On the first day of class, I was not confident in my writing. I was in honors english last year, however, I did not do too well on essays. Being that I never received an A, I assumed my writing was not as good as it should be. Now, I earned a 6, almost 7, on the 9 point scale and am beginning to feel more confident. I do feel that I have been appropriately challenge this semester. I did not find any of the assignments to be too easy. I have definitely felt challenged this year, I have learned multiple techniques that I never knew prior to taking this class. As a whole, I am happy with the experiences I was provided in this class. The last essay I wrote, I was given the opportunity to meet with Mr. Perry after school one on one for help which was extremely beneficial. Also, I appreciate the fact that Mr. Perry reads our entire essay commenting on what went wrong or suggests ways to improve it. Revising essay really helps not only my grade, but also my overall understanding of what I did incorrectly. Overall, I am extremely happy I took this class and I continue to benefit in multiple ways. …show more content…
For example, I discovered my I use too much colloquialism when I write my essays.
Before taking this class, I did not know colloquialism existed. I also realized my vocabulary has improved significantly. As much as I disliked roots tests, vocab and roots tuesdays have become very beneficial. Plus,the vocab project taught me many synonyms I was not previously exposed to. One of my difficulties has always been writing with an academic tone. However, I feel as if I have gotten better but there is definitely still room for improvement. Unfortunately, I still do not vary my sentence structure as much as I should. I also need to improve my introduction and conclusion paragraphs. I have a very hard time creating an interesting hook when writing an introduction paragraph. As a whole, I am thankful for everything I have learned yet I still need to improve quite a
bit. My main improvements include vocabulary, colloquialism, and academic tone. My improved vocabulary can be seen in my documentary essay. I used words such as “captivating, components, and vigorous.” Prior to this class, I would have never thought to expand on my vocabulary, but now I realize what a difference it makes. I also never understood the concept of colloquialism. Unfortunately, I used it too frequently. Now, I have begun to learn to correct it but I still do it without noticing occasionally. For example, in my documentary essay I said, “each kid” which improper. After receiving corrections from Mr. Perry I changed it to “every child” which sounds much more proper. Another example, also from the documentary essay I said, “such a crazy story.” I unconsciously write informally. When my mistake was pointed out to me, I switched it to “this surprising story.” Thus, sounding more professional and less like I am talking to a friend. One last example is from the Lord of the Flies essay. I stated, “Crazy fights break out” which really should have been “Conflicts arise causing many boys to fight with one another.” Last but not least, my overall academic tone has improved. I have begun to notice my writing, when read aloud, sounds more formal. This class has taught much more than I ever could have imagined learning in one semester. I am forever grateful for the new skills I have learned such as expanding my vocabulary, reducing my use of colloquialism, and improving my academic tone. My most significant challenge as a writer was writing my documentary analysis. I had never written a rhetorical analysis essay as detailed as the documentary one. I also did not know rhetorical terms existed. Learning pathos ethos and logos was totally knew to me this year. Therefore, applying these terms was very difficult. I researched the terms and used examples online to try to further understand how to properly use each one. Also, I watched my documentary twice which was extremely beneficial. I watched it the first time without taking notes. Then, I took notes while watching it on textual, visual, and audio components. After that I applied pathos, ethos, and logos to all of the notes I took. After that, the essay was fairly easy to write. I overcame that challenge by taking it one step at a time. I plan to receive at least a seven hopefully eight on the nine point scale. I need to improve my sentence structure. I never vary my sentences, most of them are usually simple and short. I will look into the different types of sentences online and try to understand them. I will see when to use each kind and how I can vary each of them to improve my grade on the nine point scale. Sentence structure is a huge step to successfully writing a college level paper. I also want to improve my creative language and introduction paragraphs. Mr. Perry always gives creative examples of great introductions so I will look closely at those. I tend to have issues coming up with creative hooks. I will look into those more online too and read some sample introductions to see if they could help me improve my own. In summation, I am proud of how far I have come yet at the same time I know there is plenty of room for improvements in multiple areas.
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
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.
In the course of this semester of writing, I grew more than I ever had in my ability to write well. I remember on the first day of class several other students were talking about how hard this writing professor is. I was a bit worried and even thought about switching to an easy professor for a guarantee A so I can get a 4.0. Now, I am grateful that I chose to decide to work hard for a 4.0 instead. Even though I may not get it, I am still glad I stayed because for once, I learned and became a better writer. I can see that my knowledge of conventions definitely improved from last semester. I really loved the feedback for my assignments, since it allows me to realize what I need to improve on and what I should keep doing. Unlike the previous semester, the writing professor only told us our grade on the very first assignment after two months. There were no feedback on how I could improve either, so I had no idea if I was having trouble with anything. Prior to this course, I always had trouble writing sentences and organizing them in such a way that flows and delivers my idea well. I also rarely outline or plan out how I will write a paper too, and even when I did, it was very vague. Out of the five learning outcomes, I grew the most in rhetoric knowledge and writing process from the reading responses and 4 assignment.
