During this semester, I learned many new writing skills that have changed my thoughts about writing. Before this course, I was not the most efficient writer. I did not have an understanding of what writing is. I just thought of it as something you would just do for school assignments or even essays. After completing all the assignments in this semester in this course, I realized how effective writing is. Writing takes on many forms worth different proposes. Whether I was making a resume for the first time, analyzing an image, working with other people on a literature review on HIV, or creating a children’s book, I have learned how writing can adapt to fit the audience and the message it creates. All of these assignments have challenged me in many ways, but through each one, I have learned to become more confident and aware of how to write effectively. I personally believe that I have achieved the course learning goals and this reflection shows it.

The first assignment I was given was the resume and cover letter. Before this assignment, I have never written a resume or a cover letter. This caused me to learn how to properly create a resume, which was a struggle for me at first since I had to learn how to format it while adding my skills and experience to the resume. I thought this assignment was very useful for when I have to apply for research opportunities. When it came to writing the cover letter, it helped me understand how to talk about myself when it came to applying for a job and explaining why I would be a good candidate. I also had to understand how I the reader wants to see once they read my cover letter (objective 3). Once I received my peer review, I had to make a lot of changes. This helped me see how important it is to go back and fix where I went wrong during the assignment to make it better (objective 2). For the first time, I think I have learned to adjust my writing style so that it sounds more professional when people read my writing.

For the second assignment, I had to write about a rhetorical analysis. I wrote it based on Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem. This was also my first time doing a rhetorical analysis. During this assignment, I learned how to analyze an image by looking at it and understanding the message behind it. I learned how to think about the image, the message it gives off, and how it affects the people. Although during the assignment, all I talked about was the controversy around Kaepernick kneeling, I did not exactly state my stance on it, the way I wrote the assignment gives off the impression that I thought his protest was powerful which was the reason why I chose to write about it for my essay (objective 6). The use of the sources that I provided for the essays helps support why Kaepernick kneel was so controversial and using quotes to surround his story (objective 8). This assignment shows me how to use research to explain my thoughts on a situation.

For the third assignment, I had to work on a group project for a literature review. The topic my group chose was HIV and health disparities. Within my group, each person wrote about a different disparity, discrimination, poverty, and drug use. My part was focused on poverty which talks about where someone lives, and how their income level affects their health status and increases the risk of obtaining HIV. Once everyone in my group had done their part, we all wrote about it for our draft for the assignment, we quickly realized that each of us had different writing styles. Once we got our peer review back, we learned how to adjust so that the final draft for the assignment sounds a lot more efficient and clear (objective 1). Having access to peer-reviewed sites such as Google Scholar helped me find reliable sources that support my claim about poverty being an effective health disparity that increases the risk of HIV (objective 7). This group assignment showed me how to effectively write with others so that the final project comes out strong.

For the fourth assignment, my group decided to make a “children’s book” talking about HIV. My group took what we wrote about for the literature review assignment, and took that information to write a story targeted at 9 to 12-year-old children. HIV is not a topic that children learn at a young age and also are not aware of. What my group decided to do to help give off the impression that a book about HIV can be targeted at children was to make the book colorful with vibrant colors and family-friendly pictures. Working on the children’s book helped me change the writing style for something so that it looks like it is targeted at a certain audience (objective 5). My group also mentioned the same three different disparities for the book (discrimination, poverty, and drug use) so that it covers a genre of different types of people who usually have HIV. When writing about those topics, we had to word it carefully so that it did not sound degrading (objective 9). Writing a children’s book about HIV showed how effective using pictures and writing in more simple words can cause someone to understand what the book is talking about and if the tone of the book is respectful or welcoming to the reader.

Lastly, the fifth assignment was a group presentation. The presentation was focused on presenting the children’s book for the class. My group worked together to create slides for the presentation and explain why we chose the topic, and the edits and changes we wish we would have made for a project. We split the slides for each person so that the presentation slides would be done faster and cut down the time to complete them. While working on the slides, I learned how to work effectively with my group since I got an understanding of how they work since I have done a few assignments with them. I was comfortable enough to say anything if there were changes that I thought should be made to the slides (objective 4). This assignment gave me the courage to speak up when something has to be changed.

In conclusion, this class helped me grow as a writer in many ways. Each assignment taught me something new about how to write for different types of audiences and how to do research properly. I also learned how to work with others and be more comfortable around them. This class is not just about writing but how you share ideas and work with others.