Self-Assessment Reflection
English 301 was a challenging but very practical course. The course challenged my preconceptions of writing and forced me to write in a way that I wasn’t necessarily familiar with. The value in that was learning about the different approaches to writing. For example, considering the audience is not something that I usually thought about when writing prior to English 301. After spending twelve intensive weeks refining my writing skills, I’ve learned about the benefit of tailoring each piece of writing to a specific audience. This is a skill that I will carry with me as I continue in my career.
One of the bigger challenges I encountered in the semester was the use of personal pronouns throughout my writing. Personal pronouns, when used too often, can detract from the clarity of the intended message. In fact, by avoiding pronouns, the words and sentences that are used in place of them can become even more effective. This is something I will certainly keep in mind going forward.
My favourite project of the term was the formal report. This gave me a taste of what it’s like to present a professional report backed by research. I learned the importance of being analytical, objective, yet also persuasive. Combining all these three skills adds to the credibility of a report and it is important to be mindful of them when generating a report. I can envision writing many more formal reports throughout my professional career and this was a great opportunity to gain some experience in that exercise.
Finally, I greatly appreciated the peer review process. The greatest improvements I noticed in my own writing came from reading comments that the professor and other classmates had made about my writing. Not only was receiving feedback beneficial but reading the work of the writing team members exposed me to the different strengths found in their writing. In other words, I was able to learn from what worked for them.
As a final note, I’d like to thank Dr. Paterson, and my writing team members: Christine, Esteban, Michaela, and Eva for a enjoyable semester.