Writing 2 has been a very rewarding experience for me and a class that I am glad to have taken. I expected a rather painful and awkward experience, yet what I received proved to be the opposite. Not only did I learn about how to write and read better, I learned about who I am as a writer as well. I learned that I write in a certain way, use certain diction, certain syntax, certain genres, and that by doing so, I have developed a style that effectively conveys my message. The tools and techniques that I have picked up throughout the ten weeks will stick with me long past any future writing classes. 

I came in as an inexperienced writer, ready, albeit nervous, to tackle any and all challenges that I would face. This isn't to say that I was bad at writing, on the contrary I considered myself quite good at writing as a still do, I was just in the beginning stages of writing at the college level. There was so much to learn, as there still is, and I was going to try my hardest to improve as much as I could. While the two most influential experiences in influencing my writing were both writing projects, it was the assigned readings and in-class assignments that truly made the difference. The readings demonstrated the tools firsthand that we would need while the projects were an extension of said tools.

The most prominent reading was by far Bunn's "How to Read Like a Writer" due to its heavy implications that would be carried throughout the quarter and beyond. We read this during the first week of the quarter as it would be utilized with every upcoming assignment. In the article, Bunn stresses that when reading something, one should try to find out "how the text is constructed" so that they can learn how to replicate that technique in their writing. This technique proved to be extraordinarily helpful when writing my future projects, especially writing project 2. Like I said when I first read the piece, I believe we have all done this to extent on a subconscious level, as we tend to pick up on things when reading without ever realizing it. Furthermore, when one becomes actively aware of what they are doing, they can sort through components more effectively to make their own writing stronger. After reading the article and practicing RLW, I have now conditioned myself to proactively search for methods that writers use so that I can make my writing better. This is demonstrated wonderfully in my work as my work has significantly improved as a result of using RLW over the past several weeks.

Another important reading for me was McCloud's "Writing with Pictures." As I talked about during my reflection on writing project 1, using pictures was an extremely useful technique that made my writing better. By including pictures, you are giving the readers a break and the assurance to continue on. It also makes the story much more interactive as it changes the reader's rationale from reading an essay, to that of a storyboard. This technique keeps the writer absorbed in the writing, and the pictures can further drive home a point you are trying to make.

The last important reading for me was Elbow's "Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking." Elbow talks about how when writing a paper, authors use two types of thinking: first-order and second-order. First-order is a much more emotional style of writing as it is sporadic and recording thoughts without a filter. It is writing down anything and everything that comes to mind so that you can rehash it later. Second-order thinking on the other hand is much more analytical. It is concisely planning each sentence to make them flow well. It is articulating the paper in such a way that everything is pieced together and makes sense. Before I took this class, my writing almost always consisted primarily with second-order type writing. I would always plan what I wanted to say and have an outline of the paper before I wrote it. I would make revisions at the end when I finished everything and felt that my thoughts were complete. Yet when I took this class, I found myself utilizing first-order thinking much more. I would brainstorm ideas and write whatever I felt. I would go back and edit a random sentence before moving on because I realized I liked phrasing it a different way. Elbow's article opened me up to a new way of thinking that drastically altered the way I write my papers. Now I use both methods and it has significantly improved my writing.  

What I got most out of this class was my understanding of how I have changed as a writer and how I have grown as a result. As aforementioned, coming into this class I was rather inexperienced with writing, as evident by the fact that I had only written two essays prior to starting this class. The most important realization, however, came at the beginning during writing project 1. This is not that surprising as we had to create a profile of ourselves as writers which forced us to really dig deep and think about who we are as it pertains to writing. My ah-ha moment came when I was generating my focus - we are all writers. This epiphany was so incredibly important because I carried it with me through all of my writing assignments. I used to have the notion that because I am a STEM major, I automatically had to be bad at writing. Yet I realized that we are all writers, and much like riding a bicycle, even if we haven't done it in a while, we haven't lost the ability to write. I used this notion whenever I wrote as a means of a confidence boost and a reminder to be confident in my work. Even if I felt that it might not necessarily be my best work, I had to stand by my work and be proud of it. And when you really think about it, this rationale goes beyond writing; it carries with you with whatever challenge you have to tackle next. I also learned that we aren't perfect, our writing can always be improved and we have to be open to change. We can always make something better and when someone critiques it or offers advice, you should take it as a means to improve yourself.

In all, this class was much more than showing me how to improve my writing. It taught me to push boundaries, explore areas that you're not normally comfortable with, be confident in who you are and what you have done, and be open to change - you're not perfect. These are ideas that far outweigh this writing class, even academics, and for that I am sincerely grateful.