Milem 1
Nicholas Milem
Ms. Ingram
UWRT 1102
2/16/15
Midterm
In this course a number of key concepts are presented for learning and
embracing with our writing; along for use in all of our college writing careers.
Certain concepts have been easier to grasp than others, and by this
evaluation I can recognize and address the concepts that I am having more
trouble with than normal. The five concepts that particularly stand out in my
time in the class, whether for good or for bad, are, providing and receiving
feedback, getting out of my comfort zone, independent inquiry and curiosity,
responsibility for your own learning, and making connections.
Providing and receiving feedback has always been a hurdle in my
writing career, not necessarily receiving feedback; however I do struggle
with the idea of providing feedback. I have always been receptive of
feedback and constructive criticism, and learning from my mistakes to
further improve them has been a strong suit of mine. However, once I begin
to provide feedback I can sometimes get carried away with what I am
improving, and start molding someones paper to what I would want it to be.
Once I begin to take this course of action I could possibly do more harm to
Milem 2
the paper, and the writers pride, than I do positive for the improvement of
their paper. So in turn I need to improve on how I revise an individuals paper
to fit their writing style, and not mine.
Another element of this course I tend to struggle with is getting out of
my comfort zone. I tend to write in a style, about certain things, I feel
comfortable with, so I can present my best possible work. However the
concept presented in this class of getting out of your comfort zone is an
important one I need to embrace in order to be successful writer in the
future. In my future not all assignments will be tailored to my favored topic
or style, which can provide a difficult experience with my lack of venturing
outside my comfort zone. As a concept that is almost guaranteed to be used
in the latter part of my educational career, it is imperative that I embrace the
concept and integrate it into my writers toolbox.
On the contrary to these concepts I struggle with there are some I
excel in. One such concept is the idea of independent inquiry and curiosity.
This concept applies to my own personal drive for work and research
pertaining to my topic. My topic, one of particular interest to me, is a great
topic for this concept due to my personal drive and attachment to the
researching of the topic fueling my personal inquiry. This concept is
important for my educational career due to the success and often better
results of a project that was fueled by personal drive and curiosity of the
Milem 3
topic at hand. Such a drive is important for all topics in order to present my
best possible work for any topic in any situation.
A concept that I have a positive experience with is the responsibility of
my own learning and understanding. This concept is mainly composed on
your activeness in class, along with your own drive to answer problems or
questions that arrive in your education. I have a particularly good ability to
stay active in class discussions, along with the ability to find the answers to
questions that prove a certain difficulty to me. This ability is also important
for my education in order to be active in my learning, and to also realize
when I am personally struggling and require assistance in my work or
studies.
The last of the concepts that I have a positive experience with is the
ability to make connections. Making connections, between research,
composition of works, and other aspects of writing, is essential to the writing
process. In order to create a successful work making connections will
improve the work monumentally. Making connections is not only beneficial to
your writing but also to your comprehension of the topic and its concept. The
connections made when creating a work also provides ample more
information you can use for the formulation of a successful work. This
concept is also not only applicable to writing, but in all aspects of education.
The ability to make connections between different sources of information is a
monumentally important skill for ones learning.
Milem 4
Overall the concepts presented in this course all pose some sort of
advancement in our educational careers by allowing us to have multiple
ways to embrace a topic, an assignment to give it our best effort. However
like most concepts some are easily grasped and others are not so easily
comprehended. In the latter part of this semester I plan to address the
problems I have with the concepts I am struggling with and improve upon
them.