Lessons Learned from WRTG 101
Lessons Learned from WRTG 101
Assignments normally come with different levels of difficulty, and no doubt different objectives. My experiences in handling assignments during the course, have been of immense help, not just in improving my language proficiency, but also improving my writing skills. In particular, I feel that my work on the recent research essay assignment “Computer Animation and Technology,” was not only a learning experience, but the culmination of many lessons learnt during the course. I feel that I selected a very interesting and informative topic, which made the research easy to carry out and allowed me to complete the assignment quite well. My research essay turned out successfully because I was able to incorporate lessons learnt during the course quite well.
Although I initially thought that I did not have much to learn from a writing class, I have found that my writing has improved considerably and become more concise. This has no doubt been as a result of a number of new insights gained due to my enrollment in WRTG 101. The areas of improvement include formatting, paragraph and sentence structure, identification and usage of sources, referencing and citation as well as the elimination of pointless and run on sentences. As a result, my writing in the research essay assignment was more objective and to the point, not to mention authoritative and factual.
The choice of topic was mainly due to prior experiences with video games, as well as a keen interest in the raging debate over the benefits and drawbacks of video gaming. In addition to interest, I was also aware that such a controversial topic would provide me with the materials necessary to argue either way, making for an interesting and meaningful research paper. Taking the position that video games are not bad definitely posed a challenge to prove, which made the task even more interesting.
Completing the assignment successfully required that I utilize the lessons I had learnt in the course of WRTG 101, which I did. One of the first skills I learned in the class was how to format and structure academic papers. I opted to use a structure that included an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. Operating using this structure ensured that the writing was organized and easy to follow. Such organization also made it possible to develop an outline prior to writing the essay, which ensured that any ideas were not lost due to confusion. Proper initial planning of the essay allowed me to develop a skeleton to which points could be added, with each statement in the outline forming a topic sentence for the body paragraphs. The effective use of a thesis statement ensured that my essay content was easy to follow, as well as write.
One of the most important lessons of any writing class, more so in academic writing, is no doubt learning to look for articles or sources and citing them properly. But before citation, one must learn to identify credible sources. An academic paper is only as authentic as its sources. A paper is considered factual only if the sources used are peer reviewed and the content is confirmed as factual, rather than simple opinion. In the research essay assignment, the sources that I opted to incorporate were only those that not only added considerable value and ideas, but were peer reviewed, hence credible. The important insights regarding where to look for sources, especially online using the UMUC Information and Library Services interface, ensured that my sources were from credible databases such as justor, proquest and other journal databases. Having identified key words such as “computer animation exposure,” and “academic achievement,” I was able to use search engines and identify credible websites, which I then incorporated in the paper. Learning how to distinguish between referencing styles and how to use them was a fundamental lesson to me, and it is my belief that the research essay demonstrated my grasp of the APA referencing style. In academic writing, being able to acknowledge another person’s work, helps avoid one of the cardinal and unforgivable mistakes: plagiarism. Plagiarism in academic writing is an equivalent of suicide. That is why all students must possess this skill in order to avoid plagiarism if they are to complete their studies successfully. Learning how to create in text citations and a reference list through the numerous assignments completed in WRTG 101 will serve me well in my undergraduate studies as well as any further studies I may want to pursue.
Overall, WRTG 101 has had a positive effect on my writing, as the skills gained will be of great importance in my future studies. The skills that I gained fulfilling the assigned tasks are not only applicable to the course alone, but will come in handy in future studies, more so when it comes to tackling academic assignments. As a result of my participation in WRTG 101, my writing is now clear, organized, and factual, as can be observed by how I was able to complete the recent research essay. Although my knowledge of the rules of academic writing has also improved and I am now a better writer than I was at the beginning of the course, the recent research essay assignment on computer animations made me realize that I am yet to completely eliminate grammatical mistakes and run-on sentences from my writing.
