College in my 30’s

My writing has definitely improved during this class.  It had been over 13 years since I’d written anything more detailed than a lengthy email!  The best thing I discovered in the textbook From Inquiry to Academic Writing was the Introduction:  What is Academic Writing?  It explained exactly how to view writing as a process – and it all sort of “clicked” for me after I read that during Spring Break.  When our class started, we only had the four photocopied chapters of the book and it didn’t include any other information.  I highly recommend new students to read this introduction.  I was able to understand what academic writing was truly about…making an argument.  For so long, I’d written in summary-style and really didn’t know of another way to write.  I’ve become a better critical thinker when it comes to reading complex articles – similar to the articles that I’m using for my sources in Essay 3.  I’ve recognized the need to find the thesis and other main points as I read.  I am able to see that my own writing is beginning to have more clarity and I’m starting to communicate my own ideas in a more comprehensive fashion.  I also found the little blue boxes that summarize the “steps” of each topic completely helpful.  That’s when I discovered there really was a difference between editing and revising.  I personally didn’t care for many of the articles that were included in the text – they were just uninteresting, to me.  That could explain why I did SO poorly on my Essay 2!