming the small writing community in class and getting to know everyone on a

deeper level than you normally would in a regular college course is something that I

really like as well.

I think that an easy goal to set for myself for the duration of the semester

would be to have better time management, and not wait to the last minute to

complete my work. A medium goal for myself would be to put more thought into my

daybook entries because sometimes I know that I could more effort forth when I

don’t. My hard goal would be to write an outstanding inquiry paper and have my final

product of my electronic portfolio be fantastic.

Now that we are halfway through this semester, I feel like I have grown so

much as a writer and as student in such a short time. I have learned some things in

this class that help me out in my other classes as well. I am eager and excited to see

what new things I will learn before this class is over.