I think my writing has grown tremendously since the beginning of this semester. We were given many assignments throughout the semester that were supposed to test our writing skills, and I believe they did just that. Some of the strategies I have worked on (and improved) this semester include: reading carefully and critically, understanding the writing process, developing my thesis and supporting it, understanding the basic elements of research, and editing and revising effectively. Looking back at the very first assignment we had, which was to write a letter to the principal of our school, there was a lot of room for improvement and I believe I took this opportunity to improve my writing skills. These skills that I have learned through this course have not only helped me in writing, but will also help me in future semesters to come. I will use these skills when writing articles and also when researching for other courses. Over the past semester, I have learned to read articles carefully and critically. When researching, it is essential to pay close attention to what the author says. In my article Barbie: A Bad Role Model for Children, this was extremely important. I had to sort through the information and adjust the author's tone to determine whether the article was a useful source for me. The tone would determine whether the author was taking the topic seriously or not. This semester I also gained a better understanding of the writing process. With most documents we were assigned, we had to turn in a draft before the document was actually delivered. This helped me see where I was with my article and determine what areas I needed to work on. One paper I specifically noticed this on was… in the center of the paper… amazing. Once I started taking the time to write and setting aside time to review my papers and specifically check for these errors, my grade improved dramatically. In my final research paper I received a grade of "Impressive" in the correctness paper. This shows that I had little to no errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling. I was very proud to see this improvement considering this was one of my problem areas at the beginning of the semester. Overall, I am very proud of the work I have done this semester in this class. I think my writing has improved significantly. Even though my writing is still not perfect, looking back on the change that has occurred this semester, I can see that I have really worked hard in every aspect of this course. I believe this course challenged my writing skills and taught me to be a better writer.