Writing Process Reflection

What were some of your weaknesses at the beginning and how did you work on them? What are some of your strengths? What difficulties have you encountered in writing paper? What strategies do you use that are particularly useful? What was the revision process like? How do you hope to continue growing as a writer? 

   My writing process is fairly straight forward for the most part. I create an outline that point by point identifies the main arguments or thesis. The outline also includes supporting arguments, evidence, and opinions. The outline is a bullet point format making it simple and easy to fill out. The outline of course comes after coming up with a thesis. This is typically a rough point for me. I may have picked the side or opinion that I will be arguing but I often find it difficult to word it into a concrete statement that catches the audience and makes them interested in the subject matter. I remedy this by focusing my argument as much as possible, making it concise and clear.

   The difficulties I encounter in writing are dependent upon the type of writing I am doing, analysis, research, rhetorical essay, etc. For the most part my difficulties come from trying to formulate an opinion and sticking to it. There is such a vast amount of information of the subjects I am often assigned to write about that it becomes hard to process and focus on one side of the argument. My remedy is to analyze both sides of the issue. Unfortunately this often creates conflicts between my intended thesis (and opinion) and the information that can be divulged from research. Contradictions in research may make for a more interesting paper but they complicate the process significantly for me. 

   The stratedgies I find most useful are to create an outline (as aforementioned). This allows me to maintain my trains of thought and structure the paper in an appropriate and understandable way. Not only does it make it easier for me as a writer, but the structure makes it easier for the reader to interpret and understand my work. 

   The revision process is fairly simple, it involves re reading, editing by myself and other individuals. I find this part to be easy because now having a physical manifestation of my ideas it becomes easier to reformulate them into a more coherent paper. I actually find the process of critique incredibly valuable and pleasant as it helps me grown as a writer. On this note, the way I plan to become a better writer is by writing more and having more people read my work. The most important thing for me is that people can react and give me their opinions; for in the end as much as it is about writing and the process for myself it is other people who will be reading and (hopefully) benefiting from my work.