Tanner Hancock

Reflection Essay
Writing Development
Though this semester was short, I found that this class teaches you to think about
writing differently from any English class I have taken before. We focus heavily on writing for a
target audience instead of just writing for our teacher. In my projects I was writing in mostly
professional environments. To be professional I had to word my sentences carefully. I tried to
not waste the readers time by wording my sentences clearly and concisely. I also focused on
making sure the tone of the document was respectful and kind, since those are important
feelings to convey when proposing a business opportunity.

I think I could have learned more from this course if the peer reviews I received were
better. A lot of my classmates didn’t really give me much criticism on my writings. Peer reviews
are some of the most impactful criticisms you receive since it can be easier to relate with your
classmate’s perspective than the professors. I think this could be avoided by having the peer
reviews you give people also be a grade. Most of my peer reviews were “you did a good job” for
every section which made me feel like people were not really looking at my paper. Other than
that, I think the class does a great job at teaching you how to write better.

Course Goals
My goals for this course were to improve my reading and writing skills while getting a
good grade. I succeeded in improving my writing skills as I talked about in the previous
paragraphs, but I don’t think I improved on my reading skills as much as I could have. The
improvements I did make on my reading skills came from doing the peer reviews. Having to
read through someone else’s work and pick out what you think is good and bad helps develop
your reading skills since you think more critically about the text.

Where I still struggle in reading is in my ability to read long texts while keeping my focus.
I tend to zone out or have a hard time keeping my interest when reading, and I don’t know how
to fix it. This problem was differentially amplified because I had to do all my homework at my
job, and I’m always working on something on the side. I don’t think this is something that this
class could really help fix, but something I just must work on myself.

Assignments
I’m most proud of my white paper. While it may not be the best thing I have done in the
class, I found it the most challenging. I have a hard time doing long form papers like that since I
had to do so much research. After doing all my research I really felt I had a comprehensive idea
of my topic. Doing good research made writing the paper much easier than other papers I have
 Tanner Hancock

written were I rushed the researching process. I was able to lay out a good structure for the
flow of my paper since I knew where I wanted it to go.

The assignment I would like to edit would be the peer reviews like I talked about earlier.
Making sure people are giving others decent reviews would have a big impact on the second
draft people turn in.