West's essay:

After reading and analyzing West's article about using technology as a means to communicate in education, we can ultimately use our digital capabilities to further our education, both teachers and peers. Seeing the different ways people can create an online identity and then use that to teach others is very powerful and will definitely continue to expand and become more popular at the university level. Being the digital age, we must evolve with the world around us. I think that covering the evolution of the digital age is an important piece that I plan to talk about in my paper. Being able to refer to West's article as well as have different options for our paper has really expanded the levels of analysis for each student. The topic of blogging and identities through blogging is still very new and society still has much to learn about the most effective ways to utilize it.

Essay Reflection

Throughout the process of writing the first essay, I learned many things about my procedure as a writer and ways I can improve my routine. At the beginning I noticed that I feel most comfortable writing essays when I list out my main ideas and points I am going to cover as a pre-write, then when I have selected the most important parts I create a rough draft which, with numerous times editing, eventually becomes my final essay. I have used this method for as long as I have been writing and It seems to be the most effective way to organize my thoughts and then communicate then in the form of an essay. Some habits that I noticed about my writing style is constantly using a thesaurus to better my diction and word choice. This seems to aid bland writing and make statements more personable and colorful which is a big part of my writing process. Another ritual I have while writing, I tend to have run on sentences due to my abundance of cohesive ideas and lack of abruptness. This is something I would really like to improve upon in the future. The most helpful part of this process was the feedback I received from the Professor and my peers. The tips and constructive criticism helped me edit my essay and make it more relatable and understandable for my audience. In hindsight I feel that this type of extensive writing process in crucial in developing writing skills necessary for college level classes.