Learning is one of the most important concepts that I hold dear to my heart. In order to advance in life that is something you must be able to do. I have learned many different things from various places, but in this year alone, I have learned a tremendous amount of material in honors English 1301. Not only did my professor, Mrs. Minkel, give me the tools needed to make successful scholarly papers, although it came with some challenges, she also provided her students with the tools needed to be a great student overall. As a student, I have learned many different skills that I will take with me throughout my journey from this course. We have traversed many different types of writing styles, which any college student, or any person for that …show more content…
English composition has always been a weak point for me. I despised the thought of having to write down my thoughts on paper in a manner that was appropriate for my teachers. English 1301 introduced me to a new tool to soothe those crazy thoughts through stream of conscious writing. At first I was very skeptical, but it proved to be valuable in understanding that I had more knowledge of the topic of discussion than was realized. Although that tool helped tremendously, it did nothing to quell the quality of my procrastination skills. In high school, I completed most of my homework at the last minute. Coming into college, that clearly could no longer be the case but it still stuck. One concept that utilized my procrastination skills to my advantage was peer review. Peer review forced me to write all of my essays ahead of time in order to make the grade. Not only did it help with my procrastination, it also gave me lots of feedback on my writing. During the narrative essay draft one, I was given a lot of revisionary advice, and that was due to the fact that I wrote the paper at the last minute. Knowing that, when it came time to write the argumentative essay I spent more time actually putting better grammar and diction into my essay because I did not want my peers to think any less of me academically. As …show more content…
During my first semester of college, I felt like this course overshadowed all the others. I faced many challenges, gained better habits, and even increased the value of myself as a scholar. Not only did my professor provide her students with the course material she built a confidence inside of us that will allow us to be able to tackle any task, especially pertaining to any written compositions. The things that I have learned from this course could and will be applied to any and everything I do from here on out, whether that writing an essay or even taking a test. Again, the journey was long, but I will be forever grateful for the things that I, and all of my peers have gained from this
As a Science major I am not given the opportunity to explore my imagination; everything that I learn is factual and unquestionable. English 1301 gave me a voice of my own, this course made me understand that the best way to discover knowledge and wisdom is through reading and interacting with literature. Prior to taking this course I struggled with different writing skills such as, understanding the process of writing, analyzing reading selection and applying basic critical thinking skill in an argumentative essay. I also struggled with the analysis of specific content in professional writing, identifying rhetorical strategies and synthesizing concepts from references. Lucky for me my professor was extraordinarily skilled and provided me with
English 1302 has been a valuable learning experience. It has helped me improve my writing skills and build an outline for my writing assignments. Also, it has allowed me to gain more confidence in my writing by being able to develop and express my ideas more clearly. If I could continue with this course, I would. The literature review was an assignment that allowed me to correct a lot of my writing mistakes, such as not having a proper outline to follow, and word choice. For example, on my first literature review draft one of my topic sentences reads “Stem cells have brought hope to cancer patients….” transformed into “Research has shown that stem cells have brought hope to cancer patients....”The first year writing textbook helped me alot in completing most of my assignments. The examples available on the textbook are a wonderful tool. In the researched argument, I learned how to process a more
My Growth as a Writer Most of us write in some form every day, so you would expect that most of us would be well practiced and pretty good at writing. I read and write all the time; I have taken several college courses and nearly all of them require writing in some form. However, before taking this class, not only was I not a good writer, I knew I wasn’t a good writer. Now I am not saying that I am ready to write my first novel, but I am certainly more confident in turning in my college papers. The content of this course and the style of teaching was incredibly beneficial to me.
Entering this course I was worried because I have struggled with writing in the past, and writing has never been my strongest area. I feared writing classes in middle and high school, and had the same expectations for this course. I had wondered if I was ready for college English, and was worried that my skills and abilities would not be one the level they needed to be for college courses. My attitude and understanding of my writing process have both changed since the beginning of this semester. One thing that really helped my attitude and confidence was the fact that I was able to complete the assignments and get a decent grade. I was worried that I might not be able to do college level writing, and when I started completing the assignments and learning new ways to write my confidence and attitude changed. Another thing that really helped me throughout this course was that there was plenty of reading and information available to guide me through my assignments. I realized that there was more freedom when it comes to writing than I had experienced in high school. Being able to write more freely, and the freedom to choose what subjects I would write over made the assignments more enjoyable and easier to
One thing that I learned from this course is to follow directions. In the first assignment, we were told to write a personal story of what shaped you as a whole. At first, I had a difficult time thinking of a topic to write about, but after viewing other students’ essays, I finally understand what the professor was asking for, and I came up with an idea of writing how I got my cats and wanted to become a veterinarian. Writing this type of essay was difficult because I am not good at expressing myself. Therefore, I always did a bad job in describing my feelings, my thoughts, and etc. Since English is my second language, I know I have a lot of mistakes with my writing. Thus, I went to the Writing Center to ask for professional help. The tutors are very nice and willing to give you academic advices. After going to the writing center, the essay turned out to be my favorite essay that I have even written. However, the assignment was not asking to tell the story, the main theme is to write what shaped you as a whole. As a result, I got a poor grade and realized that this college level course was not the same as a high school writing course. In high school, I was only satisfied in completing the essay and receiving an A. What really ...
