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Lauren Whitley

Professor Jan Rieman

ENGL 1103

May 1, 2011

Hey you,

What were you thinking when you walked into this English 1103 course? How could you have

doubted yourself so severely? How could you have disliked writing with such a passion? The

“old” writing you was crazy. I hope you have realized now, at the “finish line” of this semester

that you are a writer, one with good skills and abilities, and one that should have just as much

confidence in yourself as the next writer. I hope you can admit that writing doesn’t “suck” (well

at least the majority of it) and I hope you continue to grow and learn as a writer on all aspects;

whether in academic essays or just for fun. You can do this girl! It’s not so bad, right?

Sincerely,

Your Better Half

Looking back at the halfway mark of this semester (more formally known as the

midterm), I can honestly say I have made huge improvements within myself as a writer. I began

this course as a timid student; doubting any possibility of ever being a “good” writer, much less

even enjoying writing in general. As I look back over my Midterm Reflection, I can remember as

if it was yesterday the feelings that initiated the thoughts that I expressed in that essay. I still

remember how “excited and overwhelmed” I felt when beginning this English course and how

nervous I was that I would be lacking in comparison to my classmates. I was quick to learn,

however, that some of my classmates were also experiencing the same uncertainties, and my
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writing was not lacking in comparison at all. This course has prompted a sense of pride in myself

as a writer, and has made me more comfortable in expressing my beliefs on paper for others to

potentially see.

I began the second half of the midterm with three writing goals; one small, one medium,

and one large. My smallest goal involved my punctuation usage, and the hope that I would gain

better control over it and use it more appropriately. I believe that with the help from my writing

group and paying close attention to works from other authors, particularly the academic works

we read from professionals, have led me to improve in this area. I no longer “abuse” commas,

semicolons, or other forms of punctuation and I find myself being able to spot incorrect usage in

my own work. My medium goal was gaining confidence within myself and my writing, and I

believe I have attained this goal as well. During the first half of the semester I would often tell

my writing group to “not expect much” from my essays because they were “terrible”; all with the

fear that they really were terrible and my peers would judge me on this fact. I would be

embarrassed to ask others to look over my work or even simply read it, lacking faith in myself

and especially my writing ability. Through the remainder of this course, I have grown as a writer

and have realized that my writing deserves an author who believes in herself, because it is not

terrible, and in reality, far from it. My third, largest, and most difficult goal to accomplish, was

expressing myself as a writer in a variety of ways other than just the basic academic essay. I

rarely, if ever, wrote in a form other than the typical academic essay and it was due mainly to my

lack of confidence; I thought if I attempted a different form, I would fail tremendously.

Thankfully, due to my overall increased confidence and my writing practice through

opportunities such as Writing to Explore pieces, I yet again feel that I have accomplished my

goals.
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I have not only grown in my writing abilities, I have also grown in my reading abilities.

At the start of the semester, I would quickly go through the assigned readings just to “get them

done” and never allowed myself ample time or focus to really comprehend what I was reading.

The essays we were asked to read were about completely unfamiliar and often “daunting”

subjects containing vocabulary and information that seemed well beyond my years. Due to this

unfamiliarity, I didn’t use my full ability to read them. As the semester progressed, I learned new

reading strategies (or rather better strategies), took full advantage of the blogs by both posting

my own opinion and reading those of others, and also paid attention during class discussions

listening to techniques that Professor Rieman and my classmates used while reading and applied

them to myself. I can now sit down with an academic reading, take my time and take notes

throughout, which leads me towards better comprehension and understanding of new topics.

Overall I believe I have grown tremendously as both a writer and a reader, and most

importantly I have gained confidence in myself as both a writer and a reader. I have seen visible

growth from the beginning of the semester to midterm, and even more growth from the midterm

to the end of the semester. I have learned a variety of new techniques for reading comprehension,

have stopped constantly doubting my work, and have attempted to branch out my writing styles

to include those other than academic essays. I feel as if I have learned more in this one semester

of college English than I did my entire four years of high school and with that, I am pleased. My

classmates and, especially, Professor Rieman have introduced new concepts and ideas to me;

have been a huge influence on my confidence boost and creativity boost; and altogether

transformed me as a writer and reader.