At the beginning of this semester I had an extremely hard time sitting down and beginning the writing process of a well-developed essay. Back when I was in high school, I was never a strong writer, mostly because I never knew where to start or where I would end up going with my essay through each of my papers. I also had an extremely hard time getting my ideas from my head onto paper or a computer, and every time I would sit down and try to gather my thoughts onto a piece of paper I would get extremely anxious and start to get extremely frustrated with myself. Although in the past, including some of this semester, I have had a hard time with writing and being confident with myself that is all beginning to change. Throughout this semester I have been able to learn how to strengthen my writing by using techniques such as the outlining, proofreading/ revising and being more confident in myself. Although I have grown a lot in this class through out the semester, I know that I still have some areas where I can focus on to become even stronger, such as grammar and sticking to my outline, so then I can become an even better writer and remain successful in English 102. In all of my essays this semester, besides the in-class essay, I took the time to make and follow an organized outline. I find that when I make a detailed outline I am able to gather my thoughts, have more to say, and do a better job at expressing what I want to say as well. By outlining my essays, I am also able to come up with meaningful topic sentences that give me a great sense of direction for my paper. I am then able to write a strong essay, which I feel confidant and comfortable handing in. For example, in my argumentative essay, before starting to write anything down, I decided that I would be most successful if I would come up with an organized outline and not go straight to the writing part. First I decided to come up with a thesis statement, “Although it may be belie