I was never terrible at writing, but I cannot say I was the best at it either. I did not understand why this class was mandatory for freshman until I had spent some time in it. I can say I have seen a few changes in my writing, but they are positive changes, my writing is now more up to the right standards. It is not as perfect as it could be, but it is definitely better than before. I have learned how to properly do citations, how my topic sentence should look like, to stay on topic, include what is important, and that I need a good hook in order to captivate the reader’s attention. Although citations were my least favorite thing to learn. Something important to keep in mind when writing is that every class will be different, especially if they are from different areas, for example: Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Applied Sciences. Not only have I learned how to improve my own writing, but I have learned how to help someone else improve theirs too! I learned that I cannot do it for them, but I can help lead them in the right direction with my feedback. When you are giving feedback, it is crucial that you do not try to force your writing style onto them, do not give bias feedback, and give as many details as possible so that they know exactly what it is that they need to work on or go back and review. Once I get a hang of what to write about, I think I can write up something decently good, my issue is having enough creativity to create a hook strong enough to reel the reader in. I will admit, it is not as hard as it seems to be it is just that I unfortunately procrastinate to the last few days before it is due. Therefore, I feel more pressure to get it done and probably do not do as good of a job as I could have if I had done it earlier. If I do happen to struggle with remembering how to do something I can always go back to my books Understanding Rhetoric, Academic Writing and They Say, I Say. Thankfully, they are not hard to read and understand. The semester is not over yet, so I hope to improve my writing a bit more as it progresses!

Since this semester has begun, I have learned both new things and more about other topics. The books we have been reading and the quizzes that follow are both helping me get a better understanding of the chapters. My favorite book we have been reading besides Freshmen Year has to be the Understanding Rhetoric. I tend to like graphic books more and have enjoyed them for years. My favorite chapter of Understanding Rhetoric has to be chapter one. The reason I like the chapter so much is due to the fact that it uses philosophical figure such as Aristotle and Plato to explain what each thought rhetoric was, since they disagreed on the subject. It uses past and current societies to explain what ethos, pathos and logos are. My least favorite book we have been reading definitely has to be They say, I say. There’s no specific chapter or part that comes to mind that I dislike. The way I feel about my writing is neutral. I don’t think I’m a good or bad writer. This is because I am good at genres like nonfiction and fantasy and am terrible at more scientific and formal settings when I write. I find it hard to write about a topic if I’m uninterested in it which tends to happen a lot. I plan to work on my writing in genres I am less comfortable in so I can learn how to write formally. This will help me in future settings as formal writing is used in schools and careers. I have mostly written in all my assignments about the social sciences and humanities since all my desired career paths are in those two fields. I know the SLR grid involves what citations are used in each discipline. I know that understanding the SLR grid can help me become a better writer since I will know what discipline requires what and how I can relay information correctly.

Sarah seems to be struggling a bit with finding herself and who she is. She tries to know more about herself by changing her looks and her diet. Not only does she struggle with that but also with how she views herself since her roommate is so overachieving she feels lower than her. She does not let things like this keep her down though, though she does not feel as comfortable making new bonds with people at first, as the semester progresses, she makes more relationships. I relate to that because even though it has only been one month that I have been here, I already made 2 friends which to me is great! I do not necessarily need to find myself, but I also plan on dyeing my hair next week. I feel that we are both stressed over the workload that college gives us, I would prefer to be in class for hours than to have to do things on my own after class. I do feel for her having such negative feelings with her roommate since I do not have those feelings with mine, I think we all put in the work that we do, and we are all different so we should not compare ourselves to each other or anyone in general. I am extremely excited for the holidays, I already go home every weekend, so I do not feel any negativity towards it. I feel more dread towards coming back, I know college is not that hard and it can be enjoyable sometimes, but it honestly feels energy draining, I do try to make the most of it though. I think that larger university students have less opportunities to have one on ones with their professors and it would be harder to make friends, while at a smaller university at some point you have a good chance of knowing a lot of people there and making great relationships with your professors.

Sarah in the beginning months of her first semester struggled a lot and did not know how to deal with the new emotions and situations she was experiencing. I can relate to that as I did not know how to deal with this new environment at first but was able to adapt to it faster than Sarah was. She did go through a really emotional break up which caused her to be more emotional than most would be. Just like Sarah, I am very excited to be home for the upcoming holidays and breaks. Although whenever she is home, it does seem a lot sadder overall compared to when I’m home. The thought of going home makes me feel very excited and gives me something to look forward to at the end of every week. That is due to me going home every weekend. The break will be just like my weekends except it gets extended by a few more days, making it even better for me emotionally. There are many differences between me and Sarah as she is a really artsy person, and I am very uncreative artistically. I would hate to go to a university like she is. She goes to Minnesota and I know that university has a lot more students than Longwood does. That fact alone makes me feel sorry for Sarah as that probably adds to the stress of her situation. I know I would hate to go to a university any bigger than Longwood since the freshman class is four times bigger than my graduating class in my high school. That does make me feel very out of my comfort zone as I’m not used to there being so many people, but I know it will be good for me in the end. Sarah’s experiences have both similarities and differences to my own personal experiences.