College Composition II significantly improved my writing in, essentially, every aspect. The assignments for this class usually kept me up fairly late at night, but I think it only helped me improve. This course definitely challenged me more than most of my other classes because it made me really think about each and every assignment I was doing. There was not a single time throughout composition II when I could simply go through the motions and produce a well-put-together piece of work. Everything required effort. I felt that, in order for me to improve, I needed a course that would demand more from me than what I was used to, and this course did so.

Core value 1: Writing is a multi-stage, recursive, and social process.

Out of all the core values that were enforced throughout this course, I found this one to be the most emphatic. With the volume of work being as high as it was, I was forced, in a good way, to fully understand this concept. There was not a single assignment in this course that was able to be breezed over. Every assignment required me to think about my topic, gather my thoughts, and then proceed to express those thoughts clearly and efficiently.  For every assignment that was completed, critical, in-depth feedback was provided. Even if I, personally, did not receive direct feedback on certain assignments, I was always able to refer to feedback to other students’ assignments to see what exactly was being looked for in each piece of work. The sequence for every assignment was usually: submit first draft, reflect on feedback provided, and then go back and revise the assignment as best as possible. This multi-step process established in my mind a better, overall method for writing. It helped me understand that high quality writing requires heavy criticism and several revisions in order to make it the best that it can be.  During this sequence, students would often be encouraged to comment on each other’s assignments with any type of advice or corrections that they believed would be beneficial to the piece of work.  The social portion of this core value was certainly achieved by receiving the feedback from not only my professor, but from my classmates as well.

Core Value 3: Understand how texts represent meaning and how the processes of writing and reading create and interpret meaning.

Every piece of writing must have some sort of meaning behind it. I found this concept was stressed in every assignment, particularly the definition, causal, and rebuttal assignments. While working on these three assignments, I was to elaborate on specific aspects of my research topic, making sure to have a strong thesis in each, as well as a clearly established purpose.  These assignments were preliminary components of our research paper, so making sure that each one of them had a strong meaning was of the utmost importance.  After reviewing several paragraphs of feedback and making the revisions needed for my assignments, I was able to successfully demonstrate this core value in my writing.

Core Value 5: Understand the role and use of information in writing.

I found this core value to be put into practice the most in doing my research paper and the assignments leading up to it. Before starting any of my research essays, I had to find five credible sources that would contain useful information for my topic.  Admittedly, most of my initial sources were not exactly as thorough or in-depth with their information as I needed them to be. Using these sources, I had to write a definition essay, causal essay, and a rebuttal argument for my topic. Considering my sources were not as good as they should have been, completing these assignments sufficiently was difficult. An issue that I kept encountering and that was always a focus in the feedback I received was clarity. In each of these three assignments, I struggled with stating my thesis clearly and efficiently, I found it challenging to convey all of my points without being so vague and general. My continuity was not always on track either with what I was stating in each assignment. When it came time to do my research paper, I knew that I did not have a strong foundation for it because my three prior assignments were so weak. At this point I realized I had to go back to the beginning in order to really make a significant improvement in the writing I was going to produce. I found several sources that were more credible than my previous ones, and proceeded to re-think each of my three preliminary assignments for my paper and how I could make each one better with my new sources. After I made adjustments to each assignment in conjunction with both the feedback provided and my improved sources, I was able to produce a much more concrete paper with a concise thesis and specific points that I could now back up with legitimate information. In doing all of this, I realized that the role of information, both reading it and writing it, is huge. When writing something like a research paper, the quality of the information that is found directly relates to the quality of the writing that is produced.

Core Value 7: Understand the power and ethical responsibility that comes with the creation of written discourse.

After understanding that each piece of writing has some sort of meaning behind it, it is also understood that that writing has some sort of power, particularly when a claim is being made.  For instance, when writing my causal essay, I had to come up with a specific claim to make. The claim that I chose to make would, in turn, have some power behind it when my audience would read it because I would be backing it up with factual, cited evidence from the sources I found.  When writing, it is also important to be concise and original, especially when producing a piece of work that requires research. This is crucial because plagiarism must be avoided at all costs. It is extremely important to make sure that the work being produced is authentic, rather than a mere repetition of what someone else has already said. After doing copious amounts of research and repeatedly revising my essays, I believe that this core value is one that I will be able to accurately exhibit now and in the future.

Even though this class was, at times, a struggle for me, I can honestly say that I feel more confident in my writing ability. The work load was intense and the assignments were not always easy, but I think all of it ended up making me a more competent writer. The demand from this class is what I believe made me a better writer. It urged me to critically think about and analyze several subjects that were discussed. It definitely challenged me in many ways, and I think that that is what helped strengthen my writing ability.