I
have to admit that I wasn’t sure if I was going to take this course when I
first started the school year. Because I had taken AP English in high school,
my first-year writing requirement was already fulfilled—it didn’t seem like a
process I needed to repeat. My experience in Writing this semester, however,
has been a lot different than the ones I had in high school. My dad is the one
who convinced to take a writing class my first year at BYU, and I’m so glad he
did, because I have learned so much over the past couple of months.
I
learned that preparation really does pay off. One of my favorite parts of this
course was that we had deadlines for prewriting and rough drafts for every major
paper. I have a difficult time starting on assignments early, and so these
requirements gave me the opportunity to spread out the workload and manage my
time more efficiently. I realized that I could write a lot better if I just sat
down and wrote a rough draft first, put it away for a while, and then went back
and revised it. Hopefully now I can use that knowledge to do better on writing
assignments in my future classes.
Another
important piece of information I gained from this course is that it’s always
best to get a second opinion. When I was in high school, my mom would read over
my papers and give me a few tips here and there, but they were mostly minor
editing changes (she tended to be a comma Nazi). While participating in peer
reviews and tutoring sessions at the writing center this semester, however, I
learned to take advice about altering my papers on a larger scale. No one,
especially me, can write a perfect piece on the first try, so it’s really
important to be open to new ideas and suggestions—even if they involve turning
the whole project upside down.
I’ve
had such a great time in Writing 150 this past semester—watching YouTube
videos, having great discussions, and learning how to better my writing and
rhetoric. Now I just hope I can implement the things I have learned from this
class into all the other areas of my life.