My first college English class was ENC 1101 at the State College of Florida. In this course, I learned a vast amount of information about writing, reading, and grammar. When I first walked into ENC 1101 in August, I expected the class to be like any other English class in High School; with rushed busy work and a lot of useless tests and quizzes. However, throughout each week of the semester, Professor Knutsen’s class made me beg to differ. This class was not like any other high school English class. In this class I actually learned important information and did not do work just to complete it. This class had a few assignments here and there, enough to maintain, in order to learn proper information. I learned a lot in this class because I was not rushed to
My development as a writer has flourished throughout this semester. The first week of this fall semester started out with writing responses from our readings in the textbook. Looking back through and analyzing my reading responses at the semester to now; I noticed a substantial improvement in not only my grammar skills, but also my summarizing, and in-depth studying of writing adeptness. Another way I have progressed this semester is the vocabulary of my writing has significantly improved and become more scholarly. Another advancement I noticed was that the content of my work has matured, along with my organizational adeptness.
In fact, I began this semester with plans to accomplish skills that would eventually bring me to an understanding of what a great writer is. During the summer I attended an English mini course which proved to be just a quick version of some high school rules on writing, that did not require much thinking or writing tasks, but it did provide an understanding of what was going to be expected in colle...
The first day of my junior year I was extremely overwhelmed by this class; all the essays we were required to write in the first week didn't help much either. However, since the beginning of the year I have learned so many useful and important lessons which have guided my learning throughout this first semester and, I'm assuming, will continue to guide me for the rest of my high school experience and beyond. In addition, I have made many goals which pertain to essays I have written, and I believe I have met those goals.
This course was the first course I took as an incoming freshman, as anyone could imagine I was scared and nervous at the same time. Also since it is a writing course; I was hesitant if I wanted to continue in the class because writing is very challenging for me as an immigrant. Returning from summer break, I found it extremely tough to continue where I left off with my writing skills from high school. The fear of writing that my old high school teacher instilled in me did not help my writing anxiety either. In contrast, I found that the professor and the course were not at all intimidating as I assumed, the professor took time from his busy schedule to help his students to further improve their writing and the writing topics were very stimulating and thought provoking. Composition 1 has helped me learn more about myself and my writing skills, which allowed me to further self-evaluate myself, find where I need improvement and become motivated to change.
In the beginning of this semester, English 1302 seemed as though it would be the subject that would be the toughest for me to pass. The pace, the work load and everything in between seemed overwhelming for me. As time proceeded to pass, the course didn’t seem as overpowering. By taking the work one step at a time, it simply became another step to achieve the overall goal of this first half of the semester. I have made improvements as well as learned lessons from my mistakes made along the way.
Throughout this course, I have faced many obstacles. One of the biggest struggles I faced was procrastination and being forgetful. I don’t feel that I am an awful writer; I feel that many of my low grade papers come from writing them the night before they were due. I’ve always had problems with writing papers last minute in high school. The difference between the two is that in high school if I didn’t have a paper in on time, I could turn it in late and still receive positive feedback and a pretty decent grade. In this course, it is a big deal to turn in something late. I feel that if I had used my time wisely and paced out the papers that I wrote, they would be better
This class was far more intense than what I expected but I was able to make it through the semester. I learned a lot from this class that I will carry into the future and use in other classes. All of the revision and feedback I have received during the time in the class helped me in the end. I feel like I am gradually becoming a better writer. I will take everything that I have learned in this class and use it for future reference when writing papers. I overall have enjoyed this class this semester.
This semester was my very first semester as a college student. Being the first, it was probably the semester I would learn the most in. I learned the expectations for writing that I will have to live up to for the next four years of my college career. Though my high school teachers were usually demanding because I was in the Honors English section throughout high school, writing in college has still ?raised the bar? for me. Also, in high school, we would have weeks to pick a topic, create a thesis, outline the paper, write the paper, and then revise the paper. In college, the time restraints are not quite as lenient. I?ve had to learn to manage my time and be more productive with what free moments I have. Strangely enough, I?ve found the college English experience to be much more rewarding and enjoyable than in high school.
Over the course of the semester, I feel that I have grown as a writer in many ways. When I came into the class, there were skills I had that I already excelled at. During my time in class, I have come to improve on those skills even more. Before I took this class, I didn’t even realise what I was good at. This is the first class where I felt I received feedback on my writing that helped me to actually review my work to see what areas I lacked in and where I succeeded.