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At the beginning of the semester, I was expecting to really struggle in this class. College Writing 1 had really challenged me, so I didn't even want to imagine what difficulties College Writing 2 would bring. However, I soon found that this was a course I could definitely handle. Although College Writing 2 did challenge me greatly, I was really able to mature as a writer because of it.

The concept that has helped me the most during this class is the stress that was put on writing early and on revising. Although I had Dr. Kyburz for College Writing 1 and was not new to the emphasis put on these two things, I still found myself wanting to wait until the last minute to then turn in a draft that had little to no revisions. It is a bad habit that I seem to always want to go back to for one reason or another. However, I really do see the difference that writing early and revising often makes on my work. I have found that I will find a new mistake or something I want to change every time I look over my work. I have gotten to the point where I do not feel comfortable turning in an assignment unless I have revised it at least twice. Although it may not be my favorite thing in the world, revising often has helped me write some of my best works. It has allowed me to pick up on the little mistakes I tend to make and on the areas I could always use more work in, which I can then gradually try to improve. "Write early and revise often" is something that I will continue to do as I continue my undergraduate studies and move on to a professional level. It really does make the biggest difference and is often the difference between an A and a B.

I think that my best work this semester was my "Art in Island" Rhetorical Analysis.  This assignment definitely challenged me because I had never really written anything like it before. At first, I don't think I really understood the assignment and was maybe overthinking it and making it seem harder than it really was. I was not used to incorporating the elements of arguments into my work and found it really hard to get the paper to flow nicely when I did try and incorporate them. It was also very difficult to try and decide which element of argument was being used in each part of the article that I was choosing to elaborate on.  I found it even harder to then argue why each claim was a good or bad idea. It was frustrating because I could not seem to be able to write anything I actually liked or anything I thought was good. I think I found this so difficult to do because I thought that maybe I was wrong and that maybe I was the only one looking at things that way. I was scared that whatever I was writing about would not really make any sense for another person. However, once I got over that thought, I found that it was much easier to analyze the article. After many revisions, more than I ever thought I would do, I was finally content with my work. I managed to find a groove and write one of my best works. I also familiarized myself with a style of writing that is bound to keep popping up in future classes. It really was a challenge to finish the assignment, but I am proud of the end product.

College Writing 2 has definitely made me a better writer. Once again, Dr. Kyburz introduced me to new styles of writing that will continue to be assigned throughout my college career, and she has made sure that I at least will have some level of comfort when they are assigned because I have already worked with them. This class continued to emphasize the skills that were introduced in College Writing 1 and has introduced even more writing skills that have overall improved my work.