Before revisiting some of my past assignments I didn’t really think I made much progress in my writing. This is not because I didn’t think I needed to improve, it is because I couldn’t think of anything that I did that changed my writing for the better. Since I wasn’t focusing on how I improved as a writer I didn’t notice the changes that I had made in my form of writing to better my assignments. However, after I looked back at some of my assignments I saw how throughout this course I have improved in being more descriptive and better observing my surroundings and people. Improving my observer skills also helped me in better interpreting things as well. Another thing that I feel like I learned was in engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. I was more open to having people read my essays because I learned having another person read it can help me improve it with suggestions and improvements they see I can do that I didn’t see myself.

In the beginning of the semester, one of our first assignments that show our observing and descriptive skills was describing the Marshmallow Test. We had to discuss the reactions of the little boy and how he responded to the test. When describing him all I said was “the child appeared to bored… impatient and frustrated.” This to me is very weak because of how simple and basic it is. I didn’t further explain what he was doing that made him appear bored or frustrated. I now realize I could’ve described his body language and his actions in order to show what made me interpret his feelings. I feel like I showed my improvement of this in my Field Notes Essay of my subculture. When discussing my site I go in depth of everything I saw and how it made me feel. I describe how “bright everything was. The walls were painted white and baby blue. They also had paintings on them of bright colored flowers. The couches that were in the room were a bright red color and when I sat down they were also very comfortable. It was a nice setting to walk into because the room with it’s bright colors made it feel so welcoming.” This environment had given me a “good vibe” to it and how the workers there also contributed to this feeling because of how “nice and helpful” they were. I was more detailed with my description. 

Before this course I used to hate letting other people who are not teachers read my assignments. I would feel uncomfortable with them reading it. However, now I see the importance of letting other people, not just your teachers, read your assignments because they can help you improve your writing and skills. It’s a way for you to see another form of writing through their suggestions and you can adopt some of the skills they use in their writing. In our Peer Profile I was having trouble starting my intro because I didn’t know what I wanted to start with. I started off by saying “When I asked the person who I was interviewing who she was she first responded by telling me her name, Fabiola.” I didn’t like this since this is not how I wanted to introduce my partner. However, after getting into our groups and sharing our essays Angel had suggested I start off with a question in order to reel in my audience and it had to do with something close to my main idea. He noticed that I felt most connected to Fabiola about not knowing who we are as people so he helped me start my intro by saying “Who are we? This is probably one of the most difficult questions to answer. It’s a difficult question for me to answer just like it was for my partner, Fabiola, when I asked her.” I enjoyed this because I feel like everything I wrote after tied to the beginning of my essay. After this I started letting my friends read my essays for suggestions in order to improve it and this has helped me out a lot.