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Unfortunately, my first semester in PATH is starting to come to a close. However, while we endured many time consuming tasks during our first semester in PATH, the class has been focusing mainly on enhancing our essays. My teacher had given us assignments such as MAPS, MASKS, essay tracking documents, essay checklists and rubrics to meliorate our essays into becoming the college standard. Even though some of these assignments were tedious tasks to undertake, they had benefited me in a way of enhancing the quality of my essay. If it was not for the portfolio process, my essay would not have met the criteria for my college composition teacher. My college composition teacher is particular when it comes to what she wants to see in our essays.
The first day of my junior year I was extremely overwhelmed by this class; all the essays we were required to write in the first week didn't help much either. However, since the beginning of the year I have learned so many useful and important lessons which have guided my learning throughout this first semester and, I'm assuming, will continue to guide me for the rest of my high school experience and beyond. In addition, I have made many goals which pertain to essays I have written, and I believe I have met those goals.
I would like to start off with thanking you for having the time to review the work and effort that I have put into my English 101 Final Portfolio. In the time in class that I have had this quarter I have learned new techniques that I had not known before in writing, for example I have learned about how to build paragraphs in a correct formal way. In my work in the portfolio I hope to show how my skills as a writer have improved from the work I have done before. I plan to take the experience that I have had in this class and take it with me to help me improve as a student on other class topics. In the time that I have been in class I believe that it has helped me in a positive way to help me manage my time, along with building my confidence in writing. In this beginning of the quarter I had many challenges when it came to writing a paper and I feel that I have improved my skills when it came to writing an essay.
A person could clearly see that by simply looking at the grades that I have made on my final essays. On each essay so far this semester I have been able to earn a higher grade than the previous essay. One thing that I was able to correct by looking back on was usage of the word “it.” As stated by Schwartz, “It is a pronoun, so it must be replacing a noun or pronoun, what is it replacing?” By reflecting to my previous essays and reading this comment I was able to further understand the usage of the word it, and along with this I would be able to correct it in essays after that. Along with getting better grades on my final papers, I was able to further understand the purpose of pre-writing assignments. In the beginning of the year I would look at pre-writing assignments as almost a waste of time, but as I progressed through the course I would see just how much of an impact they could have. Whenever I would do badly on a pre-writing assignment it would usually translate over to a mediocre rough draft. Whenever I realized this I was able to grow off of previous mistakes and spend more time on the pre-writing. The more time I spent on the pre-writing the better grade I would get on that assignment as well as the rough draft. Despite me constantly reflecting to my previous essays, it is still one thing that I need to work on. During one of my essays I was making the same mistakes that I had made in previous essays, so much that my professor stated “See comments in previously graded assignments and apply them to the writing in this one” (Schwartz). I was making so many of the same mistakes that I had to go to my previous paper to see what I was doing wrong. After I read this comment I realized how vital it was to assess the comments made on my papers and apply it whenever I am writing. During the final parts of the course I was able to comprehend comments made by
In the second essay I used the writing process and the outcome was way better. So I learned that so things are there to be learned and that will benefit you in college. Also I learned to be responsible when it comes to grades, turn in assignments due in class, and many other things. I learned this lesson because one day I didn’t turned in an assignment on time and the teacher said that it was a 0 for the day. In high school some teacher, like Ms. Perez, give the students the chance to turn in work the next day, but at that time I realized I was not in high school. So I got my schedule of homework on point and I decided to turn in all my college work on time. The outcome was good grades on assignment and not misunderstood with the instructor. “Be on time if you can’t be there early.” Said by Robin Sharma. Being on time is important to any individual, going into a date, to work and to class. You have to be responsible on be on time wherever they cited you, it is a sign of respect. One day my dad took me to get a new phone, knowing that I had college class. I was in Nuevo Laredo and it took a lot to get me my phone, so I arrived to class late. The students where already taking an exam. I asked Mr. Benavides “what
Over the course of the semester, I have been assigned various writing projects, with the intention of strengthening my ability as a writer and my capability of completing collegiate writing assignments. I believe my writing ability has improved, which can be seen most significantly in my revision of my original unit one essay, and the improvement in the quality of the paper that followed (Unit Two Essay) I was able to rewrite my essay effectively, and the pieces that proceeded were superior to the first essay I had written for class. My original essay composed for unit one was completely muddled. Even looking past the measly one-page length of the essay, it’s contents did not complete the purpose of the assignment.
For the entirety of my undergraduate career I had the distinct ability to successfully write research papers, critical essays and journal entries. On the whole I feel that my writing was successful due to the fact that I received excellent grades as well as glowing comments of support from my professors. Please understand that I am not boasting about my grade point average, class rank or even attempting to claim that I am a good writer. However, I do feel confident in my abilities to write papers that speak directly to the question at hand while simultaneously addressing, although not necessarily adhering to, the professor’s point of interest. I must credit much of my success as an undergraduate to Mr. M of the High School English Department. My outlook on academic writing was drastically altered during the fall of 1997 with the help of Mr. M and a writing course entitled College Prep II.
