Looking Back

Looking Back

As a student, I try to look back ona semester to examine what I have gained. This past semester has been one that Iam proud of, having kept my grades above average. I am mostly proud of myimproved communication skills. Since August, I have been learning how to organizemy thoughts, be grammatically correct, and keep my writing interesting. I havelearned that students seeking to improve their communications skills should focustheir efforts on three key areas--- writing, grammar, and approach. As thissemester has rolled on, I have gained information to make me better in each category.At the beginning of my communications class my skills at each were limited. NowI have strong writing, excellent grammar, and a consistent stylisticapproach.

Strong writing begins with solid planning. Before thissemester, a reader could easily get lost in my writing. My details were offtopic and out of place. To fix this issue I have learned to brainstorm andstart my writing with webbing. Webs have provided mestructure for my ideas and facts. This gave me a flexible framework fororganizing and prioritizing my thoughts. This has come in most helpful to me inanother class, health. I was given an assignment to write an essay on STDs oraddiction. Having decided to write about addiction, my mind flooded with manydifferent leads and ideas. Upon starting this essay I referred to skills I wasbeing taught in my communications class. The webbing practice focused me on mytopic and details that supported my statements. After looking over the webbingexercise, I was able to conclude what was important and write well organizedparagraphs to get my intention across clearly. Because of preparation likethis, I have become a stronger writer.

Proper punctuation use and goodproofreading skills improve writing as well. For me, whether I have a grammarchecker or not, it is a good to know the problems that bother me most as awriter and do my best to...