Writing has the ability to teach people how to express themself and to have physical proof of what goes on in their head when given a prompt. Throughout the semester I have learned that I was far from where I needed to be when it came to grammar, in-text citations, and organization. Though writing drafts on top of drafts and changing grammar mistakes is time-consuming and not always an enjoyable thing to do, it is the reason that my essays improved. Assignments such as the introduction letter and memo were where I showed most of my skills. The rhetorical analysis and technical description showed me that I had a long way to go when it came to using and analyzing evidence. Lastly, the group proposal allowed me to put my skills and lack thereof together.  

This semester taught me that I need to improve my abilities when writing technical pieces such as a technical description or rhetorical analysis. Looking back at my rhetorical analysis, from the beginning I knew that my thesis was one of the major things that I needed to improve. In my first draft of the rhetorical analysis my concluding sentence “However “Implantable Defibrillator System Shock Function, Morality, and Cause of Death after Magnetic Resonance Imaging” did not clearly state the purpose; if it had not been for the objective header before the reading, the reader would have struggled to continue onto the content of the research” was filled with a lot of irrelevant and opinion-filled information. In my final, my concluding sentence clearly stated the pros of the lab report that I selected as the most well-written and wrote briefly that the other two reports did not include the same properties. One thing I believe I improved from my first rhetorical analysis to the next was that it was less biased and far more comprehensible/clear. On the other hand, when it came to my technical description, I would not say that I improved as much. From my first draft until my final, I researched my product (hand-held milk frother) much more and felt more confident when writing about it. Yet, I did not feel knowledgeable enough to be able to write about the item and teach others how it worked. 

Another apparent development was my increased comfort in using grammar techniques. In my first piece of writing which was our introduction letter, I used one semi-colon and was suggested by my professor to include three commas (turn the semi-colon I used into a comma) and add one semi-colon. As the semester went by I began using more of these techniques so much so that in my technical description I was able to add the three mandatory semi-colons and identify many more on my own. Though this improved, I continued struggling with my usage of comma splices which were found in all of my pieces of writing. 

The more I wrote, the more I understood where to place transition words, grammar 

techniques, and in-text citations. These citations were one of the bigger things that I struggled with. We were first asked for in-text citations in our rhetorical analysis, looking back at my draft I had reminded myself where to place the citations with “(author, year).” However, this was incorrect, and by the time the final rhetorical analysis and the technical description came around, I learned that the proper way to use in-text citations was “(author, year, page)”  or “(year, page)” when citing evidence that you have taken directly from another piece of writing. Something that remained a goal of mine throughout the semester was trying to “ work on my citations and organization because I lacked organization in the collection of my sources which made it difficult to truly understand who the authors were and how to cite them.” I stated this in two of my reflections however, I did not see the change that I wanted. With further practice, I am sure that this is something I will be able to achieve. 

In conclusion, this semester I significantly progressed in my usage of semi-colons, in-text citations, transition words, and properly writing technical papers. I was able to work on my organization and understanding the importance of using valid evidence since there is the possibility of a fact check that goes along with each citation. I also learned that it is not clever to leave assignments for the last minute, each draft and peer review is the reason that my papers stayed in the A- to B+ range. Without the help of my peers and valid feedback from my professor, it would’ve been impossible to see that my writing isn’t as clear to others as it is to me.