Reflections

Formal Writing Assignment 1

My cousin was 32 years old when she took her last breath. She passed away from a drug overdose at such a young age. I remember I was hanging out with my friends one night just laughing and watching 600 Lb life on the television in the living room. I got a text from my mom saying that she needed to talk to me when I got home. I was a teenager. I was scared my mom found something and I was in trouble. A few minutes later I get a call and my mom is saying I need to come home now and I was asking over and over again what was wrong. I ask if someone died, and it was just silence. I could hear only my breath and my heart beating fast. My mom finally says, “yes…Amanda is dead”. Amanda is my cousin but me and my sisters were so close we would say she was our older sister. I ran to the bathroom and cried, and I left. It still hurts to this day thinking about her and trying to remember what my last words to her were and if I will ever see her again. An event this traumatic has been carved into my memory and will be forever. I can remember every detail and every thought, and I used this and poured it into my writing. My best writing experience was writing about my cousin's death. This is so personal to me which lets me be so connected to my writing. This made my writing so emotional and beautiful that I was so proud to talk about something that has sadly happened to others as well. I was proud to be strong enough to talk about this and hope that Amanda is proud of me too.

Although I have written some writing pieces, I am very proud of, I have also had many troubles and have a love-hate relationship with writing. I have weaknesses like others when it comes to writing and I believe it affects me and my writing to this day. I have trouble pointing out and fixing mistakes in my writing. Once I write something I cannot imagine it any better or any differently. When peers edit my paper for me and give me some pointers, I still cannot change my paper as drastically as I should most of the time. I have many things to work on and improve, which is work and progress. In elementary school and high school my essays would be filled with red pen marks front to back on my pages. I needed to make corrections according to my teachers and peers which I tried to do, but when it comes to reading and writing I am a little slower on connecting everything together as a whole.  Writing is not my best subject and takes me a lot longer to comprehend when it comes to the other subjects. Even though I go through many obstacles when it comes to writing I do try my hardest. I always submit the work that I am proud of and believe that I did my part.

Semester Goals:

1. I would like to improve my editing skills. I want to be able to edit my own paper well enough and take criticism from others well enough to make my paper stronger. 

2. I would like to broaden my vocabulary in my writing essays. I want to stop being repetitive and use stronger words. 

3. I would like to be focused on staying on topic. I want to be able to finish my paragraph with the readers knowing exactly my point and my views and not wonder what to focus on.

Formal Writing Assignment 2

Original Research Question: How can social media cause mental health issues?

Revised Research Question: How does social media affect the well-being of today’s generation?

Reflection: When I talked about my writing strengths, my main strength was being able to write about a topic that is personal or that I find passionate. Having this opportunity to find my own research question that I can write about has opened many doors for me. I am going to use this to show off my best work because the topic that I have chosen is really important to me. This research question is something I and many other people deal with on an everyday basis. I wanted to choose a topic that came personally to me because I feel like my writing benefits from that.

I use social media every day, I use TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and even Facebook. Either way all of these platforms are able to showcase their opinions in a positive but mostly negative way. Cyberbullying is so much easier nowadays. People can comment or post anything under their real account or a fake account. No matter what account is used, the words that are said still affect and hurt people. I've had some things said about me on social media and let me tell you it does not feel the best. Things being said to you that everyone can see, true or false, can put someone in a depressed state, give them anxiety, or worse. Nothing good comes from this, it is breaking down this generation. I am also a girl, (not saying this only happens to girls, but it is just more broadcasted than it does) where I look up to many influencers and models on any social media. This should have a positive effect on someone's life, instead of looking up to the person, people compare themselves to others.

People are comparing themselves by body weight, shape, face, and hair, honestly anything you can think of. I am guilty of doing this. It is very unhealthy because everyone's body is different and does not work the same, which I have learned. It is more natural and healthier to love and appreciate your body, you only get one. Girls compare themselves and will create eating disorders that will affect the rest of their lives. Girls are not the only ones that are affected by social media. Boys are also guilty of comparing themselves in all sorts of ways to other men. Boys compare muscles and body weight; this can lead to unhealthy habits. Boys are overlooked in these types of situations; they are looked at as strong and not getting upset over things when in reality everyone has feelings that can be hurt.

This research question is still happening today, every day, this is why I really wanted to touch base on it because there needs to be a spotlight on this topic to do better, be better. I hope to learn more about the effects of social media on today’s generation because I do know my personal experience and I have done some research before, but I want to learn more in depth as to why this happens and why people think it is okay to hurt others.

Formal Writing Assignment 5

At the beginning of the semester, I set up goals for myself to reach in my English course. The first goal I set for myself was how I would like to improve my editing skills. I wanted to be able to edit my own paper well enough and take criticism from others well enough to make my paper stronger. I did see improvement in this over this semester. I have been catching little mistakes here and there that I have caught by myself or have listened to my fellow peers. I have used my peers' feedback to my advantage for all assignments. It has made my writing skills improve a major amount. I used to not take feedback very well because English is not my best subject and some things I do not understand or know how to fix some sentences for the better.

My second goal for this semester was how I would like to broaden my vocabulary in my writing essays. I want to stop being repetitive and use stronger words. I have taken baby steps with this goal because it sometimes gets tricky depending on the words. I would sometimes look up synonyms on google to broaden my vocabulary in my writing assignments. I do this with my other classes as well if I am writing any type of essay. I would say I have improved and still have a lot to work on over time but I am proud that I am on the right track and working towards my goals.

My last goal that I made for myself this semester is how I would like to be focused on staying on topic. I want to be able to finish my paragraph with the readers knowing exactly my point and my views and not wondering what to focus on. I would like to be straightforward and make it so the reader understands my writing and my point of writing. This is the goal I really focused on most of the time while writing papers. I tend to get off topic very easily and I can confuse myself as well because it is all over the place. I try to talk about all points in one paragraph instead of spreading it out. I would say I have improved on this and really worked on this goal to better my writing skills overall.