Reflective Letter

This class has completely changed the way I write. In the past, I have been limited by my instructor to a very strict and concise way of writing. It was to the point that she had a template for every sentence of every paragraph that we wrote. After two years of that, I cannot express how amazing it felt to actually have my own voice in my own writing, and not some robotic conformity to how others thought I should sound. It had my victories and my absolute face down failures in this course, but I am walking away with not only a better understanding of what writing should be, but also of what my true voice is.


Now don’t get me wrong, this class has been far from easy. However, it was challenging in the exact way that I needed. I knew that everything that I have written in the last two years is total garbage, because that is what I had been programmed to write. That garbage was supposed to get me the grade, instead of actually allowing me to talk about how I felt on the topic. This class liberated me from that programming. My words came out of my brain, not out of the word bank instructors felt would better express “my voice”. And with this new freedom, I was able to grow as a writer.


The first thing that I think was strengthened this is my pride in my writing. It has been a long time since I have been able to say I enjoyed or even was proud of the work I produced. As I near the end of this class, I now am able to say both. I rediscovered my voice, but also my love for writing. The transition from my old rules which had been so pounded into my head that I could recite them in my sleep was not a smooth one. As I wrote more and more the road became exceedingly less bumpy and I am now at a point that I and comfortable writing.


Another strength that I have gained in this class is my ability to draw in the reader. When I started this class, my hooks were non-existent. Over the course of this class I was able to go from “The PSEC motto “Be the change you wish to see in the world” is something we all should adopt.” too “The PSEC motto is the basis of which society should be built.” My introductory skills moved from the top of my cons list to the top of my pros. This class had a big part in that change.


I have also never enjoyed writing about history and this class changed that too. In high school the sources we were allowed to use were very limited. Whether that is because of the dismal library resources or the “security” blocks on the computer, credible resources were few and far between. I even had one teacher tell me to just make up statistics, that no one really ever checked our sources. This class completely changed the way that I support my writing. It gave me a chance to access real resources from credible sources. I learned how to do much more efficient research, as well as how to cite the sources I found correctly.


However, there is a defiantly still weakness that I need to address. My vocabulary is weak, to put it nicely. All my writing classes focused more on words that weren’t even in some dictionaries, instead words I could actually use. Because of this I have gotten into the habit of using a thesaurus pretty much every other sentence. That habit is probably the hardest one I have to break. Like the rest of my former weaknesses though, as time goes on I feel more and more confident in my abilities.


As the end of this class comes closer, I feel that my writing strength has improved immensely. My love for writing has returned, which was something I thought a few months ago was not possible. I am sad to see this class end, and I wish that it went much longer than one quarter. But what I have learned and gained in this quarter is going to stay with me for the rest of my life, and I am forever grateful for the sense of pride that it gave me for my writing.