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Helping students meet the challenges of academic writing
Helping students meet the challenges of academic writing
Critical thinking in the classroom essay
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In high school, I was always a student that succeeded in all of my courses. I did, however, have some classes that I would better excel; English always being one of them. My teachers would always praise me for the way I used my critical thinking skills and for my excellent editing and revising techniques. Due to these reasons, I felt very confident when I first started taking the Foundations of Academic Writing (FAW) I course. I quickly learned the error in my way of thinking. FAW I and II taught me many different techniques and tools of writing that I never used before. Through this experience, I gained the capability of improving my writing, work on my strengths and weaknesses, and excel at my critical thinking techniques. After taking the FAW I and II courses I feel that my writing has improved in the matter that I know how to find better sources to support my arguments. In high school, the website, Wikipedia, was acceptable to use as a credible source. After working on my first FAW writing assignment, which including finding sources, I noticed that we were not allowed to use Wikipedia for all of our sources. In FAW we were limited to one source for Wikipedia. This was a major transition for me because I would always use Wikipedia as my sources to prove my arguments. My very first writing assignment included sources that I found online and I felt that they did not prove my arguments. Because I could not find any other sources that would be better suited for my essay, I would use the source and stick it anywhere in a paragraph. However, after doing a couple of projects I feel that my sources are becoming better. FAW taught me that it is important to take the time and search deeply to find credible sources for all of my writing... ... middle of paper ... .... Works Cited "Academic Skills Centre." Academic Skills Centre RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. . "Accessibility navigation." Planning & structuring your essay. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. . "College of Arts and Sciences." The Writing Center Editing and Proofreading Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. . "Welcome to Purdue OWL Engagement." Purdue OWL Engagement. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. . Johnson, Tom. "10 Steps to Writing an Essay -- Step 1: Research." 10 Steps to Writing an Essay -- Step 1: Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. .
"College of Arts and Sciences." The Writing Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .
Over the course of this semester, I have progressed as a writer. Picking up new skills and dropping old bad habits has transformed me into a much better writer than when I entered the English 101. Entering this class, the only English classes that I took were mandatory high school classes all four years. In these classes, however, content was focused on reading novels, poems, and literature. There was usually only one major writing assignment each year, which was a research paper on a topic that was given by our teachers. Although there was some writing involved in these classes, most of the class time was spent on improving my reading and comprehension skills. A small part of the class was given to improve my skills as a writer and even a researcher. In English 101, however, most of the class time was spent on writing and more specifically, academic writing. This includes doing proper research, picking a worthy topic to write about, correctly analyzing sources, and developing a well-rounded, complete paper. I have progressed a writer over the semester by effectively integrating and analyzing sources better, and being more specific with my words.
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.
I am sitting in my bed, thinking about my process of writing as I am trying to go through it. It seems the more I think about it, the less I understand it. When I am writing, I don’t think. Which I know, sounds bad. But, I spend every single moment of every single day over thinking, over analyzing, and over assuming every aspect of my life. When I’m writing, I’m free from that for just a little bit. Until of course, my hands stop typing or the pencil (no pens- never pens) stops moving, then I’m right back on the carousel that is my brain. Heidi Estrem says, “...writers use writing to generate knowledge that they didn’t have before.” (Writing is a Knowledge-Making Activity 18). I believe my ability to write without an exact destination
I improved on many aspects of my writing throughout the duration of this class, but there are still some things I need to refine. Over the course my writing skills have gotten better due to the instructor’s feedback, peer reviews, and just me learning. I enjoyed peer reviews because sometimes it is easier to relate to someone my own age. The overall structure and flow of my essays have improved, as well as the use of word choice and quotations. Throughout this course, I was able to apply critical thinking and reading skills to different texts, compose essays with appropriate content development and organization, use correct style by practicing the steps of the writing process, and reflect on my own development as a writer. However, I still need to work on demonstrating correctness, including punctuation, mechanics, and
Throughout this semester I have learned many ways of writing through two main essays literacy narrative and comparison and contrast. These two essays have taught me how to correctly fix my comma splices, thesis statements, and capitalization. I have engaged in numerous learning material during this summer class. Many times when I thought it would be hard to work on those three developments I never gave up. I gain more positive feedback from my teacher because he pointed out most of my mistakes I made on both literacy narrative and comparison and contrast essays to help me understand what is it that I need to work on. My development as a writer became stronger.
