Sample Personal Reflection

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This is a sample personal reflection from Ultius writing services shows students how they can approach the matter of a personal reflection needed after passing a writing course.

This writing course has helped me to improve my skills as a writer in many different ways. I took this course with the hopes of improving my writing ability in several major ways:

1. Write in different formats such as persuasive papers, research papers, and comparison papers.
2. Improve the speed in which it took me to complete the writing process of a paper
3. Develop an ability to quickly translate the research or major points

Developing essays

One of the most helpful aspects of this course was summed up by the first course outcome provided in the course description:

"Apply the writing process to develop an essay using various rhetorical patterns in order to inform and persuade an audience."

I had always felt that I could research and present information about a topic with relative ease, however, I wanted to improve my ability to write persuasively. The course provided me with exercises and multiple opportunities to achieve this goal. Some of the assignments were especially challenging to me because I had to attempt to persuade an audience on a topic that I did not feel strongly about one way or another.

This pushed me to really try to understand the topic that I was writing about and not just make generalized arguments and claims as I had done in the past when writing a persuasive essay. The improvements that I made in just the persuasive style of writing alone made taking this class worth it for my writing ability.

The second goal that I wanted to achieve from taking this class was also met. This goal was to basically increase the level of efficiency in my work. The course outcomes helped to supplement this goal, especially the 4th goal that stated:

“Analyze source material in order to integrate valid and reliable sources using accepted documentation style.”

Understanding how to not only find by correctly use my found sources for my papers improved my efficiency of writing dramatically because I did not have to spend a great amount of time figuring out how to correctly apply and use the information from my sources in my papers without having to worry about plagiarizing someone else’s work. Also, by the sheer volume of work that was assigned over the duration of the course, I became more and more comfortable with writing in a particular style and the efficiency and level of speed that I could put into getting an end product increased.

Quality of writing

My third major goal I hoped to have manifest itself from the course’s workload was to see an increase in the overall quality of my writing ability. This goal was not simply grounded in the content that I was putting out but also had to do with the grammar and mechanics that I used in my works. Throughout the course, I was constantly challenged to increase the quality of content of my work and to make few, if any, grammatical and mechanical errors.

Through hard work and dedication to my goal, I feel that my work has without a doubt increased since the beginning of the course. Although I have not achieved a writing style that is anywhere near perfect, I am much happier with the work that I produce now, and I can certainly state that my grammar usage and mechanical errors have both become much less problematic than when I first started the course.

One of the most beneficial learning styles this course was the incorporated element of feedback that was given to me throughout. I really enjoyed that there were a multitude of ways in which the class as a whole was able to work together to improve our collective writing ability. I found that the most beneficial aspects of the classroom for me were the discussions that we as a class had and the feedback that I received on my essays from those that read the drafts.

The group discussions that we had were good in that they allowed for bringing different opinions together when talking about a particular topic. It was very helpful for me to be able to see other’s solutions to issues that I myself had on particular topics and assignments. With feedback, I was able to pinpoint exact areas of my writing that needed to be worked on and revised. Not only was I able to look back on and reflect where I had made errors, but also I was able to have helpful constructive critiques on those specific areas. All of these factors helped my writing to greatly improve.

Final remarks

WRTG 101S was a very helpful course for me as a writer. Through this course, I was able to refine and work on certain areas of my writing that I felt were particularly weak. The goals in this class that I set out for myself were met, however, I do feel that my improvements and work should not end in this class. I still want to continue to improve at writing persuasively and incorporating outside sources into my work more seamlessly.

As these skills improve, I feel my writing will become more fluid and provide a higher quality end product. From this course, I was able to gain a solid foundation on the proper techniques of writing in multiple different styles, and I will take what I have learned and incorporate it into the writing assignments that I have to do in the future. Overall, this class was very helpful and almost a necessity for me to take.

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