During English 110, I have discovered that I struggle to paraphrase information from outside sources. In the past, I would tend to include quotes where paraphrasing would have worked better; I have since worked on improving this aspect of my writing.

These efforts can be seen by comparing my first draft of my significant writing project to my final draft. In my first draft, I wrote:

“’NOAA also reported that the lack of a food source in the Gulf of Maine has caused whales to migrate up the coast towards ‘the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, a heavily used fishing area and shipping channel’”(Andrews 4).

This was then paraphrased into: “the NOAA also reported that the lack of a food source in the Gulf of Maine has caused whales to migrate up the coast towards the popular shipping and fishing channel, the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada.”

Additionally, I have also been trying to work on my sentence-level grammar, which can also use improvement. The use of semicolons in my writing has also been a challenge for me, but it is a weakness I feel like I have improved on during this course. The following is an recent example of the use of a semi-colon from my significant writing project:

“In the pursuit of conservation, lobstermen have been arbitrarily punished; if lawmakers maintain this current trend of restrictions, the lives of many Mainers will be negatively affected.”

Continuing the implementation of useful writing strategies, such as semi-colons, is something that I look forward to perfecting as I continue my education and onwards.