Unit Reflection and Response
1. Include the link to your blog here: https://nattescollegewriting.poetry.blog/
2. Which of your pieces was the most challenging to write? Give three reasons and explain.
I would say that the twist story was the most challenging to write since I needed to keep the ending a surprise to the reader. It was also challenging as on top of making the ending a surprise, I had to craft a brand new narrative so that it was believable. Lastly, I thought that it was challenging since I do not believe in most twist stories as they undermine the story, so I decided to write a twist story with a very ambiguous twist that is barely noticeable.
3. Which of your pieces was the most enjoyable to write? Give three reasons and explain.
I thought that the Annie Dillard essay was very enjoyable as it let me have free rein to express my descriptive self, at least for the most part. Although most people thought that it was too descriptive and the story was overshadowed by the descriptiveness of the essay, I thought that the descriptive nature makes the paper comically unique and adds to the overall nature of my piece. I also enjoyed using my imagination to bring this controversial piece to life. Overall, despite the controversial view of my piece, I really enjoyed making it.
4. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer? Explain.
Sometimes my plots and stories, at least to the reader, get lost in my descriptive nature. I am also a very stubborn writer who does not like to listen to people who I deem bad writers. That said, I have a vivid imagination and can put other worldly plots and stories down on paper.
5. What have you done to develop your strengths and minimize your weaknesses as a writer? How successful do you feel you have been? Explain.
During the course of this year, I have let my imagination shine especially in creative pieces. I also try not to limit myself in terms of creativity. To limit my weaknesses, I have started letting more and more people read my writing and give criticism. I have also listened to more of them.
6. What kind of future career or field of study are you considering? What kinds of writing might be important in this career or field? Explain, giving specific examples.
I don’t really think that my creativity and imagination can help me all that much as I am not the best writer in the world, but I do believe that my way of thinking can lead to success as I tend to think outside the box and think on my toes. I want to go into business so I will mostly be writing emails and not creative pieces so it hard to think of how my creativity will help in those situations.
7. What advice would you offer the College Writing teachers as they plan this unit for next year? What might be some additional pieces of writing to add and why? How was the timing and pacing? Did you receive enough feedback? Did you receive enough instruction and input so you knew how to do each assignment? You can make specific comments you receive enough instruction and input so you knew how to do each assignment? You can make specific comments about specific assignments here. What did you like or not like and why? What would make this unit more student-friendly, provide more learning, or make it more interesting? Explain.
I think that I would advise them to give more creative freedom for writers to express their own ideas and offer criticism on the structure of their writing and not the individual ideas themselves, as it is the student’s writing and not the teacher’s. I think that it would be beneficial to write more diverse creative pieces like comedy or even depressing pieces as we have really focused only on a few types of writing. I thought that sometimes I did not have enough time to right what I was feeling. Instead I had to rush. I think that the instruction was pretty good, but I sometimes our ideas of what a good piece of writing clashed, and I don’t understand why the teacher’s opinion of the piece is more important or valued than that of the writer, like in my Annie Dillard essay where I intentionally included overtly descriptive phrases and chose to focus solely on the descriptive nature of the piece as I wanted to add comedic elements to my piece. I liked the variations of the different writing and also making our own stories in the style of other writers, but I didn’t like how we were sometimes punished for having a style that was too different from the original writers. I think that if we praised unique style instead of limiting it, college writing will be a more interesting class.
