Midterm Writing Reflection

Looking back at my writing during the first half of the semester, I have noticed a few areas where I have improved and some issues that I still need to work on. I feel like I have improved when introducing my topic. After reading the websites on introductory paragraphs in class, I stopped starting with a broad statement and narrowing it down to my claim and began to keep my introduction focused and straight to the point. I also think that I have improved in my vocabulary usage. I have been using a thesaurus and the website given to us in class while writing my papers and have noticed a decrease in the amount of times Professor Stewart marks "awkward."
There is always room for improvement, however, and some of the areas where I am lacking include comma usage and works cited. When I begin writing, I tend to focus on my comma usage and the first few paragraphs don't have too many mistakes, but the more I write, the less I think about commas. By the end of my paper, I tend to revert back to my old habits when it comes to inserting commas. I also need to improve when it comes to parenthetical citations. I make mistakes with where to place the periods and my biggest error comes with citing a website. I guess I'm just a little confused with how to go about citing a website. In my paper on religion in the political arena, I began my paper with a quote that I found on the internet. I feel that if I state that I found it on a website before the quote, my paper will start out sounding as if I'm reporting about that website.
I don't have too hard a time with my works cited page, but when all the necessary information is given, it is a little more difficult. The main things I need to remember when it comes to the works cited page is to put my sources in alphabetical order and to focus on the punctuation.