draft 2 reflection

When I was bidding for this module before the start of the semester, I did not know what to expect and I did not look forward to taking ES1102. Furthermore, friends of mine who took this module mentioned that I would have to prepare to write countless essays for this course. After hearing that, I was a little taken aback as my confidence in essay writing was really low. I was afraid that my poor grammatical skills will put me in a very terrible situation and I will not be able to deal with the rigor of the course. 

After thirteen weeks, I am really glad that this course brought so much enjoyment and knowledge on academic writing to me. Throughout this whole module, I had to start writing many reflections and essay on an array of topics. Even though it was extra work as I am not awarded any modular credits, but I really did not find them a chore. I am glad that Brad introduced blogs as the platform for us to post our works as I find that the level of interactivity makes brings writing to a whole new level. Everyone had a blogging group and we were encouraged to go to our classmates blogs and leave our comments on their blog posts. I really enjoyed doing that, I feel that it allowed me to learn more about my weaknesses as well as strengths. In addition, we were asked to constantly review our work and also edit them through writing a few more drafts. The emphasis placed on reviewing my writing really started to benefit me. Although I know that I still cannot grasp all the rules for grammar and will still have the tendency to make a lot of grammatical errors, but by adopting the habit of writing multiple drafts and rewriting parts that are not fluent, I have faith that I will improve. 

All the activities in the course were very useful to me, I feel that they are lessons which will always be applicable to every part of my university journey. I am also very happy that I had the opportunity to present my final essay about ecotourism and also hear my classmate's presentations on their essay topics. It was very interesting and enlightening as I had the chance to listen to so many other topics which I did not focus on. 

This short period of three months really changed my view about academic writing and I am thankful because I managed to take away so many things from the course. This course was very effective and was very comprehensive. There were so many areas that I was exposed to, such as problem-solution essay, text editing, reader response and critical reflection writing. Prior to ES1102, I did not realized the importance of some of the skills that were covered. Furthermore, the skills and lessons made me more effective in writing. As I learn how to better organize my ideas, being more careful about grammar and adhering to a good essay structure I was able to produce better essays that could reflect exactly the points that I am trying to make about the topic that I am writing about. 

I hope I will retain things that I have learnt and continue applying them to other modules in my future university life. One area which I am still struggling with and hoping to improve on would be writing under time constrain. Being really weak with grammar usage and having problems with spelling really pulls down my confidence during examinations. Therefore, I understand that I still have a long way to go and have a lot of room for improvement but I firmly believe that ES1102 really serves as a good starting point for my writing journey

 Although this course have come to an end, I honestly feel a little sad and start to miss having lessons every monday and thursday with my friendly and helpful classmates and a very dynamic and encouraging teacher. However, I will not deny that I am happy that there are less work for me to do. This is a bitter-sweet feeling that I am experiencing right now! 

In my opinion I feel that presentations should be introduced to ES1102. Having about two weeks of preparation and executing it, I really feel that I learnt a lot. I feel that presentation is an integral part of university and almost every course requires student to present their work or research. I believe that students should be as effective in conducting a presentation as they are in writing a report or assignment.  Furthermore, with this added component, I was able to get a clearer idea of the essay that I have written. It was a good way for me to go through the essence of my essay and share my findings in front of my classmates. If presentations are included in this course, I believe that it will be very helpful for students. They will get a better idea of how to give a more effective and powerful presentation. In addition, I feel that this component is very precious as I received immediate feedback about my presentation. This gave me a better idea of my performance and things that I need to work on. It is also very compatible with the essay component, as I get to learn more about the topics which my classmates wrote about. It was also a good opportunity for me to build my confidence and fine-tune my presentation skills. It was a valuable experience which I hold close to my heart and I believe that it should be incorporated into the course.