Since I wrote my first structured essay in fourth grade, my attitude towards writing has been awful. Stemming from a poor teacher, I was not taught properly how to incorporate style and preciseness into my writing. Consequently, once I moved to a new school district I quickly found out how poor of a writer I was compared to my classmates and have now subconsciously thought of myself as below average no matter the grade I have received. When this class began, I lacked proficiency in the fundamentals of writing. I would constantly make mistakes in my prose, which preceded to me receiving poor scores in the style and content sections of my essays. Since then, I have improved to where I can write at a consistent, high level, and possess the techniques to revise my writing efficiently and effectively. Also, I do not dread writing lengthy pieces as much as I did when I first heard the assignments described on the syllabus. …show more content…
The most difficult characteristic about this English course is the numerous number of times revision was necessary. A major obstacle in my writing in the past was completing an honest revision of my own work where I could improve my writing afterwards. One way that I have started to hurdle this issue is through the implementation of some of the techniques I acquired from the textbook, such as creating an outline of my writing in order to highlight the key points in my essay. Additionally, I have used the simple strategy of prolonging the time between writing and revision in order to adjust careless errors that would have been overlooked without the break. Execution of these strategies into my revision process has led to me writing more confidently and has contributed to my overall improvement from the beginning of the
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 ...
The journey through language and literature has always been an intriguing one for me. It is for this reason that I chose English as my major. It seems that every teacher or professor that I have had, has always been able to pinpoint one specific element in my writing that I need to work on. This has not been a negative thing by any stretch, because with each passing semester there is an element of my literature that will be perfected for the next. This is the wonder that is English, and the reason for my passion in this subject area.
In the beginning of English 101 I was what you call a novice writer a person who only wrote what they felt was required. However, certain techniques that I learned in English 101 made me realize that writing was not about filling requirements; it’s about speaking out, exploring and proving a point. “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” (Trimble, 17) In John Trimble’s quote he tries to point out that writing is something that you grow with and learn as you go along. I believe this growth was achieved with a technique that was introduced to me by my professor called repetitive revision. What I found out was that revision of your essays helps in recognizing your mistakes and enhances the flow of your essays. By providing me...
Writing is a process I’ve grown to despise. Ever since grade school, I’ve had problems trying to express my ideas on paper. My writing process involves thinking about what’s being asked and trying to reflect my thoughts the best way I can on paper, but my thoughts don’t always come out as clear as I want them to be sometimes leaving a question not fully answered. My writing process isn’t a consistent set in stone process, but since being in ENC 1101 I always follow some of the same parameters such as revising my drafts, grammar usage and considering context and audience.
Unit 1 taught me to focus on each step in the writing process. Approaching the task
Anyone who is doing any type of writing piece has a process. They may not know it but it is there and it exists. It is one’s approach to their piece and how they go about accomplishing it. It has to do with how you write it, how many drafts you do, as well as your revision process if you even have one. My writing process however has room for improvement. A summation of my writing process consist of heavy planning, one draft, and little revisions. Anne Lamott, Shirley Rose, and Kathleen Yancey all drew attention to major points through their writing pieces that support and dispute my writing process. Through their pieces they have found a way to inspire, inform, and entertain me all at the same time while passing along great information that
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
The writing process is a subject that makes many people nervous. As well as some feel they write, there is always room for improvement. When I initially began this course I was definitely intimidated by the amount of essays we were scheduled to write. Although I have worked hard to improve my writing skills, I still struggle with grammatical errors. In knowing that my writing still had weak spots I felt overwhelmed with the fear of not being able to perform as well as others, and created a sense of shame within myself. During the last eight weeks my writing has evolved beautifully. Before taking English 122, my writing was in dire need of
Many years ago, I began school as many other children do. You begin with going to kindergarten and as you progress you begin to learn the English language by first learning the alphabet and by then learning to write. For a large part of my high school years, my writing improvement seemed to fall to the wayside. When I began this course, I realized there is more to writing than meets the eye.
My writing process is simple. I like to get comfortable and think about what I am writing about. I have to sort out my thoughts before I start writing to get my thoughts together on a piece of paper. It is very influential in my own personal writing process. I change my mind a lot when writing. I can be very indecisive. I am always looking for ways to improve my writings. I can never be perfect for me because I will always find something that could have been better. I am constantly dropping and adding things to improve my papers. I want my writings to embody me and what I am all about. I want to put all of my thoughts in and get my point across clearly. I have to stay focus on the topic and not get distracted. There is no right or wrong way when it comes to the way or your style of writing. The world would be such a messed up place if everyone wrote the same. I couldn’t even imagine. Sometimes it’s not easy for me to get started writing because I get a sudden case of writers block. But I see it through to the end. Once I get started writing it’s hard for me to stop because the words just flow to me. It’s harder for me to write about topics that I do not have any personal experience about. If I am writing about something that I have no experience with I research and try to familiarize myself with the topic. That method always works for me and has been very successful. I try to put my experiences in words to put on paper. I also revise a lot for grammatical errors. When I first was given a topic I would just scramble and write down the first thing that came to my mind but, now I have to brainstorm and think about it more clearly. By writing that way it gives me confidence in my writing to back it up. If I’m writing something and I r...
During my semester in English 101 I have learned many things such as how to be literate, how to analyze and synthesize materials as well as how to acknowledge my strengths and weaknesses while writing. Since I’ve became aware of what I need to focus more on while writing and reading I feel like it has made me more sufficient in my assignments. Some strengths I can identify in my own writing is that I am good at making sure that I give the reader a handful of visual aid while reading. I make sure to give them the most descriptive setting while still not giving the story away. I also believe that I do a good job at lead up to the actual buildup of the story. What lead to developing these two strengths is the time that
This English course was a vastly informative class. We covered lots of criteria material and discussed topics during class. During the course, I have accomplish a variety of goals I once thought were unachievable. I still have a little ways to go to become the best writer I can be but by taking this course I have been able to expand and learn as a writer, editor, and analyzer of my work, peers work, and academic work. I have learned from others as others have learned from me. I have tried to improve particular aspects of my writing but continue to struggle with other aspects. I have found new strategies and breakthroughs that have allowed me to improve my essays. However, I am still learning how to write and believe that I always shall be.
Being taught the importance of outlining ideas and getting all thoughts together first. This classes how shows the proper way to structure an essay by starting with the thesis statement. Next completing the 3 body paragraphs to correspond with the thesis statement, and how to use transition words to go from one paragraph to the next. Then completing the conclusion, and lastly writing the introduction paragraph. Before this class I dreaded writing essays, but knowing how to properly write them has made it so much easier. This class also has helpful tools, for example Connect to help with the proper use of punctuation like commas and semicolons. Using proper punctuation had been difficult for me in the past. Students are taught how to properly combine sentences, and how to determine if sentences are able to stand alone. Along with learning the importance of prewriting and editing. Since taking this class I am begun to enjoy
After completion of my first paper, “Summary” I have discovered that my weaknesses out way my strengths in writing. I will be working diligently to improve several aspects of my composition. With hard work and a lot of practice I hope to overcome at least some off my short-falls in writing.
When I first began Writing 101 I only had skills from high school and creative writing, and had no experience writing in a college setting. The reason I took this class was because it was a basic requirement for my studies. I started this class believing that I knew a lot about writing simply because I wrote often in my spare time, and creative writing was my favorite subject in high school. Now that this class is coming to an end, I realized there was so much I did not know about writing such as the rules and styles of writing. This class has been very helpful with helping me progress in my writing, and has allowed me to expand on my writing styles.