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Everyone has different beliefs about writing. Who is a writer? What is good writing? One
belief we hope you'll carry with you from the course that fulfills your first year writing
requirement at the University of Michigan is the usefulness of self reflection at every
step of the writing process. There's a lot of skepticism often surrounding self reflection.
What is it? Does it even do any good? Well, there are a few different kinds of self reflection.
It can occur at any point during the writing process. Reflection in action is reflection
during the writing process. Identifying obstacles you face can help you get past them. If you
don't like your organization, pause to think about why and hypothesize solutions. Just
stopping to think can help get the creative juices flowing again, and avoid the dreaded
writer's block. Reflection on action occurs after you've completed a draft. Not only can
you identify areas where you'd like feedback, so your instructor can cater their comments
to you specifically, self reflection will allow you to identify strengths and weakness
so you can continue improving as a writer. When you leave your English 124 or 125 course,
you will leave knowing you're a writer, knowing that self reflection is a crucial part of
the writing process for any writer, with techniques in mind for how to make self reflection work
for you.