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Steps taken in writing a good essay
The importance of self confidence
Steps taken in writing a good essay
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Reflections on writing My experience with writing 101 was quite eye-opening for me. It has been thirty plus years since I have been a student so it was a struggle for me get back into a daily routine that included schoolwork. In the beginning I was very unsure of myself, always second-guessing if I was completing the assignment properly, and basically making it much more difficult than it had to be. Every day I would log in to my class to work on assignments and think to myself, “What in the Hell am I doing? I can’t do this!” I felt that I had to re-learn everything and lacked the confidence to do it. I almost had myself talked into dropping the class for those reasons. With offers or support from classmates and helpful advice, I was able to believe that I was capable of making it through this course. I discovered that my greatest strength lay with believing in myself, knowing that if I just kept going, I would be able to achieve my goals. …show more content…
I remember posting my first discussion and anxiously awaiting a response, yet nervous to read what my classmate’s opinions on my work were. I dreaded the feeling of being judged to critically or harshly by my peers. Surprisingly to me, their replies were mostly positive. When there were elements missing from my work or in need of adjusting, they would offer constructive criticism and feedback. Due to their suggestions, I was able to re-read my work with a critical eye and make the necessary improvements. Not only did I rely upon my peers critics towards my own writings, I would often examine their work to understand better what was expected for the
In the article of Daniel Richards, the author mentions about in-class peer review. Daniel shows the readers about two types of students who were facing the in-class peer review. One student acts very nervous and he is scared about being shamed if he read his draft in front of his classmates. Other student acts like very confident about his writing and be ready to show his classmates how good he is in writing. In-class peer review exists some social factor about feeling. It may get hurts, the emotion of your classmates and your teacher, feeling shamed when your classmates rate your draft bad. However, the feedback from your peers will motivate your writing somehow. You will know which your weak side and strong side are, then you use it in order
Opinions. One quote I disagreed with was, “It seems to me that middle-class culture, and schooling gratuitously and foolishly rob children of the pleasures of the physical and intellectual work of learning generally and writing in particular” (21). This is invalid. Not everyone grows up around writing, and reading. Sometimes reading and writing isn’t fun for everyone. It can be boring, or even hard to follow. Reading and writing are a choice, not a requirement. Following onto that quote was one of my favorite quotations by Savannah which stated, “I despaired of becoming a writer whenever a grade or comment even hinted I had not learned and meticulously followed all the rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar” (3). I do agree with this quote because criticism does break down one’s integrity, and devotion to their work to keep on going. If there is continuous negative feedback given, then it prevents writers from continuing on. I have always struggled as a writer, and I do not appreciate receiving negative criticism. However; when I was younger, my parents had always told me that “criticism is the key to success”. In order to succeed, one must fail as an individual to set higher goals, and actions
Interpretive Criticism: State what you believe to be the content(s) of the work you are
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.
This trimester I began the class English 101 with mixed feelings. Depending on the topic and style, I could really enjoy writing. However, there were occasionally times where I just did not feel much inspiration, and consequently, my writing quality was not exactly remarkable. My previous course to English 101 was AP Literature, where I learned how to analyze writing and write powerful papers. Although, to my disadvantage for this class, the teacher was more concerned about content than presentation and grammar technicalities. I learned to create good ideas and responses, and while I did possess the ability to convey them with proficiency, I could not express myself at a college level. Nonetheless, I can happily report that I have acquired these skills throughout English 101, learning to curb my near addiction to prepositional phrases, in addition to halting my use of coordinating conjunctions to begin sentences. I find it pleasing to read and compare my first essay to my latest one, seeing all of the differences and enhancements. My writing has improved through the trials of in-depth analyses and short deadlines, enabling me to perform my best no matter the style or topic. Overcoming the oppositions found in the class and my own
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
Unit 1 taught me to focus on each step in the writing process. Approaching the task
I have always known that writing was not my strong point. Entering writing 101 in September I was very much afraid. I knew that the expectations would be very high for this course; thus it would be more difficult than any other writing class I had previously taken. At first writing was a nightmare for me, but thanks to the assistance from professor Smart and my tutors, I have improved drastically in my writing skills and, as a result I am now a better writer. During the course of four months, I have learned so much. There were a few bumps in the way throughout the semester, but I managed to overcome them. It is hard to believe that my journey in writing 101 is coming to an end. Through my hard work and dedication, this class has helped me to build confidence in my writing that will help me throughout my college life.
