During this semester in English 125, I have not seen very much improvement in my writing process or in the quality of my writing; however, I have noticed some issues in the way I handle English classes, and I am currently seeking to make changes to the ways in which I think about English-specific papers and projects.

In terms of projects, the literature circles project was the most challenging and most interesting project of the semester.  The novel I chose was one I had been wishing to read for a long while, I was excited to dive into it.  Because Jane Eyre was on the long side, however, it was certainly tough to fit the reading into my schedule.  It was not a particularly difficult read; in fact, I have grown accustomed to the kind of language Brontë writes in.  However, the way we sectioned off the reading was a lot more than I am used to reading.  In addition, it was rather hard to concentrate on the story while having the project looming over my head, but that may just be the nature of group novel projects.  The best and most helpful part about the literature circles project was definitely the group discussion days where we could compare notes and get excited about all the symbols and parallels we found while reading the section.  When it was time to write the second literary analysis paper, the point of view stance I took was based entirely on what my group talked about during discussions.  Had we not had the opportunities to get together, I may never have noticed the issue of Jane’s first-person point of view.  Apart from the discussions, to help remember things and connect symbols and important events and quotes, I annotated the book with Post-It notes.  I would have taken notes directly on the book had it not been borrowed from the library.  The act of taking notes definitely helped me in the long run when I had to pull out textual evidence or find a specific event or moment in Jane’s story.  With color-coded sticky notes sticking out of the sides of the book, it becomes very easy to refer back to certain points in the story.

When pre-writing and drafting, I usually write my entire draft in one setting and look back at it afterward to check for grammar errors, faulty reasonings, and any other mistakes I made the first time.  When I wrote my first few blog posts and the first literary analysis paper, I wrote them during group study sessions.  I learned that I performed better and reasoned better when drafting in a public place, and revising was done best in a quiet, more private place.  The smaller details and nitpicks I like to straighten out are much easier to do when I can concentrate fully, but for more general thinking, I tend to best figure out how to organize and relay my ideas when discussing with and talking at others. During the revision process, I first look at the essay or short work more holistically.  I take out things that do not seem to fit and insert notes and highlights to refer back to during a later revision session.  One more thing that helps me a lot is taking a break from revisions.  I have noticed that when I turn away and put the essay out of my head for a few hours before coming back to it, I notice things I did not notice before.  Although I feel like my revision process is all right, I do believe there it can benefit from more polishing especially in terms of time management.  In the future, I plan to schedule my drafting and revising more strictly so that I don’t have the opportunity to procrastinate as that was my biggest enemy over the back half of this semester.

The work I have done this semester has definitely revealed more personal weaknesses in me than strengths.  I certainly am still confident in what I already know, but I do not believe that I learned anything that I had not learned in my high school AP Language and Composition class.  Because of that, I have not seen any significant improvement in my works, my writing process, or the ideas I would like to incorporate into my classroom.  However, as far as weaknesses go, I have learned that the lack of challenging material turns me into a dull student.  Because I was overconfident and a bit disinterested, I became rather lazy in my writing for English 125 specifically.  A couple lessons were learned: in future classes, I cannot afford to let myself procrastinate or slack off in any way, and in order to find ways to shift my writing for the better, I must challenge myself.

In conclusion, just because I have not seen myself grow significantly as a writer because of English 125 does not mean I did not take anything away from the experience.  The class allowed me to discover the weaknesses in my study plans and schedules, and it let me figure out how I might change my writing process to fit the expectations of college courses.  I am content with how the semester played out, and I anticipate learning much more in subsequent English classes.