I am excited to share with you the contents of my website. This website contains an overview of the progression of my writing throughout the semester. Please take time to read over my sample work and my reflection upon it to date. Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy it.
When I say an overview of my progression throughout the semester, I truly mean that. While I began this semester as a proficient writer, I had lost the confidence in my ability that I once had. I worried that I had lost the skillset that I had worked so hard to develop. To give context to the struggle, I must explain that I was required to take a year from academia to complete my service in the Army National Guard. As you can imagine, during that time there was little
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In this assignment, we were required to write upon a time in the past when we had a significant instance relating to literacy and our life. To convey that instance we had to write the essay in a narrative format. This was not my first time doing this nature of assignment but because this was the first major assignment of the semester I wanted to hit a home run to rebuild some confidence in my writing. I chose a relatively recent epiphany to use as the focus of my narrative. I wrote upon a time in high school when I realized the power of emotion in debate. I was a bit uneasy when I turned it in but upon received Mr. Campbell’s assessment, I felt much better. I have always found narratives to be a relatively simple writing format because it is simply telling a story. This instance was no different as I found the words coming to me very …show more content…
As I mentioned earlier, it was the final project of our inquiry into a topic. My topic was: “Why do consumers buy green?” This was a very interesting topic and the research gave me plenty of new knowledge. I used the narrative inquiry combination of writing to create a scenario of a shopper making observations in a grocery store. From there it would lead to the research portion and I would share information. The writing then returns to the narrative which sets up another instance of inquiry. It ended up working out very well. From the draft to the final product, I was able to use the critiques of my peers and Mr. Campbell to sharpen the focus and clarify the narrative. In the end, I’m very proud that I tried something different. Albeit, I never plan to write another paper in this style, I do believe it enhanced my ability as a
After reading our mentors notes and analyzing what we have learned through this term, I have read all assignments that were submitted before our midterm exam. This gave me chance to follow up with how I advanced my writing skills from the beginning. As it was interesting to see how I can point out the missing qualities of these essays, it was nice to see our mentor’s notes justifying my points.
Writing essays was never my forte, it just never came easy to me like it would to others. Since other subjects came easy to me and I had to focus more than others on writing, I had a negative attitude toward the process as a whole. During this summer semester, I was able to grow as a writer, and gain a more positive attitude toward how I write and a better feel for writing in college. Writing a paper is a process in which there are many different stages. In high school I would never write outlines or any sort of pre planning work. Other struggles I encountered in my writing were my theses, and framing quotes.
Writing 6.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, an...
When demonstrating my growth as a writer across several pieces, there are four main learning outcomes in which I have focused on. These include writing, reading, researching and reflecting. Within these learning outcomes, there are many different conventions and ways to understand my various projects and assignments as a writer. Throughout the English 1020 class, I have been able to observe not only my previous strengths, but myself growing as a writer by improving my ability to find strong sources as well as properly citing and explaining them, forming a more logical paragraph structure, and many more conventions when writing an assignment.
Transitioning from writing five paragraph essays to a five page paper was definitely a challenge. In writing 121, we spent our time reading, discussing and analyzing complex stories in particular Heart of Darkness. We analyzed not only Joseph Conrad’s novel; but also, Anton Chekhov’s short stories on characterization. After reading these short stories from Chekhov, we wrote our 100 minute timed write; in addition, I wrote my best other essay about poverty. This class has given me a glimpse of the writing expected of in college. Although it posed challenges for me, it has helped me improve my skills as a writer.
"Ms. McMulkin, this is Alex. That essay--- how long can it be?" "Why, uh, not less than 600 words." He sounded a little surprised. I'd forgotten it was late at night. "Can it be longer?" "Certainly, Alex, as long as you want it." "Thanks," I said and hung up. I sat down and picked up my pen and thought for a minute. Remembering. Remembering a handsome, dark boy with a reckless grin and a hot temper. A tough, towheaded boy with a cigarette in his mouth and a bitter grin on his hard face. Remembering- -- and this time it didn't hurt--- a quiet, defeated-looking sixteen-year-old whose hair needed cutting badly and who had black eyes with a frightened expression to them. One week had taken all three of them. And I decided I could tell people, beginning with my English teacher. I wondered for a long time how to start that theme, how to start writing about something that was important to me. And I finally began like this: When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride
As the semester finally approaches the finish line, I revisit my past work to compare and contrast how this class has developed me into a successful writer at the college level. Throughout the year my writing style has developed and become broader as I have learned how to incorporate more of my personal views as well as reliable, unbiased information. This portfolio is a representation of how many things I have learned along the way while being an English 102 student.
