Self-Reflective on Writing Skills - Essay Example

6 December The self-reflective essay I define good writing as something that engages the reader and makes him/her want to reader more. Writing is not considered good if it violates the rules of the forum where it is published. The goodness of a piece of writing depends upon the level to which it complies with the needs of the forum. Another criterion according to which the quality of writing is assessed is the originality of ideas. For a writing to be good, it is necessary that the ideas are solely of the writer.

The writer must not copy and paste any content from a paper of another writer without acknowledging the source of writing. Otherwise, it is termed as plagiarism. There are numerous styles of writing suited to the individualistic needs and requirements of the forum where the writing is published. Basically, there is a formal and an informal way of writing. The formal way of writing requires the writer to make use of complex words and be very particular about the selection of words, sentence construction and grammar.

The informal way of writing provides the writer with more leverage. The writer is free to express his/her emotions in the writing. The informal way of writing is very much like the real life communication we make in the daily life. Full words may be replaced with slangs and there is frequent use of such expressive words as “hurrah, alas, and wow.” I personally like writing in the informal way more than in the formal way because the former provides me with more room to enrich my argument with emotions as compared to the latter.

Every style of writing has a certain way to be organized with. For a paper to be properly organized, it is imperative that there is an introduction with a thesis statement that is the crux of the whole discussion that is to follow. The thesis statement should be short and precise and fully reflective of all aspects of the discussion. Each body paragraph starts with a topic sentence that represents the ideas to be discussed in the respective paragraphs. Ideally, there are three body paragraphs in addition to the introduction and conclusion.

The conclusion sums up the argument made in the paper and provides a brief summary of the whole essay. This course helped me polish my writing skills a lot. Before taking this course, I used to be very confused and could not even start. Having taken this course, I have done sufficient practice and learnt enough to write a piece of writing independently. Before, I did not know how to start the paper. I have learnt that when an individual has to write, he/she should just start writing whatever comes to the mind irrespective of the sequence of ideas or the organization of the paper.

After substantial content has been written, the writer is supposed to review the paper with an intention to pick out the grammar mistakes, inappropriate sentence construction and inappropriate organization of the ideas and paragraphs. The writer should make adjustments along the way.