Week 10 Reflection

Writing 39B has now come to an end.

In the last ten weeks, I have acquired many new skills that I did not know when I first walked into this course at the beginning of this quarter.

Writing has never been a subject that I enjoyed because I dislike the fact that there are many rules to follow. For example, I was taught to write the five-paragraph essay all the way through high school, especially during my preparation for the SAT. All the instructor told me that I had to write an essay with an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, in the first week of class, Professor Greg told us to avoid the five-paragraph essay, which was a big surprise for me because I was so used to it and my mind has already accepted this way of writing. I also learned that I could use pronouns in my writing, which was another eye-opener. Therefore, my first takeaway from this course is that I was able to discover my creativity in writing. I felt more comfortable with my own writing afterwards.

Another takeaway from this class is the role and proper revision of the topic sentences. In one of the peer reviews, we did an interesting exercise. The task was to put your partner’s essay in order only using topic sentences. The purpose of this task was to check if the topic sentences flow and were structured well to perform the main ideas. I really liked this peer review. I was truly amazed by the crucial role of the topic sentences in an essay at the end.

Ten years seems ridiculously long at my age. However, I believe in ten years, I will still use the thesis statement checklist to edit my thesis. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to take this course. I will never forget the interactive experience I had from this class.