This semester has been full of ups and downs. When I moved in, I was anxious but also excited to start this new chapter in my life. A lot of my anxiety vanished once I realized everyone else was in the same boat. The first week was very easy considering it was just orientation and boring presentations. When classes started, I was able to make lots of new friends. On the other hand, things got very chaotic with the start of classes, and my free time started to decrease which I was not a fan of that. There were weekends where I was in the library all day because I had so much work to do. My hardest class is anatomy and physiology because it contains so much material for each test I set aside social activities outside of schoolwork. Besides schoolwork, throughout the first few weeks my roommates and I clicked instantly. We have had slight disagreements within the semester, but I feel like that is a normal thing when you live in close quarters with others. I think next year we are still planning on living together because we all get along pretty well. Along with all the good things come bad things as well. In the middle of the semester I got overwhelmed with all my schoolwork and I started falling behind. Some of my grades started slipping and I had no social life. Thankfully my roommates helped me at a low time. I know when I need help, I can ask them especially when my new classes start next semester. Another thing that has helped me through this semester is going to the gym consistently. The gym has been a great outlet, and I plan on carrying this habit into next semester. For the spring semester I plan on planning out my week before it starts to help with time management.

Even though writing was something I never enjoyed doing in class I am very grateful that most of my assignments were about writing because It prepared me for what I am expected to know and do for the rest of my life. I was never good at writing but I think since starting college and having some tools provided such as books and school resources that talked about what makes someone a good writer, it helped me see writing in a different way and I think I have improved in some way. There is a lot to work on in my writing but I think I am more confident moving forward with these new skills for my major where I will have plenty of lab reports that I will be doing and one of the required skills is scientific writing. I no longer see writing as a frustration subject but rather a challenge that I can overcome if I propose myself to it. I think it’s just a matter of time, commitment and patience to become better writer

Knowing differences in things like structure, language, and reference, is essential in order for a reader to understand what they are reading, the order the writer takes from the beginning to the end, the language it is written whether is formal or informal. And what references are included that can support all of the points the writer makes.  I think knowing these modes of writing will help me improve when I want to target. a specific reader and want to keep them entertained while they are also able to dive into more information to gain more knowledge about a topic. The books helped me a lot to understand why writing is not something that can be done in one day, it takes time to revise and correct any errors.

Throughout this semester I have been able to practice my writing skills through doing research papers. As I wrote my annotated bibliography and my SFD I improved my use of APA format. I have never used APA format before coming to this class, so having the opportunity to write two papers with that format has helped me learn a lot. Another thing I improved on throughout the semester is staying topic of each of my paragraphs. In the beginning of this class I had trouble with rambling about a topic which made my writing hard to understand. One big struggle I had when writing the papers was doing citations. After lots of practice and many trips to the writing center, I have improved my ability to make a correct citation. In this class we have done readings about SLR. I have learned how to identity each type of writing based on the format and the information within the writing. I was able to incorporate SLR in my papers used the applied science field. My papers are both share the topic of nursing. which happens to fall into the applied fields. In my papers I followed the format of IMRaD in my papers. Understanding SLR throughout college will help me better understand certain research papers for my classes and also help me set up the format for my papers when writing for a certain field. Having the ability to identify SLR in writings will help me better understand the paper and the reasoning for the format of each writing in my future career. I have learned a lot in this class, and I feel far more confident in my writing compared to when the semester started. I plan on using the skills I have learned from and incorporating them into each of my writings moving forward.

This semester I have grown so much as a writer I think. At first just starting to write a sentence was hard for me, but now once I have an idea I can write pages consecutively without needing a break. My confidence in my writing has grown tremendously, especially when it comes to formatting of a paper. Moving forward in my next writing classes or even other classes that may have writing, I’ll be able to use my new formatting skills to integrate sources and make my writing easier for my reader to understand what I’m trying to say. Although I used some formatting in high school, we mostly used MLA formatting. So getting to college and having to learn APA was a big adjustment for myself being so used to something else. Learning about different writing disciples this semester has really been able to help me understand the context of any text I’m reading more efficiently. Just by looking at formatting and structure I am starting to be able to tell what type of writing it may be. Whether it’s humanities or even natural sciences. I will be able to use the skills I’ve learned this semester throughout my whole time here at Longwood and even after that in my career. I believe this is a perfect class for freshmen coming into college writing. College writing has been so much different then in high school and without this class I wouldn’t even know where to start. Before Writing and Rhetoric I didn’t even know about APA formatting which is crazy because that is what is used in my career. Without this I wouldn’t be prepared for future classes or even writing reports in the hospital. I’m grateful to have learned so much over the course of such a short time frame, I have grown so much as a writer but also as a person.