As a result I believe that the progress I have made in my writing during the course of English 1B has changed my negative views of writing. As silly as it may sound to say that my fears about writing papers have been defeated, they have. Whether they are short reviews or extensive research papers, I have become more comfortable in writing. I have not only learned how to write and express myself more effectively, by organizing my critical thoughts, but most importantly I have learned that review and revision is an essential part of the writing process. This process how allowed me to grow to become a better writer. The skills I have acquired can be used for future coursework and beyond.
Throughout this semester, my writing skills have improved. I came into this class as an immature writer, but by practicing certain skills such as being able to execute and understand writing as a process, being able to explain and critique my capacities for reflection and meta-cognition, and my ability to classify and critique my capacities at evaluating and selecting sources, I’ve become a better writer. I’ve come to understand that writing is a process. Writing a great piece doesn’t happen overnight, in one sitting. Writing a good paper means you write it a couple times, different drafts are involved, and you remove and add information.
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
I believe a good reader is what makes a good writer, but because I lost my interest in reading, I’ve struggled with writing throughout the years. It wasn’t that I had trouble learning new skills, but because I was pushed away from what I wanted to learn, so I decided to pursue other interests like music. Despite being eager to learn, my writing suffered due to my lack of interest in reading, however, my skills in writing have increased as my drive to read has rekindled. As a child, I was a very eager learner. I always wanted to learn new things to feed my brain.
My experience with reading and writing has always been a good one since the day I first started. My mom loves education and has always taken it very seriously. This greatly affected my journey to learning how to read and write. Another thing that influenced me was how I was taught to read and how to enjoy it. I strongly believe that the experiences you have as an adolescent can influence the way you feel about reading and writing for the rest of your life.
At a young age I was introduced to reading and writing. It all started when I learned my ABC’s; from there on I was hooked on learning new things. Not long after I learned my alphabet, I started learning to form words, and thus the challenge of learning to read and write began. Reading and writing seemed like the most confusing thing ever. Reading and writing became easier as I started catching on to the concept of putting words together to make sentences.
Writing is something that is intoxicating to me. When I write, my current problems disappear, and all of my focus turns to the stories my brain is itching to let free. At times writing becomes a coping mechanism for when it is a necessity to divert my attention away from my own mental anguish. From a young age reality is something that I have tried my best to avoid, due to the fact that I have had to live with a Generalized Anxiety Disorder. As a child the real world seemed entirely too frightening for me, so all of my attention turned towards fantasy.
My first semester at Michigan State University was filled with many challenges that have made me a better student. It tested my ability to work under pressure, as well as encouraging me to properly plan out a healthy work schedule. Most importantly, it put the responsibility solely on my shoulders. Not only did this require me to stay on top of my work, but it encouraged me to find value in the work I was doing. All of this allowed me to look back at the semester and see drastic changes in my abilities. This was especially noticeable in my writing course, a subject that I have struggled with my whole life. Throughout the semester, with the proper resources, I was becoming an experienced writer, and learned many skills that I struggled with in the past.
My English 1310 course was taught by Professor Daniel Stuart. He taught us the concept of academic writing and why it is important. Academic writing is the process of breaking down ideas, using a formal tone, deductive reasoning and third person. Writing done to carry out the requirements of a college or university on a research based level. It requires a starting point or introduction, followed by a thesis on the preferred topic, then comes proving and disproving of the evidence based arguments. It is important because it is a way to communicate our thoughts clearly and originality. It helps us think and see what evidence we can come up to contribute to that thinking. This course approached this idea of academic writing by exploring further