Throughout my whole educational career I have always struggled in writing. In 2nd grade I had to stay at after school for writing tutorials to improve on spelling, in 4th grade I never went to recess because I was unable to finish my writing prompts in during the dedicated timeline, and throughout high school I would have panic attacks when trying to write essay. Finally, during my junior year of high school I discovered I have dyslexia. Since then I’ve found different strategies when it comes to writing my essays to reduce the anxiety it gives me. During the course of this semester in your class I discovered what my main strengths and weaknesses are in all my essays. The strengths I have in all my essays are my theses and main points, …show more content…
One of my strong suits in my writing is my thesis in the introduction of my essays. A thesis is one of the most important aspects in the introduction of any writing. It’s the base line format for the entire essay and states the main points that are going to be discussed throughout the essay. For example, in the second essay we were given in October was about the female body, and the thesis statement was “Advertisers today are constantly using the female body to attract their buyers through exploitation, stereotyping the views of men, and diminishing the cultures of others,” (Rivera, “Female…” Final Draft 1). A second example of thesis statement is, “Media coverage does play up to racial stereotypes by portraying social inequalities, slander, …show more content…
In high school my English teacher basically failed us if we didn’t have a “good enough” thesis. She’d use to say, “There’s no point in me reading your essay if your thesis statement is crap. If your thesis is crap your essay is crap, and I’m not going to waste my time.” Since then, I have always made sure my thesis statement made sense containing at least three main points, and to get those main points I’d use the technique of brainstorming. Brainstorming has helped me a lot when trying to discover the main ideas and examples to support them. I would write anything and everything that comes to mind on a sheet of paper, even if it has no connection to my topic what so ever. This process worked for me because it allowed me to expand my train of
College has always been a process that introduces students to academic challenges that are not present during high school. So when my professor assigned Gerald Graff's essay, "Hidden Intellectualism", I thought this was his thesis. “Missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work." (Graff 142) I thought that this was his thesis because it explains the main idea of the essay but I assumed its purpose because of where it’s placed. I am so used to reading an essay in high school where the thesis is located right in the first paragraph. So naturally that is where I look for it. However, with more reading I knew that the following is the thesis, not only because it discusses the main topic, but because it clearly shows what the author was making his argument about. "But [students] would be more prone to take on intellectual identities if we encouraged them to do so at first on subjects that interest them rather than the ones that interest us". (Graff 199) Your thesis is one of the major aspects of a good college paper because it shows exactly what the main claim of the entire paper is going to be about. Three main points to take out of a thesis is, is it your main claim or big idea that directly answers a question about the assignment of the paper. Is it written with the reader in mind with a road map they could follow along easily and lastly when you do go back through revising and reflecting does it makes your thesis clearer.
The basic properties of a thesis statement is the subject, focus, claim, and the "So What?" factor. While I could pinpoint my subject and claim, I had a hard time with making my focus clear and understandable. In Paper 1, my starting thesis statement was "In Battle Royal, the narrator's status as an educated black man serves as a form of wealth; as a result, his wealth is sparking a need for more segregation and silence of the black man in an unequal and racist economy." This thesis statement was not a strong statement because it did not explain and elaborate why the narrator was truly "wealthy", which makes my focus unclear. To address this issue, I had to ask myself why my thesis sentence important to begin with and what did I want my thesis sentence to argue. To improve my thesis, I explained why his wealth was significant and added why my thesis statement was important to the audience. My final thesis statement was, "In Battle Royal, the narrator's status as an educated black man serves as a form of wealth because his education is an advantage he can use to advance in an unjust society; as a result, his wealth is sparking a need for more segregation and silence of the black man in an unequal and racist economy". This thesis statement is better because it pinpoints clearly why his wealth is even significant. Also, the second independent clause made my "So What?" claim clear because I could further elaborate on the broader significance of the
However, the undeniable truth is that essay contains three parts including introduction, body paragraph(s) and conclusion. The introduction, which usually contained grabbing sentences, summary and quotations, has a great impact in grabbing reader’s attention. The way we write well-developed introduction can be considered a reverse pyramidal diagram. Broader idea comes first, following by deeper thoughts and the deepest one usually is the last sharp sentence that contain the “thesis”. Thesis is a strong statement that tells readers what will they going to read next.
