The writing skills I have mastered towards the end of the course is providing factual information and removing unnecessary commas after the first lead assignment. With every skill I have gained, I took the time to revise my assignments to improve my writing accuracy.
One of the difficulties I had with my writing assignments was putting an inaccurate dateline. Initially, it was confusing since I didn’t learn how to correctly implement this writing skill before taking this course. I was not aware of what a dateline actually meant in an article until Professor Saatsaz explained it to us.
Although I have improved on my commas, this is still a skill I need to continuously practice. I have corrected any unnecessary commas in my writing assignments as I make sure to read them out loud for any pauses. In my press release assignment, I had minor errors in comparison to my previous ones.
Before this course, my writing skills were mediocre and I did not know how to write in AP style correctly. I was not aware of what attributions were and had a difficult time trying to perfect it into AP style for this class. I also did not know how to accurately include the correct name and use it once per paragraph.
After this semester, I will be implementing and practicing AP style for my last school year at San Jose State University. I am taking more Public Relations courses and my senior seminar which requires an immense load of writing, but the AP skills that I have learned will help me throughout the semesters.
I enjoyed the interview writing assignment because I was able to interview a colleague and get first-hand experience with creating a personal story. I chose this writing style because I was able to be creative with this story and implement attributions from the interview that I believed fit well with it.
The writing style I found most difficult was the press release. I wanted to make sure I provided all the information necessary for it to be factual. I also wanted to make sure there were zero to little errors because it was our last writing assignment. This definitely challenged me, but I also saw how much I have improved from the beginning of the inverted pyramid assignment.
I learned AP style by studying the modules in our course canvas and taking notes during the Zoom sessions. I made sure to read over the guidance tips provided where the quizzes challenged me to see how well I knew the material. I used techniques to become proficient by having a correct dateline, capitalizing titles, and using correct attributions.
Writing this self-reflection can benefit me to see how far I’ve come with AP-style writing. I didn’t realize until now how pertinent AP style is within my courses. I definitely got out of my comfort zone and gained new skills to set me up for success during my academic studies with the help of Professor Saatsaz.
