Revisiting My Writing Process

In this blog post, I will read over and reflect on my first two blog posts, "My Writing Process" and "Calendar Reflection." I will identify what has changed over the course of this semester and what aspects have stayed the same.

Amber Case. "Redundant Clock." 09/06/2009 via Flickr.
Attribution Non-Commercial 2.0 Generic License.

In my very first blog post, titled "My Writing Process," I identified myself as a heavy reviser, because I "do not plan ahead when I write, unless it is absolutely necessary," (Bello). I would consider myself to still fundamentally be a heavy reviser, however, I think I am growing more accustomed to planning ahead and pre-writing. This course forced me to plan and pre-write, because each task in the deadlines was a step towards writing.

I definitely have some more work to do with the first stages of writing, which I will have plenty of time to practice and try out in my papers to come. In my semesters and years to come, I know that I will still fall back into the heavy revision writing process, but I will also pre-write more than I ever have. I now see the value in pre-writing, so I hope that I can adopt that into my work ethic.

In my second blog post, titled "Calendar Reflection," I discussed time management and what I want my semester to look like. I listed off a few tips to help me focus on my classwork and assignments, which I seemed to practice and use, coincidentally. However, reading this blog post makes me realize that I didn't know what I was up against in college. 

I seemed to think that setting around 2 hours a night to do homework was going to suffice, and while some days it does, somedays that is not nearly enough. I also tried to tell myself that saying no to activities and hanging out with friends to do homework was a thing I need to learn how to do. I have practiced this on some specific occasions, however, I need to learn how to manage my free time a bit better. The time that I am not with friends, or at a club, event or outing, I need to focus on finishing my work, instead of piling it onto Sunday afternoons. 

I have become extremely more efficient, however. I know that I can finish a blog post in around 20-30 minutes, depending on what it is discussing, whereas, at the beginning of the semester it took me closer to an hour to complete. I also know that I can use my mornings to do homework. Something about waking up, grabbing a cup of coffee and sitting back in bed to do homework is relaxing and an easy way to start the day. For future reference, I need to take advantage of this. 

After this course and this semester, I know that I am motivated to complete my homework early, if I put my mind to it. I used to save a lot of this course work for Saturdays, which is the least helpful thing that I have done for myself all semester. However, I know I can accomplish so much more if I do a little each day, even if I only work for thirty minutes. 

This strategy, doing a little each day, is going to make my life so much easier, if I stick to it. It will help me, not only in my future college courses, but also in my future career. I am grateful for this course because it allowed me to discover what works and what does not, regarding my writing process and my time management.

--Jenny Bello