Over the course of this semester, my writing has evolved in ways that feel mostly encouraging. Reflecting on my work, I can see clear evidence of growth, areas I feel confident in, and other areas where improvement is still needed. This process of self-assessment has helped me better understand my thought process as a writer and develop a clearer sense of what I want to achieve in my work depending on the environment I chose to work in.

Pieces I valued the most

I have two main writings that I value the most .By valued the most I mean when writing this I connected to the pen and paper on an emotional level having my blood run warm in the cold weather making me connect physically to it too. Even though they were not of the general  academic standard it really met my emotional standards of what good writing should be. I think this style of  writing is unlike a prose which is written with an introduction enticing you while still giving you the necessary amount of the content in that writing. This type of writing leaves you the reader to dive deep with your headfirst not knowing what to expect of it. This type of writing I found out I like so much is a poem. I wrote a few poems during the course of this semester but two of them stood out to me the most. Reading them piece by piece after each other makes me realise how much I actually love and cherish my African roots. My poems alway had a scene in a place in Africa whether I say explicitly like  “Brought about eurocentrism while it served as Africa’s trap”  or I do not. Writing these poems made me realise that I actually do like Ghana and not being there made me realise how much I do love the place like a saying my mother always said “That you only know the worth of what you have lost when it is too late”. Personally, these poems were well written. Looking at the rhyme scheme, the flow and word play while still getting my point across makes me conclude those are well written pieces.

What is good about my writing?

I think what makes my writing stand out from that of  my colleagues is that when I write I usually bring ideas from different perspectives. While writing I usually stop and think to myself trying to see the views of people that fall in particular groups. While thinking I try to ask myself some questions like how they would think of it, what would they agree with and what wouldn’t they agree with, what will this group of people change and what will they want to know. I do this because some people I have met may have heard that I am from Ghana but don’t know where it is. My first couple of weeks I had a social experiment testing to see whether most students knew where Ghana was from. During that time I would say I am from the Caribbean and when they ask which country I would say Ghana to find out if they knew or didn’t know the placement of Ghana.

What I would like to improve upon?

I do not have so much to say since I like to focus on what I can do and try to not focus on what I cannot do. The only things that come to my mind are my vocabulary, analysis and trying to avoid the regular introduction, body and conclusion method. 

How has your writing changed over the course of the semester?

Doing the course of this semester I have realised that there has been a drastic change in how well I am able to analyse anything. Though it may not be the best before, my analysis was not too great. I was so bad that analysing something would usually let me escape the topic I am supposed to be writing like for instance my first writing “The Great Allentown Fair” in that writing I had done a very poor job on analysing what was actually going on at the fair but rather focused on how we got there.

How do I plan to improve?

I hope to be able to get a dictionary or maybe a thesaurus that will give me a word and sentences that show how you could use them. I know I could do this on my phone but my level of concentration when I am on  a phone goes from 100 to 0. With analysing I would keep more questions written while I am writing, these questions are to make me expand more on any idea I have.