Weak skills that I began the class with have become strong and my strong skills have become stronger. Having the opportunity to write a variety of different essay styles has challenged me greatly to improve my writing techniques. Each essay I was required to write brought its own struggles for me. I had to draw on the information that was presented through the class as well as look to the textbook for guidance. To ensure I did well on each essay I thought about my topic, researched the topic, then began to outline what I wanted to write about. Finally, I would write the essay and submit a rough draft. English 102 has given me the skills and training I need to move on to other classes next semester that will require writing essays. I now have a confidence in my writing abilities that this class has given
Moreover, when good writers write, they know numerous things throughout their work. First and foremost they understand their audience. The audience consists of people that will be reading their work. By understanding the audience, this gives the writer an edge. The writer knows what the audience expects, therefore they can present the message in a transparent view. This leads in to writing a strong thesis
As I received my essay today I noticed some strengths and weaknesses in my writing. Some of the things I really need to improve on are writing in present tense and having an active voice, revising my work better and to write in an MLA format. These skills are very important as I will need them all throughout my life. Three strategies I would like to use to improve my writing are revising with the teacher beforehand, use a thesaurus to make better word choices and to practice writing in an active voice. These strategies will help me a lot as they focus on the errors I make in my writing. Revising with the teacher beforehand will help me a lot as I can easily get feedback on my essay before I hand it in. Showing it to the teacher will also allow
In the beginning of the semester, one of my major problems was constructing my thesis statement. A thesis is a short statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc., and is developed, supported, and explained in the text with examples and evidence. Without a well-developed thesis, your essay will be unorganized. I always had trouble choosing the main points of the essay. Throughout the semester, writing my thesis statement became easier because I
In this paper, I am to write about my strengths and weaknesses in writing. This is not an easy task for me because I have never considered myself a writer. Reading other peoples thoughts are activities that are more my speed. I simply have trouble putting my thoughts into writing. Since, I do not feel that I have many strengths, let's move on to my weaknesses.
2. Next, determine your thesis. A thesis is a direct statement of a main issue or idea that you have developed from studying the essays. If you are writing a comparison/contrast essay, your thesis may explain the main points of agreement and disagreement among the writers you are dealing with. If you are writing a thesis-with-examples essay, your thesis may state the main idea you have developed from your readings, which will be supported with examples from the readings in the body of your essay. If you are writing an argument, your thesis will state your opinion about the subject and will indicate that you will be supporting your views through an analysis of the essays.
Start with a general statement, a thesis statement, and a structure statement for the introduction. For each of the three body paragraphs, add an introduction, a quote, analyze the quote for a sentence or two, do the same for another quote, and then hit enter and repeat. Finish with closing paragraph summarizing your main points and thesis, and then end it with some pseudo-philosophical sentence about how the BS you just wrote might somehow apply to actual problems in the real world. That was how I was taught to write essays from the seventh to the twelfth grade. It’s really amazing how six years of writing the same five paragraph essay while swapping out the nouns in order to fit a certain text might lead to a student having a somewhat narrow
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.
One of the most dreaded parts of writing an essay is the thesis statement. While I still take an abnormal amount of time to decide on a thesis statement I like, I have gained quite a
In the introduction is where you state the thesis and also introduce the issue and remember that your thesis has to be clear. You need a body paragraph and it'll contain your reason which is the topic sentence and your evidence. The evidence has to help you create a stronger argument so be clear and don't over explain. In your concluding sentence you can provide the reader with a solution to the issue by this moment the reader will have enough information provided for him to decide on his
In this course I have learned and written many essays from as small as reading responses to writing an argumentative paper. All the essays had a similar style of writing and that is that it had to have a thesis, body paragraphs, and a conclusion except for the major assignments like LEN, Argumentative Paper, Lit Review, and etc., which required more than just those three elements to writing the essay. I prefer one type of writing style to another because it lets me see the difference in my writing and if there are improvements in my writing. I do see similarities in the different essays I wrote and they are that my thesis statements are not strong enough, which is why my essays are not strong enough. Choosing a good thesis statement and having good body paragraphs are crucial to writing essays because that is the key part of the essay, which I needed work on all semester.
A major flaw that I discovered in this class in my writing was my inability to write a proper and creative thesis statement. To me thesis statements are the most difficult things to write in English. I always seem to write the thesis statement to sh...