In this class, I began with short writings on blogs@baruch and then advanced with larger writing projects on Blackboard. Throughout this semester, I have learned about gender inequality, the Black Panther Party, and the Black Lives Matter Movement. These topics were chosen as subjects for writing our rhetorical and research-based essays. I learned that brainstorming and writing ideas without focusing on grammar initially was helpful in generating more information that I could use. I think my writing has developed because I believe that my writing is more informative and well formatted. Learning how to properly format my essays in MLA style and writing the works cited page was beneficial for writing essays for my other class, especially those that were research-based.
One piece of writing I am particularly proud of is a research-based paper I wrote last semester in ENG 2100. The prompt was to write a research-based essay based one of the stories we read for class, and I chose “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Jorge Luis Borges. Initially, it was challenging to find suitable and reliable sources from my paper, as I needed to go through each of the sources that were at least 40 pages long.It took me quite a some time to actually start writing the paper. However, upon submitting the paper, I felt a sense of satisfaction and relief. The professor’s feedback/comments were what brought me pride of my work because, before receiving my grade, I was concerned about the accuracy of the format, content, and punctuation of my essay.
One piece of writing that was particularly challenging to me was the Wikipedia research-based paper I wrote for this class. There was too much information that needed to be included, and formatting the essay was hard and confusing. Given that the topic of the paper was on Women in Red, it was challenging to find the “right” sources that are credible and reliable. However, I learned the importance of completing the paper early, as it allows you to have the time to find mistakes and revise it multiple times before submitting a final paper. I am working towards becoming someone who is more organized and improve my time management skills.