Personal Narrative: Improving My Writing In The Future

My first year at Colorado College helped me identify where I should focus my efforts to improve my writing in the future. The most significant gain from my first year here has been a clearer understanding of my writing process. This has resulted in realizing a number of ways to improve my writing. Besides time management, I have identified some areas where I can improve my actual writing. I need to structure my writing time better: planning my essay before I begin writing, keeping an updated copy of my outline on hand, giving myself interim deadlines, and allowing plenty of time for editing. Planning time to edit after writing will especially improve my final papers. Making better estimates of how long writing and editing will take is a skill that will develop the more I write on the block plan.

I need to do more preplanning of my papers. This should be both outlining the paper beforehand, and working out how long I have to write my paper. Having an overhead view will help me start writing sooner and ensure time at the end to edit what I’ve written. Structuring my writing time will make my use of time more effective. Setting smaller goals will help me get a clear idea of how my paper is going. This will also improve …show more content…
I keep it as a reminder of my plan, to update as it changes. Writing brings me a better understanding of my topic. I often find different connections between my ideas, or see that a certain concept needs to be explained before I make a point. When restructuring essays without an outline, I can 't tell what a change should entail. Having a current, separate outline helps me keep an eye on what comes before a paragraph, and what idea it should be leading towards. When I find my essay needs a new paragraph, I can look at the entire essay 's construction to see where it fits best. Having an outline on hand after I’ve finished writing also makes revision