It was a very smooth process working with Jessica. She was very proficient, positive and thorough. It was important for me to present a very professional finished product. With that came good communication, resourcefulness and a healthy understanding of what I, the client, needed. I’d easily recommend her and work with her again.

Jessica approaches her work with attention to detail and a drive to not only succeed, but to serve others. She doesn’t just settle for the obvious solution, but thinks things through and seeks out information to get the job done right. Jessica’s solid work ethic was easy to see when I was her editor. As a writer, she shows passion for her craft whether her audience is digital or print, respecting readers’ needs and seeking the color and information that will engage an audience and keep it hooked. She asks extra questions of her sources because she takes pride in serving others, anticipating what they will be thinking. In short, she does all she can to provide for everyone who can benefit from her work.

When I worked alongside Jessica in the newsroom, I trusted her completely to work independently and to write abundantly, all on deadline. She delivered on both, and any direction or editing I gave her copy was minimal, given the talent and hard work she put into each assignment we worked on together. Her reporting skills were rock solid, and her writing was clear and creative. Whether it was a feature she had written for the weekend, a breaking-news story late at night or an insightful obituary least expected, Jessica brought an enviable passion to her writing and to her reporting. As such, I valued her and her skills immensely and always enjoyed working with her. And importantly, I know the readers benefitted greatly because of her.

I’ve loved every second of this class this semester. I decided to take this course because I felt I’ve stagnated as a writer the past few years and needed a sort of kick in the ass to get me back into the game - something to get me passionate about creating original content again.

More than anything I feel like I’ve grown in my ability and willingness to experiment and fail. I often struggle with new ideas and how to implement them because my experience in writing academically has forced this idea into my head that if I can’t nail something on the first try, I won’t be able to do it at all. I stuck to the same templates and the same rehashed ideas without anything new or interesting to try. In this class I’ve experimented more than I ever have before with my writing. I’m also starting to learn how to take failure in stride as a lesson for my next attempt at it rather than as a reprimand telling me to never try it again... I hope to maintain the writing schedule and work ethic I’ve learned in this class for all my future classes and for my own creative endeavors. Setting aside time to write each day like this course has forced me to do has gotten me back into the groove of writing, and I’ve never been happier with my original work than I am now.

Definitely the main thing I’ve gained from this course is the ability to continue writing even when you feel you shouldn’t or that it’s not good enough. I hadn’t realized it but I’d fallen into a slump of not writing, mostly because I felt I wasn’t ‘ready’ or that I lacked ‘inspiration.’ It was like I was waiting for something to ignite, which, if I’d waited for that, I would’ve been waiting for along time, since it still hasn’t really happened. Plus, now that I’ve begun writing again, I feel more inspired all the time. It’s like I’ve changed the lenses of my glasses, and now I see the world from a writer’s perspective again. And, since this class also gives elements of stories, I have more pieces to work to incorporate into my own writing than I’d had before. Previously I would write intuitively and what felt right, but now I know what’s acceptable and what strengthens writing.

I have enjoyed this class so much and have been able to see how my writing has improved over the course of this semester. I wanted to explore more creative writing, which was why I signed up for this class. I must say that I am very thankful and happy that I signed up for this course because I love writing now more than ever. I find so much therapy in it and I have even been encouraging my friends to write things out when they are going through tough times.

I’ve been reading more poetry and writing short stories in my journal and I really like how it makes me process the things that are going on around me. I feel like I have a new perspective on things and that I am able to look back and see how I have changed and remember places and things that happened through my writing.

I am really looking forward (to) writing more and perhaps one day getting published, even if it is in a small online magazine....As I continue writing, I hope to apply what I have learned in this class. I think that going to a happy place and being intentional about writing is very important. I really loved what you said about how no one can take writing away from you.

At the beginning of the semester, I was not ready to begin writing as the last time I wrote anything related to fiction was in middle school. I took this class to take a step out of my comfort zone. When the class went over the syllabus, I had gotten exactly what I wished for. One flash fiction piece and two short stories that we had to share with the class was enough for me to feel uneasy. However, through the daily free writes and writing activities, I quickly got over the anxiety of writing. After sharing my flash piece with the class and getting positive feedback, I experienced such a strong rush of euphoria. People actually liked my art. This feeling stuck to me for about a week. I didn’t know that writing can create emotions of this caliber. Towards the end of the semester, I genuinely looked forward to coming to class to write and had a desire to put my ideas onto paper. I definitely became more confident in my craft during this course.