Reflective Essay: What I Learned In College

Over this semester I have learned a lot of things. I have learned that you must read the book to know what’s on the test, you need to make sure you get plenty of sleep or you’ll regret it, and I also learned that procrastination is never the answer. I have learned several lessons in my first semester of college, including some on how I write. I learned, through my argument essay, that having a purpose and an audience for your papers can make or break the quality of your assignment. The argument essay was a paper on a debatable topic where we chose a specific side to discuss. We had to effectively argue our views by incorporating research and our own beliefs into a 1200 word paper. My argument essay was by far my favorite paper to write in Mrs. Bunde’s writing class. I enjoyed …show more content…
I have always tried my best to write great content, but I never thought about the specific purpose of my paper or the audience I was writing to. I began Writing 101 and wrote papers with ease. I tried my best to make the paper captivating and intriguing, but never made them great. Not until the argument essay did I start to truly think about my audience. This was a dumb decision on my part, I know. I waited until the end to focus on a main item that could improve my writing. When we were told to identify our audience for our argument, my writing style changed. I began to think about who would be reading my papers. I also began to wonder how my paper could vary from one specific audience to another. After I identified who I wanted to write to, the rest of my writing followed. I tried to mold my ideas into a paper that would best speak to my intended audience. Even though audience and purpose might have come easier in my argument essay, not all essays were like that. I didn 't think about my audience in my analysis or contemplate my purpose with my in class essay, but now I know that I must always do that for every