Growth

Looking back on this semester the first thing that comes to mind is waking up at 6 45 am and rolling out of bed into the shower. Though some days it was hard and others nearly impossible, I managed to attend every class. When thinking about how I have changed as a writer, I think that my ability to research different topics has greatly improved.

With resources such as the school library, I can now find more credible sources for my papers. Before, I would always rely solely on the internet for all my assignments. Now, with the library's online search tool, I can find credible sources with the same ease as using Google.

After going through this course I can now recognize academic and scholarly sources from everything editorials and opinion writing. Also, now I know how to properly implement these sources into my writing and how to cite them correctly.

Though my research skills have greatly improved, actually writing the papers is still tough for me. Creative and opinion writing are extremely easy and natural for me to do ,whereas research papers have always seemed dull and forced to me. Since I'm planning on majoring in history I might as well get used to writing them because that's all I'll be doing for the next three years.

Overall, I think through this course I have been able to better my skills as a researcher. My research papers now use good sources and present the information in a clearer way. Maybe some day I'll enjoy writing research papers, but for now I'd like to stick to creative writing as much as possible.