When many people write, including myself, they get attached to their writing. Although writing can be a personal thing, I’ve learned that it is important to step away from your paper, and take the feedback on an objective level. The first time I got feedback, I had an overwhelming urge to defend myself. I remember reading that my introduction wasn’t complete, and that my evidence wasn’t properly introduced. I wanted to walk up to those who critiqued my paper, and spit right in their faces.
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.
Writing papers has been one of my biggest fears as a student. High school English class prepared me for the editing of my essays, for example, grammatical errors, spelling, font errors, and things that were under the category of fixing my paper. I realized that the writing process requires more than just editing, you have to understand that the paper is like a human body, it cannot function if every single part is not effective. I can certainly say that I have improved as a writer a great deal and this portfolio and the final revised drafts of my work certainly can argue for that. English 101 was certainly different from my other English classes; we actually focused on different parts of the writing process in each class instead of wasting our time discussing the same components of the process over and over again. As I reflect on my experiences throughout the semester of English 101 I am aware that I have met very important requirements of writing that I feel were very valuable for me as a student and my writing has improved progressively.
In final analysis, my writing has greatly improved during this semester, and having looked at the area's I most need to work on has given me an awareness of what my weaknesses are. Examining what I have learned and what I need to learn allows me to generate a strategy to fortify my writing skills. Critiquing my own work has given me insight into how my writing is progressing in this class and allowed me to see short comings I had missed previously. Self-evaluation is a helpful tool for anyone who wants to continue to learn what areas they can improve upon and how much progress they are making. I believe those who appraise their own work will have a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses then those who do not evaluate themselves.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for all the efforts that you have invested in helping me improve my writing throughout this course. The exertions which you devoted in me did not go in vain. Throughout this semester, I have become more insightful in regard to the process of writing as a whole. Who knew that writing can be challenging yet rewarding simultaneously? Through many challenges encountered in this class and many exercises comprised in this course, I was exposed to new writing process, audiences, and I became more inclined to taking risks in the art of writing. As the semester took form, I came to find myself careworn by certain elements of the writing process. Unlike many writers, beginning to write,
Some of the skills I had shocked me as I didn’t think I had those capabilities in me. One of our first assignments that our class did was write a response to a piece of work we read, and use that as inspiration in our own poems. I wrote a poem about a necklace that held meaning to me, and the end result surprised me. At first I thought I would fail the assignment because I didn’t think I had the skills to write an acceptable poem, but came to find out I had surpassed my expectations. When writing about my shaping influence for my third essay, my research paper, I first had to set the scene for the readers and give them a reason to read.
In the post interview, when being asked if students found providing peer comments difficult or not, 70% students admitted that they felt awkward to assess their friends’ writing texts even when they had scoring rubric, another 30% told that they felt a little bit hard but interested in experiencing teacher’s role. Those 70% students said that they tried to follow the criteria in the scoring rubric, but they still wondered and concerned whether their comments were qualified, supportive and useful for their friends’ revisions. As the result, they usually tried to imitate teacher’s comments because to student in general “teacher has skills and is qualified, teacher also knows the exact problems of students’ writing” (Quan, personal communication, Dec 2013). In addition, these participants were still afraid of hurting their friends. Even though students were fully aware of that giving critiques helped build up their friends’ writing ability, they did not want to add more writing anxiety into their friends (Quynh Anh, personal communication, Dec 2013). This was also stated in Hosack’s study with Japanese university students (2005).