Good writing takes practice. In high school, I rarely took reviewing and rewriting my work seriously. I would write my essays the night before they were due, but I usually received grades I was happy with. Coming into college, I decided to change my ways and try to learn a new way of writing. With this state of mind in place, I was more able to fully express my thoughts in concise and smart ways. The first example I have for this learning outcome is the process I wrote my Textual Analysis. This was one of our first major essays we needed to write. First, I started with a first draft, where I just got my ideas down on paper and started to develop my thoughts in an organized paper. Next, I gave my paper to a classmate for her to read and review my writing. It was interesting having another person's perspective on my paper. Finally, I developed my first draft even more, to complete my final draft. My first and final drafts were not especially different than each other, but I found it very helpful to spend more time on my work, in order to make sure it was exactly what I wanted.

The next example of how my writing process has evolved is my Op-Ed essay. I began my writing process for this project with a project proposal, where I stated my purpose for writing, who the audience is, and the context of the piece. Next I wrote my first draft, which I started each paragraph with "Sometimes I wonder..." This was an interesting exercise because it really got me thinking of why I believe in the subject I was writing, and how I was going to establish my ideas. The second draft was where I more concretely started my arguments, and decided what information was critical to my essay. Next, our class participated in a peer editorial review. I gave my essay to a classmate and had her give me her initial thoughts about the essay, and what I could do differently. Finally, I composed my best version of my essay. I think this is my best work from WRD 103, and I credit my success to the writing process. I truly developed a great writing process in this class, and I definitely will be exercising this format in the future.

Please review my textual analysis first, and my Op-Ed second. You will observe that my writing process improved from the first essay to the second.