Understanding Your Journey and Setting Future Goals (Essay Sample)

Third Reflection: Understanding Your Journey and Setting Future Goals
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Looking Back
Looking back at how I handled the previous writing tasks, I realized that I had tremendous potential to improve. While my work often had countless grammar mistakes, the previous assignments have made me aware that I was not good in grammar. As a result, I benefitted from those assignments by being able to brush up my grammar skills. I went back to learning the grammar basics. For instance, I became more polished in writing complete sentences rather than run-on sentences. I also became aware that I had been misusing quotation marks and commas in many scenarios.
Most of my reviewers made it clear to me that I needed to first understand the format that I was supposed to use for every situation. For instance, when stating about findings of a particular research, I learned that such findings are always expressed in a different way depending on the situation. For example, there are times that I was required to just mention the key takeaways from a document if I had to use it as a reference to my work. I also learned that there are times that a task must be presented in bullet points rather than prose, especially if it is a presentation done using power point.
Concerning the use of language in Project Two, I learned that I need to know my audience and decide on the appropriate tine for my writing. For me to properly communicate with my audience, I must always understand who will be reading the document and the sort of language I must use. For instance, I learned to make considerations on the degree of formality of the language that I was to use. In professional situations, I would stop using short forms unless the situation demands for it. More importantly, before I start to write, I should always take note of the levels of knowledge of the audience as related to the subject being discussed. For example, if my audience knows the situation, I might not always have to write in great detail. The screenshot below illustrates an instance in which I used a short form/ informal language on Project 2:
Looking Forward
Looking into the future, there are several approaches that I plan to include in my writing to make it better. First, I will apply the strategy of using simpler words in my writing. While I know that I will sometimes meet complex tasks that need to be handled at that particular level of complexity, my resolve is to use simpler words as much as possible. Complicated statements will make readers not to get the point of what I will be writing about. Using difficult words may make people to understand something in a different way from that the author intended. The example below is derived from Project 2 and illustrates an instance in which a difficult word was used in the wrong context:
Secondly, I intend to minimize the number of negatives that will feature in my sentences. Sometimes I will be required to author about something that is not possible. Nonetheless, I will endeavor to avoid negative words as much as possible. Although including negative words is one way of writing easily, I will avoid such words as they tend to increase the cognitive load on the person reading the document. It also makes sentences to be more difficult to comprehend. For instance, instead of using a phrase such as “was not impossible”, I will instead say “was possible”. Avoidance of using the negative makes the sentence easier to read and understand. The following screenshot from Project 2 shows an example of how I wrongly used a negative:
Thirdly, I also plan to use the strategy of writing shorter sentences and avoiding choppiness. A short sentence is easier to read than a long one. Nonetheless, I should not take this approach to extremes. Writing short sentences does not mean being choppy. Ideally, I will not write all short sentences in my work, but have a mix of both short and long. While the best balance has to be achieved in how short and long sentences are used in a composed document, short simple sentences are often more readable than long ones.
Another approach that I plan to use in my future work is use key terms in a consistent manner. In general, a fluent speaker of a language will have more words to use in a particular conversation. As such, that particular speaker will have many different ways of expressing a given idea. Instead of having to repeat the same words over many times, I will tend to vary my prose by applying synonyms rather than repeating the same word numerous times. Nonetheless, in my assignments, I have realized that the aim of writing is to convey content and not to show off my writing ability. Therefore, I would avoid confusion by using consistent terminology to explain a particular idea.
Besides, looking forward, I plan to balance the manner in which I use simple and sophisticated language in a document. An easy way of applying sophisticated language in my writing as I make my concepts and arguments easy to comprehend is to apply more sophisticated connectors and transition words that are in line with the field that I am writing about. The key, therefore, to use sophisti