Reflecting back on this semester my skills have progressed. Throughout the ENC1102 class I learned why to use ethos, logos, and pathos and how to use it towards any situation in a composition. Establishing a reason for my writing, and the goals I want my paper to reach helped me evolve my compositions into worthy writing. Learning how to write to explore took me a couple rough drafts. My first issue was I wasn't doing enough research to support my points. Another issue my peers helped me realize when writing to explore is that I would target a bunch of different points in my essay without elaborating on them.

 In English it has changed my writing a lot to learn about feedback and the positive and negative factors about constructive and destructive criticism. Audience has been a big factor thought this semester. Putting my essays on the Wiki has caused my audience to be uncontrollable. I like having a broad audience because anyone who is interested in my topics help give me feed back which helps me to improve my writing. Feedback has been a very important part of my compositions this semester. A lot of the time I spent of the Wiki was editing my work after receiving feedback, giving feedback, and waiting for more feedback. Receiving feed back from Dr. Connor and my peers helped my writing improve.

Areas of my writing that I needed help in, could always count on a classmate or person on the Wiki to help me edit it. Putting my essay on the world wide web has taught me a lot about the criticism that one can receive to their piece. The tone of criticism is important so that a person can get across the message and help the writer improve his/her work., I have learned to not always pat my class mate on the back, but to put suggestible comments all throughout their essay on the Wiki using different color formatting. My peers have taught me about my weaknesses when I write and I will be able to better my self for the second half of the semester.  Being able to read my classmates text and edit it at any time of the day and give suggestions helped them improve as well. I also learned about different writing styles as I was able to read my peers and past Wiki posts by other classes in order to help get examples for my writing. 

Familiarizing myself with the Wiki was like taking 12 steps to recover from alcohol addiction. It took practice, and more practice in order to know how to link my sources to web pages, or other Wiki compositions of mine. It also took me a while to learn about all of the features the Wiki offers. When I first started this class I would type my compositions on Microsoft Word and then transfer it to the Wiki, but it would be frustrating to re-format the text so I ended up learning how to be friends with the Wiki so it could benefit my writing. As I learned to explore the Wiki it helped me get ideas on how to form my writing, and interesting compositions by other USF students interested me because I got an understanding of how good composition are written. 

One thing I really liked about our writing this semester was using writing technologies such as the Wiki, and putting visuals within our essay. Using a video or picture to transition into another thought or give a visual of my essay helps inform the audience. Videos helps give my audience a better understanding of my topic. Another feature that was helpful to me as a writer was being able to link using the Wiki. Linking an argument or idea to a webpage or picture helps give the reader a way to explore my essay and learn more about what I am telling them about. It is sort of like mapping out my essay for the audience to get a better understanding of my composition. 

When doing research, I usually use the USF databases that are available through black board because it is more likely I will find a valid source. Also on this website it makes it easy for me to narrow down what exactly I am researching. Using Google gives me a more broad argument, spam websites, and Wikipedia which can be edited by anyone. Another source I have used a lot throughout this semester is the St. Petersburg Times and The Homeless Voice because they are both local newspapers composed in St. Petersburg and relate to issues that are effecting St. Petersburg, which is what I focused my writing about. Helping out St. Petersburg is difficult without the knowledge to do so, researching Non-profit organizations and the issues was just the beginning of composing my essays. 

Ranking the criteria and sources I used throughout my composition was a difficult part in learning how to write my compositions. Determining what is worse was an important part this semester. Getting my first writing assignment I had multiple different ideas of issues that are affecting St. Petersburg. Determining what I thought was worse and then backing it up with sources was an important part of forming my essay. Free writing on the Wiki helped me express my ideas to my peers in order to receive feedback and counterarguments. Getting all my ideas on to one Wiki page helped me organize my thoughts and form my essay based on what I thought was the most important. Writing to explore has helped me widen my view points. Writing to inform has helped me learn how to give both sides of the argument because both matter in writing to persuade my audience.

It amazes me how I have advanced from ENC1101 over the summer to this midterm reflection in ENC1102. My first essay I wrote this semester was torn apart by the advanced writers in the other Composition class taught my Dr. Connor. Taking in feedback has helped me grow as a writer. I try to interest my classmates with my writing so that writing can be contagious on the Wiki. So far things have not worked the way the teacher has planned so as a student I have tried to step in and help my classmates understand the Wiki and understand the assignments. I like to write, but it is more fun to write as a class so that you can learn from people who have made the same mistakes as you. Advice from outside sources helps me to obtain where I want to be as a college student writer.  

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