Similar to many learning situations, I think my experience in Advanced Writing in the Social Sciences can be summarized as a series of successes and failures.

As I consider the writing program's Student Learning Goals, I think Goal 1 best describes my successes in the course. It reads: "Students write both to learn and to communicate what they learn." The first part of this goal — "Students write...to learn" — is of the most interest to me. I think this is something that is often overlooked, but it is realistically a simple concept. One must practice writing in order to become better at writing. I think this has resonated with me because I have not previously participated in the writing process to the extent I did in this course. Having the opportunity to write multiple drafts and receive feedback from multiple perspectives was very helpful in keeping the writing process moving forward, sparking new ideas, and confidently submitting a polished final copy of a project. There were definitely some growing pains in the first two projects, as I learned to make some important conventional adjustments. However, because I learned through my writing during the first two projects, I think the final two projects were more comprehensible, and thus the writing process was a lot smoother for me.

While I am happy that I grew as a writer during this class, I think Goal 10 reflects one of my shortcomings during this course. It reads: "Students provide revision-based response to their peers." I believe this is an area in which I need to continue to improve. I can often look at my writing critically and identify shortcomings and areas in need of improvement. However, I often struggle doing this with other pieces of writing. I think this is something I want to continue working to improve, especially when it is considered within the context of discourse community. When I think of discourse communities, I often think of dialogue between individuals discussing and reviewing ideas. If I cannout effectively review someone else's work, then I think it limits my contributions to a discourse community. Furthermore, effectively analyzing the work of others may offer me new ideas on how I can improve my own writing.

Please take a look at the different sections of this portfolio to view my work and read my thoughts on each project.