When I was four years old my father left home. Not only he changed neighborhood or town but he left the country. It may seem that I was too young to notice his absence, but the truth is that this changed my life completely. I was quite close to my father and even today I can remember the emptiness that I felt in my chest. At four years of age I did not realize that behind the story of his departure was one of the greatest life lessons that he taught me.
Over the past semester, I have found the most challenging part of this course to simply be the transition from high school composition classes to college. Because writing expectations are so different in college than in high school, even with AP and Dual Enrollment “college level” classes, I first found myself being overwhelmed with the pressure to write the perfect first draft. The pressure came from knowing how much a final draft of a paper contributed to my grade. This left me sitting in front of my computer for hours at a time with thoughts of what I wanted to say racing through my head, but unable to deliver these thoughts into organized, structured sentences. I learned, through writing my persuasive essay, that instead of trying to write the paper start to finish and already in its perfect form, it is easier for me to look at the paper through its different components and focus on them individually, then work to best organize my ideas fluently.
English was an subject that was a little difficult for me since I was a kid. Even though I was born and raised in the United States, I’ve spoken Chinese at home with barely any English before eighth grade. Therefore, my ability to practice my English to an certain extent was altered. Systematically, my chinese improved rapidly while my english crawled slowly upwards. Thus, my ability to speak and write was obstructed until I was enrolled in your class during tenth grade. Since my freshman English teacher only taught us how to write four paragraph essays, the high school standardized five paragraph essay was alien to me. However, throughout my sophomore year, you taught me vast amount on how to write an essay. Furthermore, through the books
Going into 9th grade, 8th grade summer I anticipated high school to be this new scary place that I was going to be afraid of. I only knew two people coming from my middle school and one other girl coming from a different school, who I knew from elementary, but had not talk to in a long time. Lucky for me one of the people was my best friend, Khyli. I was beginning high school as the new girl, which I was not excited about. The first year for me wasn’t so scary after all, I made new friends, became friends with Briana again, and simply enjoyed life. Second semester Khyli and I tried out for cheer. I was very nervous because I had no cheer experience, and Khyli did. Khyli ended up making varsity and I made junior varsity. At first I was bummed
I have never been good at english and I have always needed help, particularly with some essays. Depending on what that topic is, I could do a good job but more often I need my essays to be looked over. This quarter, I have been having many assignments in my english class that are in fact essays. I was unsure about an essay that was assigned about two weeks ago, so after I had written my rough draft, I went to visit my English teacher during her office hours. The fact that my teacher is so nice and friendly also made it easier for me to actually attend here office hours and ask her questions about my essay. I specifically asked her questions about my introduction and conclusion, since those are the main parts of my essay that I was iffy about.
My theme for this portfolio is Construction and how it relates to the writing process, and since I have always been keen to building things and I am perusing engineering as a future career, I thought this was very relevant. At the beginning of this class I had no clue that my passion for engineering and building could be transferred into my writing, but I have learned through this class how to relate the formation of my essays to the construction of something more like a house. It starts with the foundation of the house, then each floor of the house, and finally the finishing touch of the roof. These levels of construction form direct parallels to the intro, body paragraphs, and conclusions of an essay. This idea not only has helped me create
Over the period of time that I was in this course, I thought it would be a very simple and easy to finish class. But as time went on, I found myself to be demanded more of what I think, what I feel, what must be relied on my ability to understand the concepts and conventions of not only the essays, but of what goes on in the writers mind when writing.
One evening my father came home with multiple forms that needed to be filled out. One was for my mother and the second one was for my father to complete. He put the forms in the living room table and said “I have good news!”My dad’s face lit up like christmas tree, his smile was ear to ears, his face was glowing with happiness and we all gathered together to hear his good news. My mother on the other hand was not that impressed, “What did you buy this time?”, she asked my father. My father had replied “This is something that will make all of us have the opportunity to succeed.” My mother was busy going back in forth to the kitchen and living room. We all gathered around my father, I was eager to hear the good the news. My four year old brother jumped up and down calling “aboy” (father) as we persuaded him to tell us about the good news. My father asked if we could
Before entering this class, I thought I was prepared for college English. I had incredibly capable high school English teachers, who taught me detailed mechanics, creative writing style, and of course, the necessity of practicing good grammar. On entering this class, I quickly realized how little I had actually learned in my high school English classes. While most of my high school English essays I wrote were based on literature, the majority of the essays I wrote in this class have been more experiential and centered on real-life issues. I expected to be writing essays on books I read and articles I analyzed, but that was not the case. This class showed me in a variety of ways that things are often very different than they seem originally