Conrado Sanchez
Professor Ne Jame
Writing 1100 L
1/22/14
Reflection Essay
Mini-Memoir
WRI 1050 English Fundamentals for me was a turning point in finding out more of myself as a writer as well as the do’s and don’ts of college writing. This writing course has contributed and enhanced my writing process. It gave me new tools to add in my arsenal, and helped me get rid of old bad writing beliefs as well as habits that I’ve picked up from other students.
In high school, students would try to impress their teacher with unnecessary complex words and sentences, which could sometimes take away the message that they were trying to convey. Our mentality was that the bigger and the more complex the words are, the better. It was not so when I got to WRI 1050. I soon learned that using big words and complex sentences meant nothing if the essay lacked a strong content.
I remember when I would get an essay assignment in high school. My writing process consisted of only one draft, and no audience to read my essay to give any feedbacks. It would take me a really long time to get started and write anything down. I would stare at the blank paper with pain not knowing what to write. It was because of my approach, which was to create a masterpiece right off that bat. This hindered me from generating any ideas thus obstructing my writing because I was thinking too much about the perfect idea and words to say. I soon realized that over thinking was counter productive.
I treated my first draft as my final draft. I spent a lot of time thinking of anything that might sound brilliant in order impress my teacher. That is why thesaurus was my best friend when it came to writing in high school. I drenched the first draft with big words making my essay sound a bit awkward and concentrated more on developing complex ideas and words hoping that it would make up for my lack of content. I actually thought that I was a pretty good writer back then....