This FIQWS composition course helped me grow as a writer and allowed me to aim higher. To compose a final draft, you must undergo many steps, like outlining, composing a draft, having the paper edited, and revising it. I learned to write for certain demographic groups and target my audience with a purpose. When I write, I try to be more precise and to the point using evidence to back up my point. Also, with the help of my peers, I was able to look at my writing in a different perspective. My peers would point out silly mistakes I don’t notice because I’m oblivious to my own writings. The professor would help with edits as well, Professor Rodwell helped me to analyze my response and certain statements more by asking us questions. Those questions allowed me to elaborate and think deeper about the topic. She also tries to make us write outside of our comfort zone by making us dig deeper into what we are writing about and explore different genres.  

The portfolio is for students that are going to be taking this FIQWS class, my professor, and myself. It allows me to look back at how my writing has improved and what helped me to get to this point. The readings were another helpful source aside from the peer edits I received. There are specific readings associated with the different writing styles, like for the descriptive essay, we were given examples to read. One of the titles was “Ours was a Dad” by Juvy Davis, it gave me a further understanding of what I should include in my writing. One thing I learned from that writing piece was that there could be meaning behind a few simple words and it doesn’t have to be straightforward, sometimes it is hinted at us. These readings helped me develop my writing skills because some of them contained templates and gave us specific instructions.  

The purpose of this course was to help us grow as a writer, thus the professor pushes us to do better by allowing us to do re-writes. We are expected to improve throughout the course which means there should be an increase in our writing level each time we write a paper because we should be learning from our precious mistakes. I saw improvement in myself, I noticed that I started applying the edits and suggestions I received from my professor and peers into my essays. For example, my professor made us go into groups to figure out the problem the individuals in the group had and share it out with the whole class. A problem my group had was we kept using that, this, they, there in the wrong context. So, my peers and I looked over each other’s essays and crossed out the unnecessary words or told each other to add in a noun, verb, or adjective to make a correct sentence using that, this, they, there etc. Also, I keep in mind the mistakes they point out and try to not do the same in my next assignments. When I read my peers’ essays during peer editing time, I learn so much because it is different from mine and gives me an idea of what I want to add in my essay.  

I learned that citations are important, and we should always give credit to the original writer. Sources are helpful for gathering outside information and research. In the beginning I had trouble citing my sources, I didn’t know if the author, publication date, title, or year came first. Throughout the FIQWS work and family courses, I was able to cite it properly because the professors provided us with articles. An example of an article the professor assigned to us to read was, “Working with Sources” by Carillo. The article explained to us the consequences of not citing, not citing properly, and gave us information about sites that could help us. One website that could help us cite is called easybib, it helps us format our sources correctly. Also, the professor taught us how to analyze and summarize a larger text. It was helpful when I had to write summaries for the work and family class with Professor Chen. I was able to write it precisely without adding in unnecessary information. Composing texts also helped me with one of my writing assignments which was the annotated bibliography. I could summarize an article I found for my research easily by writing a topic sentence about the whole article, elaborating, and finding evidence to back up the topic sentence.  

The composition class I took as a Freshman enhanced my writing skills. I see a significant improvement throughout the course. It offered me many opportunities to rewrite and compose drafts, so I could get feedback from the professor and my peers. The chances given to me was a learning experience because I was able to notice the mistakes I had been making and I was able to fix them for my final paper. This course required me to write in three different styles which was the identity narrative, descriptive essay, and research critical analysis. I learned a specific skill from writing each of the papers. In the identity narrative, I learned how there should be one focus and topic about what made you the person you are today. The descriptive essay helped me use sensory details to elaborate on the focus whether it be a person, place, or thing. Finally, the researched critical analysis taught me to enforce outside information into my research paper to make it stronger and have supporting evidence. All the advice I had received in this course will stay with me throughout the rest of my college path because it is a necessary skill.

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