Essay #1 Reflection Post

Honestly, overall I think I could have spent more time on the essay. I do believe that I did use my time wisely during class, trying to research useful information instead of myspacing, e-mailing, facebooking, etc., but at home I could have spent more time editing my essay. So overall I think I deserve a low passing/passing grade. I have learned that my writing process is very routine-like. I tend to just do what I am suppose to do and that is about it. I rarely tried to achieve beyond the minimum requirements unless I "felt" like it. First I would start off with a title, then think about what the objective is, and go on from there. Only when needed have I actually made an outline, but even the outline would not be very organized, unless I was given specific questions to answer in a guideline on what should be in my outline. When I had been attending Seattle Prep, the class was given a very specific and detailed guideline to follow. Only then was my outline organized and well-developed, and from there I would put together an essay. As mentioned in my Writing-Philosophy post, I learned and developed writing skills for different types of writing styles such as persuasive writing, narrative writing, descriptive writing, expository writing, and argumentative writing. But I am more accustomed to writing persuasive, descriptive, and narrative writing. Although in my post it says that I actually do plan before I write, for this essay I do not think I spent much time planning as much as I should have. If I were to actually go back to blogger and re-read this blog post as well as follow it, I am sure that my writing would have been a bit better. I have learned that although the specifics and details have been laid out for me to just follow in high school, college is much more different because in college, it is all about me where I must make my own guidelines to follow and I must put in my own details and specifics in order to do well. I get to choose the amount of time I want or do not want to spend, so the writing is reflected on how much time I, myself, have put into it. If I had asked questions like, "Have I put much thought into my essay? Did I spend a good amount of time trying to revise it? Did I get other opinions and advice/help on whether or not it was well-developed?", again, I think the essay would have been a lot better. The changes I plan to make next time is to revisit my blogger and try to follow the guidelines that I have made for myself as well as asking the questions above, and spending a lot more time at home revising and editing.