Why, Why, Why
This portfolio was made to demonstrate and show everything that I learned this year during this College Composition class. For each paper this semester, we focused on a different style of writing such as exemplification or we focused on a part of the paper such as introductions. I do strongly believe that this class has made me a significantly better and more efficient overall writer as I am now thinking about what I'm writing rather than just writing. Before taking this class I would generally just start writing and that would be it. Well, thanks to this class I have learned that planning out my paper prior to beginning my work could actually benefit me tremendously. Of course throughout my schooling we've all heard to plan out your work before and at times I did that but to be honest I didn't see the point. However I know understand the benefits of planning and the benefits that come with it.
The major concepts that I'm going to take out of this class is introduction work, titles as well as creativity. First I will start with introduction work. Growing up we have all been taught to write the introduction first and that is how I've been writing since I was a little kid. Well, writing the introduction first may not always be a good thing! If you think about it, your introduction should have a brief overview, or small hints on what your writing is going to be about. Well, think about it how do you know what your writing is going to be about before you actually write it. So, we learned to still write an introduction at the beginning, but, when you think you're done go back and re-write some potential introductions, you may be surprised how much different they are. Another thing about introductions that I learned was that starting with dialogue could be a good thing and in my Character Sketch I started with dialogue as it should draw the reader into the paper. Overall, I feel like my introductions are much stronger.
Next, I small part of writing that has a big effect on your writing is deciding on a title. Before taking this class, my titles generally just summed up what the story was about, nothing to creative. However I soon learned that having a nice, creative title could go a long way in drawing a reader into you writing. I tried with all of my writing pieces to incorporate a creative title. I think a good example of a creative title is in my Character Sketch titled Beyond The Game. I think this title really could have a positive affect on the reader as they may be interested in the title and want to know what the title means.
My overall ability as a writer as grown tremendously. I've always enjoyed writing but I now feel that writing is coming easier and I am able to be more creative than ever before. Every aspect of my writing has improved from introduction work to title decisions and everywhere in between. I have really enjoyed this class and I know that the techniques and concepts you have taught will be greatly appreciated later on.
