Personal Narrative: What I Learned In My Writing Skills

After completing the Composition I class with Mrs. Gelwicks, I have learned many things about writing and also about myself. Three key takeaway points that I inherited, include the importance of time management, peer revision, and putting “heart” into each paper I write. Gaining confidence in my writing skills during this class has made me feel prepared for writing papers in college. Managing time wisely is a helpful skill to remember when writing. With each essay you have to block off time to brainstorm, form an outline, write an intro and conclusion, form body paragraphs, and peer revisions. I began brainstorming as soon as possible when starting a new essay, because without a main focus point it is impossible to start writing the paper. After brainstorming, moving onto the outline is the next step. Within the outline, I made bullet points for what I wanted each body paragraph to contain. By doing this
Without the help from my peers, I would have left careless mistakes throughout my paper that I had not caught myself. After reading my paper several times, I had skipped over mistakes, including grammar, sentence clarity, and diction. Every time the class did peer revision I was thankful that my peers were honest with me and did not sugar coat what needed to be fixed—it only helped me in the end. Getting a fresh set of eyes on my paper helped me brainstorm different ways to set paragraphs up or add in new ideas. Not only did I learn new things from my peers editing my paper, but I also gained suggestions from editing other people's essays. For example, I found new ways to correctly punctuate and quote facts that have been pulled from research. From taking this class, the importance of having a couple of different people read your paper before turning in the final draft has become vivid. This is a concept that I will take with me to college in order to become a better