Writing essays was never my forte, it just never came easy to me like it would to others. Since other subjects came easy to me and I had to focus more than others on writing, I had a negative attitude toward the process as a whole. During this summer semester, I was able to grow as a writer, and gain a more positive attitude toward how I write and a better feel for writing in college. Writing a paper is a process in which there are many different stages. In high school I would never write outlines or any sort of pre planning work. Other struggles I encountered in my writing were my theses, and framing quotes.
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.
I learned from my peers that I am a better writer than I thought I was and that increased my confidence in my writing ability. This didn’t just teach me about myself; I learned how to write several different types of papers. I improved throughout the semester as I learned how to analyze for rhetorical appeals, research an issue, and evaluate a topic. I am glad that I was able to learn a lot from this class, as well as read my peers work. It was intriguing to see how others write and what topic are important to them. Lastly, I was proud of all my work that I accomplished in this
this area but I’m going to improve on it. The process of using multiple drafts has
Now that I got a better understanding of the writing process, my feelings changed because I was told by my instructor what areas in my essays I needed to work on, resulting with the changes I made in my essay, I feel more confident.
...dless of what I am trying to accomplish. I feel that I am much better now, in persuading someone through my writings; which would definitely come in handy in the future. The responsibility I have gained during this experience is incredible and has taught me to be a much more organized person. During this semester I was taught a process of how to write a paper and organize it. I found that all of these responsibilities have made me realize that I could definitely take the next step forward in my academic career. Each new experience I involve myself in has made me continue to grow and constantly learn something new. I am someone who has never really enjoyed English classes in the past and I when I registered for English 101 I only saw it as a requirement to graduate but I really did enjoy this English course and I know that it was something that was worthwhile for me.
In summary, I had an enjoyable time in my first college English class. I pushed myself as diligently as I could and learned much more than I thought I would. In addition to, my strengths grew stronger and my weaknesses improved as well. I acknowledge I still have some techniques and skills to work on; however, I am willing to put the time in and cannot wait to take English in the future. Writing is an everlasting skill that will be an enormous asset to me; in addition to my future classes, and my career as
Over the course of the semester, I feel that I have grown as a writer in many ways. When I came into the class, there were skills I had that I already excelled at. During my time in class, I have come to improve on those skills even more. Before I took this class I didn’t even realise what I was good at. This is the first class where I felt I received feedback on my writing that helped me to actually review my work in see what areas I lacked in and where I succeeded. Some of the skills I had shocked me as I didn’t think I had those capabilities in me.
One skill that I wish I had time to improve on is citing sources in MLA style. Through the course, I refused to seek help from my professor until week seven, one thing I regret doing. that could have allayed the fear and doubt I had about this course. Any questions I had could be cleared up as the course progressed. My essays through the subsequent weeks have demonstrated my strength and weaknesses. I do not have many strengths when it comes writing, but still I consider my greatest strength in writing to be being able to clearly understand the prompt and answer it correctly, especially with the analysis essays. I think this is just because I spend most of the scarce time on hand just to think about the prompt, for example, when I was preparing for my rhetorical analysis essay on globalization I thoroughly read both article on globalization by both Kwame Anthony Appiah and franklin Foer .An obvious struggle I have as a writer is organization and transitions. I tend to jump from one topic to another and sometimes cover. I should have used more transitional words in between sentences and paragraphs to make my reader understand the logic of my paper. I have not had enough writing experience and the writing process is difficult for me. I do sometimes admit that it takes days to complete one assignment, but it will be worth it when I become a proficient
The first day I walked into Freshman Composition I had the idea that everything assigned was going to be extremely frustrating and difficult, as this is a college class. Equally important, my expectations for the class was to earn at least a B, further my writing abilities, and learn more about college. As the semester started, I noticed that my writing was not at the college level and I needed to learn how to improve it. Along with improving my writing, I was also able to learn about college life. With this essay turned in and handed back, I began to realize my writing needed practice and critiquing. Furthermore, I gave myself goals to achieve in Freshman Composition, I have learned useful tools to improve my writing, and I have learned more
Reflection Essay Introduction to Writing has helped me greatly over the past eight weeks, providing me with necessary writing skills, improving my grammar, writing mechanics, and much more. I took this course simply because my advisor recommended that I should, and it was also a requirement. Initially, I anticipated Introduction to Writing to just brush up on the writing skills I already possessed, but I must admit that I have learned a lot more than I expected to. I commenced Introduction to Writing with mere high school level writing skills, but after carefully taking this course I have learned countless, essential writing skills that enable me to write on the college level, such as, writing thesis statements, using APA format, citing sources, and using correct grammar and mechanics. The first thing I learned in Week one of Introduction to Writing was how to correctly create a thesis statement.
Through the course of this year writing essays have not been the easiest thing for me. I continue to try and improve, but I always fall short someway or somehow. There have been many struggle to get ideas about a paper and most significant is my grammar errors. Some of the papers I have done have been uncomplicated and smooth to write about. Through this year I had been developing my writing skills, but not as fast as I should.