In high school, English was my strongest and favorite subject. I never had to work as hard in English as I did in math or any other subjects I took in high school. My peers would cram all night for a Literature test we were going to have but not I. I excelled in writing essays about Moby Dick and his white Whale or Beowulf and Grendel. My confidence in my ability to write was always high and when I enrolled at Chattahoochee, I assumed my confidence would not waiver. When I received my grade for my first paper, I was in shock of all the red ink that covered it. English 1101 taught me the skills I needed to have to be able to write a great paper and prepared me for what was to come for English 1102. English 1102 have taught me to rethink my abilities as a writer and to work harder and spend more time on my essays and think outside the box. 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...
Throughout the semester I have learned an astounding amount of information. The English 101 curriculum has not only taught me how to write in general, but also taught me a variety of ways to get my point across to the reader. Before I took English 101 I was an average writer at best, but now that I am taking a class that focuses on writing strategies I feel that I have been able to improve as a writer. During the course we were taught how to write an informative essay as well as how to write a persuasive essay. The type of writing that this class has taught me will most definitely help me with future classes as well as my future in the real world. Throughout the English 101 course I have been able to improve as a writer by composing essays
As a second language learner I have never expected myself to be a perfect writer throughout the semester. Even If English was my first language still, I would not be a perfect writer. It is not about first or second language, it is about how well I understand the learning objectives. Then organizing and writing with my own ideas and putting them in my paper. I am going to be honest, I am not good at English subject and English subject is my strongest weakness than the other subjects. In this paper I will discuss and analyze my own writing, reflecting on the ways that my writing has improved throughout the semester.
When I first signed up for English 101 at soar, I thought it was more of a reading and comprehension class instead of a writing class. On August 19, the first day of class, I learned that this class was opposite of what I thought and it made me super nervous. I never had to write so many lengthy essay in a short amount of time. When I first enter the class I saw myself as a writer that needed a lot of work. I knew my writing needed work because of my high school English teachers, they once told me that my writing needed a lot of work and was not college material. This statement became a reality once I received my first essay grade and feedback from my professor. I was still stuck in the high school mindset of the five paragraphs, and was unsure how to write a clear thesis statement. For example, in my first essay I had no clear thesis because I was only briefly taught how to write one my senior year of high school. I had no idea of what I was going to do or how I was going to even manage to pass this class.
In 1998, Judith Rich Harris became famous since she made a point on the cause of children’s behavior, that “in some key sense, parents don’t much matter—that what’s important is not what children learn inside home but what they learn outside the home (peer influence)” (Malcolm Gladwell, 1998). This point does make sense, because children always have a need to “fit-in”, to have friendships and to gain a sense of belonging from their peer groups. Apparently, learning from their peers can make the process much easier, since people who have common hobbies and share similar values tend to stay together, and that’s usually how a peer group is formed. Considering the generation gap between parents and children, copying the behaviors and thoughts of parents can do no benefit to fulfill the need of peer relationships.
The transition between high school writing and college writing marked a difficult time for me. In high school, I never had the motivation required to develop my writing skills and writing essays was not my forte. I would express my jumbled thoughts on a paper and turn them in for a decent grade. Upon coming into English 1101 with this lax mindset, I immediately encountered many weaknesses in my writing, struggling with constructing an essay with a proper direction, style and grammar. As I began reviewing my problems, I started understanding these issues and eventually learned to improve upon them. From my portfolio, I hope to demonstrate my improvement upon these weaknesses in English 1101.
...ragraphs that support the argument. The easiest part of this component was actually inserting it in my essay after I understood the purpose for it, because at the beginning I was confused on the whole thesis concept. The thesis was the most challenging because I kept asking myself "Can I really argue this for five to six pages?" and also "Is this even considered a thesis statement?" I noticed that I can speak and write more effectively when I'm thinking critically and intellectually. My sentence structure has always been strong and I feel it has grown because of the practice we have had in class with finding thesis statements in our readings. My overall issue with this component of the writing process is using a justifiable argument and remembering to support my argument with claims and trying not to put unnecessary points in my paper while maintaining my ethos.
