Sixth Reflection Essay

I came into this class under the impression that I already wrote well enough and wouldn’t need to improve. However, as I progressed through the semester I learned that there is always room to grow. The first paper I produced was not at the level I was hoping but after I actively decided to improve my writing my papers became much better. Looking back on my work in the class I wonder how much my writing has changed and where I still have room to improve. Without evaluating my work I can’t hope to become any better. Through this class I have grown much as a writer but there is still more I can learn.

I found that learning by example helped my writing greatly. One of the books we read, “The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert, influenced my writing. The book is well written in an academic style that engages the reader. Her writing also flows nicely throughout every passage. I tried to

At first I was resistant to the Turabian model for an introductory paragraph because it felt too structured. However, after reading several examples and applying the model to several other academic writings, such as Kolbert, I realized that Turabian’s model is actually very flexible. My first paper shows my original resistance to changing my writing style. Looking back it is organized rather awkwardly. It sounds like I’m trying to use the Turabian model without actually following it. Many of my sentences fell abrupt and weirdly placed. After I started using the Turabian model my introduction paragraphs became much better. My third paper, for example, has a much better introduction. The original situation is given in the first paragraph and the rest of the Turabian model is followed in the second. It flows much better than my first paper’s introduction and presents the concepts in a much better way. It show how much my writing improves when I try to learn from the examples other writers