I have been both looking forward to and nervous for taking pre college English this semester. While I enjoy English, and have previously done well with the subject, it has always been my most challenging class. This course will be difficult but, ultimately, it will push me to be a better student. My biggest weakness is my inability to quickly and clearly articulate my thoughts; it often takes me hours to complete even the shortest writing assignment. Ironically, writing is also the area in which I consider myself most proficient. What I lack in speed, I make up for with quality and experience. I have written both inside and outside of school for years and thoroughly understand the writing process. If given time, I am capable of producing
Happy New Year and the second semester of the school year. The first semester was a test on how students would blend into the new academics. Honors English was a great choice I made in middle school and I would recommend it to any incoming freshman. I have learned new ways to create claims and the proper way to set up paragraphs. Learning the way to set up paragraphs has improved my writing skills, even out of the english classroom. English comes in handy in the World Geography classroom as I have learned and may be useful in the future.
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
When I was first accepted into the AP Language & Composition course, I felt overwhelmed. I had always received above average grades in all subject areas, but because this was an AP course I was unsure if my English skills were up to par. During the summer, my anxiety about the course increased. I began to feel that my writing skills were inferior to the skills of my peers’. Before this course, I did not have a developed writing voice or style. I had little knowledge of what phrases or words to avoid using in writing. I started to wonder if I truly belonged in an AP course. After having completed this course, I have a better grasp of the English language and have acquired skills that have improved my writing.
When you come to the United States, you don’t think about the experience that you will face in here. The most important thing people don’t think about is the language, totally different from yours, like Spanish, how you are going to use it, when, at what specifically moment, how long is going take you to learn it, spoke the language, to write in English, what about people who go to school. The English is one of the most difficult things in the United State when you come to this country, because with the language you work, study and get prepare for a better future in here. I agree with this because, one of them is me. I have faced three experienced with the language here on this country, and them three in the school that I have attempt to. The three schools are in Veterans Memorial School, Woodrow Wilson High School and Camden Academy Charter High School.
When I read “Proficiency” by Shannon Nichols I really felt for her. I understood and resonated with her story perfectly, especially when she stated “After I failed the test the first time, I began to hate writing and I started to doubt myself. I doubted my ability and the ideas I wrote about.” (83). After I failed my writing assignment I was so embarrassed and didn’t want to write again but obviously, I had to. I always doubt the things I am going to say or which order I am going to organize the essay in. I try so hard to make sure all my sentences are cohesive and all my ideas connect to each other and the main concept but sometimes it just seems that when I keep messing with one little sentence or paragraph I just makes things worse.
I have never liked writing; I always thought it was a waste of time. It was a great therapy but I never found academic writing to be useful just tedious. Only ever writing when I had too made it harder for my writing skills to grow or improve in any way. I have not taken an English class since the 10th grade, even then I never gave it much effort, just doing what I had to so I could pass the class. Then I jump in to College English 1010, I feel like I do well in all other subjects but this one. English is my worst nightmare.
Writing has never been a strength I have possessed. English 102 has been difficult and challenging for me because I have had to move past the high school level of a basic book report or a five paragraph paper that has narrowed my ideas of writing for many years. Putting on paper what my thoughts are in a way that is logical and accurate for what the assignment is asking has been hard for me this semester. My ideas are now more involved because I have learned through English 102 how to develop my writing skills in different formats, for example, in an annotated bibliography and a research paper. English 102 has taught me many things about writing like locating sources from the library and on line as well as continuing
I have studied English since I was a grade seven, but the curriculum in my middle school and high school years, mainly focuses on reading and speaking components of language skills, with a little focus on writing. As a result, I never felt confident with any piece that I was asked to write. Writing has been a hurdle for me to succeed in college since most of the courses in college requires one or the other way writing skill. Consequently, I have decided to work on my writing skills, and have started working on it; even before, I started taking this English 101 class. I used to use a various educational material which I thought might help me to meet my writing goal. Some of the materials which I was using includes: TOEFL educational materials, You Tube resources, and various novels. All of these resources have helped me to polish my writing skills. Furthermore, after I started taking this class, I have learned to enjoy writing. I have made it a point to communicate my own thoughts and feelings as opposed to simply summarize the thoughts of famous writers and authors before me. This class builds up my confidence in my own writing and for that I am highly appreciative.