When I scheduled the class Persuasive Communications, I had no particular interest in the subject matter; I just needed to finish the general education requirement for a second writing course. It fit my schedule and sounded reasonably interesting, but I did not think I would gain much from it. It was a general education class after all, and would not be very high on my priority list. Now that the semester is almost over and the class work is complete (albeit after this paper), I feel as if I gained a lot from this class. The class’s main objective was to expand our skills as writers, but it served in teaching us many other things that hold value in our education and future careers.
Writing has always been a difficult subject for me to tackle throughout my education. I enjoy writing academic essays and rhetorically analyzing in research papers but not personal narratives of any sort. In this class, there was a combination of both, which helped me to continue to grow as a writer. During this semester, I have learned several valuable things in this class and gained a lot of knowledge to use in future academic classes. From different styles of writing, how to analyze images, MLA format, rhetorical analysis, and structuring my writing to an online audience. Even though this class initially seemed to be a difficult task, going through the entire semester beginning to end has helped make writing a more achievable challenge.
When I reflect back to the beginning of this semester I am astonished at how much I have learned. English 124 has been a real eye opener for me. Not only have I grown as a writer, but it has challenged me to become more of a critical thinker. In the class we have read many articles on diverse topics, studied theories of history’s greatest philosophers of education, and wrote various styles of papers.
This biography as demonstrated that I am thinking critically, and that I am applying theory to practice. It also demonstrated that I am preparing myself for the real fieldwork after graduation, and I am also open to learn new information and adapt to any unchangeable environment I find myself. Having created this biography, I have learned to focus on the clients’ abilities (strengths) as suppose to their disabilities. Further, I realized that they have much potential than people would imagine.
This class has helped me understand what I like in a future job and figure out what jobs that I find appealing in the sports industry. Taking this class has helped me gain insight into different aspects of sports that I have never really thought of before, like how companies not many people think about make their money on selling certain parts of the bat or the bat itself. The class has helped me expand my way of thinking and how I watch sports, so when I see an advertisement on television or if I see them put a highlight reel together I find it interesting on how stuff are made. Be able to take this course has also helped me grow bonds with classmates and helped make connections with people my age, so when and if I ever need someone’s’ help
My parents arrived in the United States hoping for a better future not for themselves, but for the baby they carried in their arms. We would often move from relatives ' houses since my parents couldn’t afford renting an apartment themselves. We were fortunate enough to have caring relatives who didn 't mind us living with them since they knew the hardships we were going through. I grew up in a household where only Spanish was spoken given that both my parents didn’t speak any English at all. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher was afraid that I would be behind the rest of my classmates, given that I only spoke Spanish fluently. I was fortunate to receive free tutoring from my kindergarten teacher. We would often read books together until
I grew up going to church. To me, back then, that’s just what you did. I never felt comfortable in a church, nor did I understand anything in or about the Christian faith. I went to different churches and bible study groups. I’d go with my friends to their churches and I would sit there awkwardly. I never told anyone that it didn’t make sense to me because I thought I was stupid or I was betraying my religion. As I got older I discovered other religions and what they believed in. I learned that it was okay not to be Christian. When I was ten, I moved to Columbia City, a very white, conservative Christian town. I already felt out of place because of skin color; I didn’t want to add my religious views to that. I forced those doubting thoughts
What can I say about what I have learned in English 100? I can’t say that it taught me how to write the perfect essay or that It taught me how to never make a mistake while writing; but what it did do I might say is even better than any of those things. It has refreshed my knowledge of and my ability to write. I always enjoyed writing while I was in high school, but because I was lazy and refused to learn during that period it made retaining what I had learned that much more difficult. Although I feel I’m a good writer I know I still have a lot to learn and this class has made it possible for me to continue in my path to become a better writer and student.
Taking a course in linguistics and studying the features of language has changed my perception of language and sparked my interest in some of major topics of linguistics. This class has affected me because it has increased my knowledge of many of the aspects of language which I previously had little to no knowledge. Origination of language, human language and animals, and second language acquisition are just a few of the major topics I learned about. Some other topics I found interesting and would like to learn more about are the different types of linguistics and how they are used and the experiments done involving teaching animals human language. Overall, this course challenged me and help me gain a better understanding of language and its