As mentioned in previous writing exercises, “writing is not my forte, I do it because I have to”.  The difficulty experienced in the course stems from my lack of motivation and confidence in writing. Bombarded with other coursework’s and interest, it’s difficult to invest oneself in something that tends to disappoint. I place this immense pressure on myself to sound so articulately. For some, expressing their ideas in such an exquisite manner comes naturally. For others, like myself, saying something the right way takes more effort. However, there is no “right way”.  Despite all this, given the assignments and work attributed to each, I have improved as a writer. I have grown more confident in my skills and abilities. Said improvement stemmed from continuous reflection. With every assignment I was able to take constructive criticism given by my peers, professor and myself, deconstruct it and apply it to proceeding assignments. 

Unlike all my previous writing experiences, formulating thesis statements became more natural and fluent. In both papers, my thesis statements adequately provided direction and purpose to my work. I was able to do so by creating my thesis last, a technique learned by my professor. Once my ideas were complete, formulating a thesis that embodies all my ideas was simple and easy to adjust when my content shifted or changed. Despite this improvement, connecting my ideas back to my thesis troubled me in the rhetorical analysis assignment. For example, one of my topic sentences in my rhetorical analysis paper was: “Throughout the article Vergano builds his credibility by providing sources, linking the audience to related websites, videos, and past Buzz Feed articles”. Here I failed to explicitly link my ideas to my thesis statement. By providing sufficient credible information, Vergano is able to provide the necessary means to allow the reader to create a stance regarding the ethics in genetic engineering. Upon reflecting, I became aware of my habit of leaving ideas open ended. I often had the mindset that the reader can interpret and piece together my ideas. As a writer this mentality is dangerous, it is one’s job, not the readers to complete our own thoughts. In doing so we build credibility. In my research report one of my topic sentences for the argument against animal experimentation was: “Animal research becomes problematic when research is aimed at producing suffering and the experiments findings lacks scientific merit.” This topic sentence bounced off the previously discussed idea of scientific merit in animal experimentation. I then proceeded to explain the claim that supported my thesis of: “Despite, their significant role in the biomedical field, given its harmful nature, the use of animals for experimentation and testing is scrutinized for being an archaic and unethical practice.” 

On a more technical level, I learned how to efficiently execute the process of revision. Prior to this class, I did not place great emphasis on revision. Revision and editing were done regarding the technical aspect of my writing, i.e. grammar and spelling, rather than the content. Learning to be critical of one’s writing is a useful skill that can be extended beyond research papers. As someone who is pursuing a higher education in mathematics, expressing and articulating abstract and theoretical ideas comes with practice and collaboratively (i.e. with a thesis advisor, classmates etc.) At times, scratching off work and starting from the ground up was frustrating. An example of successful revision is seen in the drastic change of content and structure between my final and first draft of my research paper. The arguments present in my draft were passive, making my paper argumentative and persuasive rather than neutral. For my final paper, a dense task was to critically analyze my diction to neutralize my tone. Eliminating words such as “necessary evil” and “gratuitous” helped meet the assignments purpose. 

Overall, the immense writing presented in the course has enabled me to expand on my writing abilities and become immensely more comfortable and confident in those abilities. For example, the in-class exercises allowed me to think and write, leaving little time for doubt. Nonetheless, as I grow more comfortable and confident with my ideas, my ability to express them will reflect that.