Self-Reflective Essay

I believe I was successful in this course because the topics and assignments were intriguing while simultaneously challenging at some parts. I enjoyed learning about the creative process and tools used in writing and how to manipulate them in writings of my own which I believe made me a much better writer than I initially was. Although it was sometimes challenging to start a writing piece or if my use of the creative writing tools was as impressionable on the reader as I had hoped, I thoroughly enjoyed working on these assignments and I think it helped my overall growth as a writer and understand more concepts as a reader. I also think the readings and PowerPoints proved immensely helpful for me because to understand the concepts of what I was learning as well as get to see examples and write my own which was a great learning style for me that I wish to carry out in the future because I think it helped me most overall to learn a concept then read it and having to create it myself really made me have to know it which ended up making me more successful in learning the topics then I could have imagined. Although I fell behind after Thanksgiving break with assignments I was quick to complete them and submit them and I actually enjoyed doing them and was grateful to learn that do dates were not super strict because it gave me a chance to be creative at my pace and be confident in the work I submit. A minor adjustment I would find useful in the future is more PowerPoints or learning material to take notes over because I greatly enjoy taking handwritten notes because it makes me feel like I am truly understanding the topic and it forces me to focus on what we are doing. I enjoy taking notes over the new concepts we are learning and I’m going to continue that next semester because it has always proven a useful study tactic for me to learn and easy to flip back to and read in my own words and commentary a color coded system of notes that I could use to quickly remember a tool I might have forgotten that I could use on a writing assignment. The new concept of learning in a pandemic and doing online school for the first time it is definitely a an adjustment and one that will continue to work on everyday but as I slowly increase my successfulness of being an online student I how come to realize that time management is very important especially with a job and social life it is certainly a new struggle to keep up with the business of both aspects of my life but when I do sit down and work on school I find that I am feeling more confident in my academic abilities as well as myself when I am able to work on my time and in my own setting. I believe that I am being more successful now than I was in the past during in-person school because I am more in control of my distractions and can choose how successful or unsuccessful I want to be now more than ever. I think I showed growth as a writer using creative concepts in a way I rarely thought about before. I think I overcame my challenges in these past assignments quicker than before because it was easier for me to understand the concepts of creative writing tools. I believe my strongest assignments were project 2 and project 3. I loved the idea of changing the point of view in project 2 and I liked challenging myself with choosing a point of view I normally would not choose to write about since it can be more difficult to elaborate on. I also think that project 3 was entertaining for me because I could write my own creative thoughts down which did prove at first to be a challenge because I could not decide what to write over but once I did it was very interesting to express my thoughts and ideas through a fiction short story where it felt as though I was writing a movie. I think I struggled the most with project 1 because it was hard for me to understand how to emulate poems and take someone else’s thoughts or ideas and make it my own because I like to have my own topics so that I can make an outline of what I am going to write about and it proved hard to do that with emulating poems. Although I am not quite positive about how I did emulating poems I did enjoy doing some research and writing in a new way because I don’t usually write poems. I learned many things such as interpretation, emulating poems, POV, metaphors, image, character, story, voice and more which all help write an amazing story. Even though I faced some challenges I learned how to overcome them and grew as a writer by doing so. I am satisfied with my work throughout this course because I tried my hardest to input every new creative learning tool and writing styles during every assignment and was pleased with the final products. I think I could’ve worked at a higher pace if I wasn’t as preoccupied with the busy holiday times, but I think I am doing well at growing and learning how to do better at time management and at using the tools I learn in my future. I look forward to improving even more next semester. As much as I admire the “going gradeless” movement and how positively it has affected me, I would like to suggest an A as my final letter grade for my work in this course. Though this is just a letter and I still look forward to returning to this class after break no matter what letter I receive. Thank you for a great semester!