This trimester I began the class English 101 with mixed feelings. Depending on the topic and style, I could really enjoy writing. However, there were occasionally times where I just did not feel much inspiration, and consequently, my writing quality was not exactly remarkable. My previous course to English 101 was AP Literature, where I learned how to analyze writing and write powerful papers. Although, to my disadvantage for this class, the teacher was more concerned about content than presentation and grammar technicalities. I learned to create good ideas and responses, and while I did possess the ability to convey them with proficiency, I could not express myself at a college level. Nonetheless, I can happily report that I have acquired these skills throughout English 101, learning to curb my near addiction to prepositional phrases, in addition to halting my use of coordinating conjunctions to begin sentences. I find it pleasing to read and compare my first essay to my latest one, seeing all of the differences and enhancements. My writing has improved through the trials of in-depth analyses and short deadlines, enabling me to perform my best no matter the style or topic. Overcoming the oppositions found in the class and my own
Determining college readiness is an essential part in determining who will qualify as a good candidate for admission into a college or a university. The last thing that colleges want is for students to qualify for admission and drop out, this affects drop out rate and graduation rate. According Robin Chait and Andrea Venezia (2009),
Up until this year, before taking the class intermediate composition, I thought I was a terrible writer. I was right. Writing isn’t something that I enjoy doing, nor am I good at. Writing is difficult for me because I’m not very good at explaining things in a professional manner, that can be easily well written. While writing you are expected to make little to no mistakes, which is not something I’m great at. I am so much better at explaining things with verbal words rather than written words. I had not taken any extra writing classes before this year rather than the mandatory ones. Like I had stated before, I hate writing, with a passion. I dread writing anything, especially an essay for school, like this one. I’m
College English is a big difference compared to how high school English was taught. Many differences that I have noticed with these few past weeks that I have been here at Fresno State University would be how the group exercises are structured, how the professor shows interest about the student’s improvements with their work, and how the course materials are presented to the class. High school was not the greatest experience that I could have had during my educational years. Many of my teachers that I had throughout my high school career were not the worst but they were far from the best. I always felt like they did not care about how our work turned out, also they always seemed to help the students that were good in the subject, and that they
Writing deficiencies, I have plenty. My biggest problem is figuring out how to write what I am thinking. I have never been proficient at this task. It looks good to me when I read it, but when I turn the paper over to someone else; they do not find the point I was trying to convey. Typically, I have to verbally express the meaning of the paper to them. This is the area in which I would like to excel in this class.
Writing is an important part of everyone’s life, whether we use it in school, in the workplace, as a hobby or in personal communication. It is important to have this skill because it helps us as writers to express feelings and thoughts to other people in a reasonably permanent form. Formal writing forms like essays, research papers, and articles stimulates critically thinking. This helps the writer to learn how to interpret the world around him/her in a meaningful way. In college, professors motivate students to write in a formal, coherent manner, without losing their own voice in the process. Improving your writing skills is important, in every English class that’s the main teaching point; to help students improve their writing skills. Throughout my college experience I have acknowledge that
People choose to go to college for a myriad of reasons. Some attend college because of the expectations of their parents or society. Others go to college because of the increased earning potential that a college education can provide. Still others decide to go to college to expand their knowledge in an area of particular interest. William Cory, a 19th Century English schoolmaster said, “You go to school not for knowledge so much as for arts and habits.” The arts and habits that Cory proposes that students are pursuing are certainly things that a student might learn in college. However, I don’t think that many people enter college with a goal of achieving the “mental courage and mental soberness” that Cory proposes. Colleges, on the other hand, have a goal to see students complete a degree. In order to see as many successful students as possible, universities must find ways to predict a person’s ability to handle the rigors of a college education. There are a few ways that colleges determine readiness for admittance, but one of the main ways is a students’ performance on the SAT’s. The SAT is easy to administer to many students at a time to see where they stand academically, but it may not necessarily the best way to determine readiness for some students.