Reflection #1

My goals for this semester are to be more open minded to new ideas and theories, think more outside of the box when writing, and work on my grammar skills. To help me obtain these goals during this semester I'm going to try to use new techniques when reading and doing assignments. For example, when reading an article for a class discussion, I'm going to take notes and mark important things, in order to better understand the concept or topic of the article. In order to think more outside the box I'm going to start to brainstorm multiple ideas instead of just picking the easiest one or the first idea that comes to mind. The best way to do this is to create a list of possible ideas and from there do a brief summary of each one and choose the one I like the most. My finale goal for this semester is to improve my grammar skills, grammar has never been my specialty and it is an important part of writing. When writing a paper I'm going to focus on getting all my ideas on the page and then go back and fix any grammar errors, as well as utilizing tutoring and peer editing to help catch any errors I might have missed.

When writing discussion posts I try to think critically about the topic, but I feel like there is always room for improvement. I try to think outside the box to the best of my ability, but sometimes its difficult to come up with new ideas on the spot. The blog post that I believe I did the best on, was the one about using imagery words. I feel like during that post I choose word or descriptions that are not common instead of the words that immediately popped into my head, which allowed better imagery for the reader. Reading actively can help you better understand the material and create more developed blog post. I try to mark key points or pieces that I found interesting when I read with a highlighter or pencil, so when I have to create a post about the assignment I already have a few ideas on what I could write about. From there I use the ideas that best fit the assignment for example, Journal #3, which is when we had to take imagery quotes and explained how they could benefit us in our own writing.

I think my overall class grade so far should be around a B. I always come to class prepared and have my assignments or homework completed before class begins. Despite the fact that it can be intimidating, I try to participate in class discussion when I understand the material or believe I have the correct answer. However, I think I should participate more than what I do now, but it will get easier when I become more familiar with the class and other students. I also think that when it comes to my writing there is always room for improvement which is why I decided to choose a B instead of an A.