When reading the book “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser I learned that writing is a different experience for everyone, while for some it may be hard, for others it may be super easy, others may love to use symbolism others might not. Therefore, there isn’t any right way to write. He also talks a lot about simplicity. Writers should write as if they are writing to someone who is encountering the subject for the first time in order to avoid clutter. Usually in order to sound important writers’ sentences become cluttered and hard to understand but good writing shouldn’t do this. When it comes to style, Zinsser focuses on how we should be ourselves when writing because if we don’t you can lose what makes you unique. He also points out that when we are writing that we shouldn’t visualize who we are writing for as a big audience but instead write for ourselves. Implementing Zinsser’s aspects is what really helped me with my writing.  

While writing my Op-Ed paper, I was truly able to write in my own way and even write about my own experiences and explore other people’s experiences. Not only this but I was able to write about something I truly believe in which led me to explore and develop in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. Writing the visual essay was another story. It was an assignment I had never done before. While I would have preferred to have written your standard paper, I did appreciate being able to do something out of my comfort zone and learn to express my words in something more visual. The visual essay definitely helped me strengthen my source use practices including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources. 

The critical analysis conference paper was a hefty assignment but was my favorite to write. Since I was able to focus my whole paper around a book, I enjoyed reading, I was able to formulate and articulate a stance through and in my writing. 

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