Has Sex Become Too Casual?

Camden Davis

Ms. Abi Bechtel

English Comp. 111

11 December 2017

Composition Reflection

         Throughout this course I was able to expand my literary techniques and overall become a better writer. Personally, I believe the aspects of writing that I have grown the most in are drafting essays/putting all my ideas out in a somewhat “brainstorming” way and engaging the audience by trying to write from various points of view.

        In previous English classes that I have had, the drafting process was barely emphasized. However, in this English composition class the drafting process played a key role in creating thoroughly thought out final writing. For example, in class we had many days were would simply pair up with other students and have them peer review our paper. For me, this helped gain more perspective on other’s viewpoints. We were also required to write from an alternative point of view which was which was made easier through the peer review. In my fourth essay “Has Sex become too Casual?”, I wrote from the perspective that young adults engage in sex too quickly without even thinking about the consequences that may become apparent in their lives. With peer review, I was able to write from another perspective in which I stated “Some [people] just may want sex simply for pleasure. Some people are safe when it comes to sex. Many young people do care about their health and get a “background” check on someone before engaging in sexual relations with them. Additionally, many forms of birth control are offered more widely to the population, another reason why people might feel safer while having sex. In some cases, young adults simply do not care about the emotional aspect of sex.” This helped my writing because in addition to having another point of view, I was able to write more and go into further detail about this specific topic.

        The drafting process seemed to be split up into about three parts in my opinion. Like I already stated, in previous classes the drafting process was not important and seemed to consist of only one step. These three steps included brainstorming, the rough draft, and either the peer or teacher review. With these steps I was able to take any thoughts I had and put them on paper. The paper reviews helped me focus in on one topic and go into lots of detail. This was good for this class because most of the papers were based on personal topics. To some people, writing about personal topics is difficult. However, when we are guided to include lots of sensory and descriptive details it can help a reader get a clearer image about what an author is trying to express. When dealing with the structure of a paper I advanced my skills in making a paper flow smoother. In prior papers, I would make the mistake of writing out ideas that did not really connect with a topic or did not fit the writing style. In my second essay “Trying to Fulfill the Stereotype” I wrote “It has always been threatening to the opposing team when a soccer team has a “ghetto” black player on the team. I tried to fulfil this stereotypical role, which could be described as a thug/ “hoodlum”-like personality, by using all various kinds of slang and acting like I would fight anybody”. I remember when I first wrote this, I did not truly explain it so after reviewing it I went back and added “This took place over the course of about 4 years which started when I was in 5th grade and somewhat concluded in middle school, epically during 8th grade. Although my team surprisingly started to accept me more it wasn’t who I truly was. I wasn’t any “more black” than I was before.”  By proof reading papers I could go back and change anything that did not quite sound right.