Throughout this course I have learnt many different techniques that have helped advance my essay writing ability, pushing me to explore different subject areas that I have not written about before, thus broadening my knowledge about my chosen subject area. This will prove beneficial in the future as I will be working within the fashion industry and will have a broad understanding of the different aspects of the industry both good and bad.

Both the ‘Academic Integrity’ task and the ‘Reflective Writing’ task opened my eyes to the benefits of using the library. It allowed me to find subjects and resources that I wouldn’t normally have found on the internet, making my work less generic in both my writing and my portfolios within my other chosen subject areas. I did however, find that looking for quotes that related to my essay was more difficult and time consuming, as I found I had to look through a vast number of books just to find one relevant quote to use within my essays.

Throughout all the tasks I found reaching the word count the most difficult, as I tend to write things to the point and struggle when it comes to padding it out and making it more readable. I found the ‘Reflective Writing’ task the most difficult, as I had to analyse the image as much as I could and at one point I was only at 100 words. With the more factual written tasks I find it easier to write as there are facts and points that you can write and reflect upon within the essays, but with analysing a photograph its all your own opinions on what the photo is trying to convey.

I also struggled with time management towards the end of the course, as once I fell behind on one task it suddenly snowballed in all areas of my work making it harder to catch up. This made completing the tasks more difficult for me as I write my essays in small bits at a time over a couple of days, constantly changing and improving my previous work. Whereas leaving it to the last minute doesn’t allow for me to go through that process with my assignments. In the future I will try and complete the tasks as soon as their set, as this will allow me a sufficient amount of time to write over the course of a few days making the work I hand in the best I could possibly make it.

To conclude, this course has; encouraged me to explore and utilise the library; challenged me in my understanding of the fashion industry and enhanced my writing ability. The resulting impact has been evident throughout the tasks and as a result has had a positive impact on the work within my other courses, making my work more unique and less generic – especially with the help of the library resources. I found the lectures very helpful and informative, explaining each task thoroughly and having access to the PowerPoints on Black Board the most helpful as I could go back and revisit each task. I think this course is important for all art related students as not only does it push us to enhance our academic ability, but also when we progress into a work environment  we will be able to easily write more challenging and convincing documents and reports.