True, good faith, self reflection is one of the most difficult things to accomplish in life. Humans are, by our very nature, prone to self delusion and avoidance, especially when it comes to our own capabilities or progress. In an effort find some self reflection over the semester, we’ve been instructed to create these E-Portfolios, a compilation of our personal reflections immediately after the fact of our assignments, as well as a collection of our own later post-game analyses. My writings and reflections thereon show my personal voice, a writing style that has both positive and negative consequences for assignments, depending on the nature of the task.
My writing process is refined, but imperfect. It involves procrastination, sleep deprivation, panic, monologue, and eventual results. The negatives are fairly self apparent, I could avoid a huge amount of stress with some very simple steps. However, there are some positives, my voice is actually very consistent and relatively conversational. Looking at my papers in retrospect this does raise some concerns. Almost every paper has started in a similar way, my only attention getter seems to be some generic bold statement or truism. My summary started with “Few issues dominate the public consciousness to the extent that climate science,” where even this introductory post starts in a relatively similar fashion. It’s not a terrible way to start a piece of writing, but having a variety of tools to break the ice and jump into paper and start writing could help me when I’m having difficulties getting started. My documented essay fell into this very pitfall. My trusty tool felt overused, and I found myself confronted with writers block, unable to get a start on an important assignment. These realizations are the beginning of the path to self improvement, and continued refinement of my writing process.
Throughout this E-Portfolio and all its reflections there will be common threads. My writing style’s flaws are tied to its strengths. The key to this semester and the ongoing battle to improve my writing and communication skills overall will hinge on improving and eliminating the negatives, without losing my own personal voice. Through tools such as careful planning, drafting, revision, and time management we can at least counter some of the easiest ones, and hopefully make future reflections less related to my self-inflicted stress.