Consider your progress as a writer through each journal entry and essay. How has your writing changed since you started the course?
However, when it came time to write the essay, I was confronted with my old enemy, writing. Writing and I have a history, I have never enjoyed being in the presence of writing, due to its both mentally and physically taxing requirements. Despite our deeply rooted feud, there are times where I cannot simply dismiss writing, and generally with help such as guided activities, exemplars, and therapy; Writing and I can put aside our differences for a brief moment of time. One example of this is in my argument, In the beginning sentence I feel that I was able to reach what was expected of me by created a strong counter argument and quickly proving it wrong: “Some might argue that if an individual has grown fond of an illusion, then why wake them from that joy? Now, that is a fair point, but as we see in the book, if they wake up, they realize how unhappy they truly are.” As I face more and more of these assignments where I am forced to implement writing, I grow more accustomed to the process. Writing might not be my ideal major, but I understand its importance. While I dread typing a 5 page essays, I know they are coming. Better I struggle know and learn than struggle later and
This semester was my first semester as a college student. Taking your college Writing 1 course to start off my education at Kent State allowed me to gain a basis for the next four years of my college career. Throughout high school I did not enjoy writing and to be honest I still do not take delight in writing, but your style of teaching has allowed me to see writing in a new perspective. I am relieved to have started my first English class with an instructor who shares their patience and extensive knowledge in a constructive environment.
God, I hate narrative essays. You have to write about your own personal experiences and expect to get a three-page paper out of it. I have no events in my life that would fit a three-page paper. The events in my life are either to foggy in my mind, are too insignificant in my mind to fit a three-page paper, or are too big and broad to be able to fit in an essay and would need a 500-page book to explain. I do far better at other kinds of essays than narratives, such as the persuasive paper. I look forward to those kinds of essays more than I look forward at all to doing any more narrative essays. In, the mean time, however, I am going to try to get James to get off the Internet. Maybe then I may have a better narrative topic. I hate narrative essays anyway.
As my English 101 class comes to an end, I have realized how much I have transformed as a writer. In this essay, I am going to explain what I realized my strengths and weaknesses are as a writer and how they have manifested themselves throughout the quarter. I was skeptical at first coming into this class knowing that English takes formidable work and dedication, but I am very proud of the progress I have made. We completed a great deal of work throughout the quarter; from grammar exercises, summary reviews, and two challenging essays. Throughout the quarter I found myself improving in each category. As a writer, my skills and confidence have developed into more clarity and thought, something I have always wanted to be, as a result of a well constructed class that led to a superb educational experience.
First, before I get into my discussion let me just say WOW I can't believe this is our last assignment in this course! Now getting on with it, I progressed the most in my writing. From the very first to the very last discussion, I believe through each week I have progressively gotten better in this area. Each week before I sat down to write my discussion, I would look at the previous rubric to see what I could improve that week , and I would begin crafting my discussion. I would then reread the paper a few times, and correct anything I missed. I have grown into a much better writer since the start of this class. I am very happy with the progress I have made, and will continue to get better over time.
Narrative Writing: Best Practices and Resources Narrative writing relates an event or a procedure in chronological or sequential order. When writing a narrative, it is often helpful to utilize transition words that signal time or sequence. Narratives are primarily written from either the first-person or third-person point of view. When students write narratives, they tend to produce sentences of lesser syntactical complexity than when they produce explanatory or argumentative writing, so it may be beneficial to combine narrative writing exercises with Hochman sentence strategies. Students might also benefit from using the paragraph and multiparagraph outlines from Hochman to structure their writing.
Studying Psychology at QUT these past months has completely shattered any expectorations I had of University level study. I came into the year thinking that I was going to enjoy all of my subjects and find it easy to balance work, studying, and my social life, however, I have found nothing about entering University comparable to how I expected it. Though, despite this, I have periodically changed and altered my goals in order to have achievable outcomes through my study. The only comforting thought is that it is similar to my sentiment during my final year of high school.