How Has My Writing Changed?

When you learn a foreign language you should pay special attention to two very important aspects, grammar and lexis. Writing helps to develop both of them. Fortunately, during last two semesters at university we’ve been studying academic writing. As for me, it was an extremely useful course. It changed my writing skills and style for better.

We’ve learned a lot of new writing techniques and mechanics. For example, we discussed why it is so important to know how to write a 5 paragraph essays. We have also discussed what thesis statement should look like. To my mind, the best part of our studies was putting the new information into practice. It is crucial to try writing many different essays and articles. Besides, we were encouraged to write about serious topics that are related social problems. I find it very useful, because it helps to go out of your ‘writing comfort zone’.

Another useful thing was receiving a feedback from a professional. The feedback we received during this course helped us realize our mistakes and improve our writing skills. I also appreciate that we’ve payed attention to every aspect of  writing: content, organization, mechanics, and language. Frankly, I have noticed that my writing style has become more sophisticated.

We’ve also discussed such an important topic as plagiarism. We’ve learned how to work with different sources and how to give credit to them. In addition, we’ve learned some paraphrasing techniques that can help us avoid plagiarism. To be honest, before our writing classes, I haven’t realized that plagiarism was such a serious problem, but now I understand that we should respect authors and their work. Moreover, my peers and our teacher have shared a lot of useful sources with me. I will definitely use them in the future.  

To sum it up, I am very glad that our university provides such an interesting and practical course. Fortunately, the quarantine hasn’t affected education quality, so this semester was as successful as the previous one. Although I still have some problems, the course was extremely helpful. I hope that my writing will only improve in the future.