Rachel Thomas 1

RC 2001

Professor Lowe

8 March 2023

Semester Reflection

It’s hard to say how I feel like I’ve changed over this semester when it comes to my

writing abilities because I feel like I haven’t. I still have trouble expressing myself through my

writing and I struggle to meet word counts and page counts. I tend to be hesitant to write more

because I feel like it sounds forced. Despite all of this, I do see some improvement in the details

of my writing.

In classes that I had to write for in the past, I would wait until a few days before a paper

was due to start writing. This meant that I only did one draft and didn’t give myself enough time

to revise. I would try to get the paper perfect on the first try. This kept me from being able to

dump all of my ideas onto the page because I was getting stuck in the beginning paragraphs.

The schedule of this class and the number of drafts that we turned in helped me break this

toxic cycle. I was able to put a bunch of ideas into my document and not worry about whether

they were useful or not. I simply got my words out first, then changed them around and cut some

content out in the next draft. It wasn’t until the last draft of my papers that I started to feel

confident about my work, but this was because I had more time to think through what I was

saying and revise it.

I think I demonstrated my reading and writing skills best through my research and the

sources I found. I was able to find a variety of both scholarly and popular sources, then

determine if they would be useful to me. I found that many of the popular sources weren’t very

helpful to me, but they provided an overview of topics that I wanted to discuss in my writing.
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They also gave me keywords and terminology that I could further research and find scholarly

articles about.

As an industrial design student, I don’t see myself using a lot of writing in the future, but

there may be some opportunities. For example, writing a brief for a design project. These briefs

typically aren’t long, but they need to explain your design intent. I think with what I’ve learned

from this class about creating many early drafts will help me create well-written and clear design

briefs. Also, I may have to write an article or paper about a product to get people interested in it.

I can use my voice to make the product sound appealing and useful to consumers.

In the syllabus for this class Goal #1 emphasized that writing is a process that includes

drafting, revising, and proofreading. Of all of the goals listed in our syllabus, this was the one

that I think I met best. I learned to take time in drafting papers and to both give and receive

useful feedback. Goals #2, #3, and #4 deal with writing in the discipline, which is something I

hadn’t done before this semester. I was challenged to examine how other product designers use

writing and I had to learn how to properly use written work for my discipline. Lastly, Goal #5

challenged me to dig deeper into my research and find new means of obtaining information. I

had used the library database in the past, but I relied on it more heavily this semester to find

scholarly sources. I also found data from the EPA that I was able to analyze and help back up my

argument in my Arguning in the Discipline paper. With the new techniques and practices I

learned over this semester, I was able to meet these course goals and improve my writing skills.