Experience Attending College at an Old Age

Reflective Essay Attending college at an old age, writing an effective paper is a formidable task I am trying to overcome. Although English was taught in my native country, there were no proper guidelines on writing a paper; hence most submitted essays were mostly results of brainstorming and “free writing”. Embracing such things as MLA, grammar, and structure, and exploring the limitless boundaries of critical thinking, I developed an idea of what is considered as “good writing”. Most of my papers were edited with the help of the Writing Center. I took all suggestions by my fellow peers and professors into developing my skills as a writer. From writing an essay without topic sentences or proper thesis, I developed the skills and learned the guidelines of becoming a proper writer at a college-undergraduate level. At the beginning of the semester, I had a different idea of what is considered as good writing. In my first rough draft for my first essay, “Post-secondary education and cultural backgrounds”, I demonstrated mostly of my preconceived idea of what good writing is suppose to be. I tried to sound intelligent by asking rhetorical questions and using big words improperly. I noticed that there was no harmony and organization on my essay as a whole. I had no idea what MLA was. With the help of the Writing Center and my determination on continually revising my essay, my scattered ideas developed into cohesive statements. I learned the use of topic sentences, thesis, reference page, page number, and other given structures on writing a paper. As I tried to develop my skills to becoming a good writer, my writing and knowledge has slowly grew into the accepted academic text. I have written many papers in this course. In the first ... ... middle of paper ... ...rnment and the Society”, I tried to develop and redevelop my ideas into sticking in one clear idea. Writing a thesis is also endless. It is difficult to choose a side upon a given subject especially if it’s a controversial one. By having the opportunity to look and read at each other’s essays, correcting grammatical errors, misuse of words, and suggestions on structure helped me see my essay in a different mindset. With the help of my peers and the Writing Center I was able to develop some confidence into my writing and overcome the endless revising. Over the course of the semester, my writing developed from elementary level into an undergraduate college student’s. I was able to overcome many weaknesses and learn the proper ways on effectively writing a paper. The given writing assignments became the symbol for my “practice makes perfect (in my case improvement).