The ENG-112 course has changed my idea of what writing is. By completing various assignments and following a variety of criteria, I gradually discovered just how complex the writing process is. Thanks to the course, it has become clear that a good, persuasive essay or a colorful essay is not the prerogative of talented people born with the ability to transform their thoughts into perfect sentences. Anyone can learn to write correctly and well if they do the painstaking work of mastering the theory and practice of writing. By doing this kind of work, it was easier to understand the steps necessary to take to create strong statements. I felt more confident and had peace of mind when creating papers of all genres and directions; it takes much less time to prepare. Thanks to the multifaceted work in the course, it has become possible to turn the notion of writing as something abstract and complex into a set of concrete and understandable skills.
Throughout the course, we learned how to work with different kinds of information, analyze different opinions and views on life, interpret them, and draw conclusions. I developed the skills in working with opinions and sources, especially intensely by doing research work on drug misuse. Within this topic, it was necessary to study a lot of background information to achieve a sufficient literacy level when working in a highly specialized field. The next step is to work on the analysis of an academic source actively. This part of the assignment was the most difficult, as I had to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the work, the course of the research, and the conclusions reached. Not being an expert in the topic of work, a writer has to pay attention to the logical and semantic components. This work took me much longer than expected. However, after a while, I was able to develop the skill of analyzing and interpreting information, finding a thesis, and assessing the degree of its argumentation.
As for interpreting a subjective opinion, this skill helped develop my writing of a response paper in which the task was to evaluate another student’s work and exchange opinions in comments. This process allowed me to truly appreciate how diverse people’s views can be on the same topic within the same generation. Taking into account the differences in viewpoints helped me, later on, to be more careful in selecting arguments for different theses. Finally, interacting with other students showed how necessary it is to back up any judgment with scientific evidence to have a more practical discussion of a topic.
Through the course and active practice, the formal side of writing was introduced as a vital aspect. Each paper required much less time when initially planned in detail. It still presents a difficulty for me since I have never done structuralizing before this course and need more practice. Besides, it became clear how important it was to follow a single-paper format. The latter would be extremely difficult to comprehend when working with other people’s research papers and essays if they were not brought to a common standard.
Thus, through this course, I have acquired skills that allow me to build effective communication with the audience through writing. Working with scholarly sources helped me to develop the skills of searching, analyzing information, and improving literacy within a previously unfamiliar topic. Working with students’ opinions taught me to consider and interpret a variety of subjective thoughts to make the statements convincing and argumentative.