Final Retrospective

Final Retrospective
By: Melissa Raymond

Journalism II has been one of the most interesting and widely applicable classes I have had in my college career. Through this course, I have developed my personal writing style and have learned how to merge it with any paper format whether it be a feature, op-ed, or outside the journalism world entirely. Some of the finer improvements I have made in my writing abilities include more thoughtful and effective word choice. This course was just about improving on what I already know either; I started a foundational knowledge on a wide variety of topics.

One of my favorite aspects of this course was the integration of technology in and out of the classroom. Many classes have banned laptops in the classroom because they cause a distraction. In this course, however, the use of laptops was a tool of simplicity and clarity. Having the ability to read other classmate’s work on my person computer made it easier to follow along and provide constructive feedback and vice versa. In addition, having blogs with all of our pervious material on one page made me more aware of my progress during the duration of the course and overall more organized.

Workshop class periods had the biggest impact on my improvements as a writer. Having my classmates and professor pick a part my papers, although at times at little frustrating, provided truly invaluable insight into areas where I needed to improve. Again, my biggest area of improvement is more effective word choice, though there is still more room for even more improvement. An area of my writing that could still use some work is overall clarity of intent. There are times when important topics and issues I am writing about are not introduced until later on in the paper. By better construction the overall format of the paper, I could make my reasons and intent for writing an article clearer to the reader. Although I could still improve on this, I am defiantly more aware of the issue.

Areas of my writing that are more journalism specific have greatly improved. I have learned to be more aware of what type of audience I am writing for and more anticipatory of counter arguments. Knowing what type of audience would read what kind of article allows me to tailor my writing to their interests and expectations. When writing a more opinionated piece, I also now know to deflect any possible counter arguments before they can even be made. This makes my argument even stronger from the very beginning. By applying these concepts to my writing in other courses, I will become a stronger, well-rounded writer.

Not only has this course help me to greatly improve my writing skills, it has highly thought provoking and entertaining. The wide spectrum of topics and use of technology made the class seem fresh and exciting each time we met. I would highly recommend this class to anyone from the most advanced writer to someone who usually falls asleep in English classes. I think there was an aspect of the class to engage each student individually according to their interests.