Writing is an essential part of the day-to-day work in the academic community, so everyone in it should excel in this skill and follow the essential writing conventions. By being a part of Writing 39 B class, I have studied many important rules of the academic writing, which will help me to succeed in my future career. One of the conventions, which I have learnt in this class, is that while working with academic sources, one should always properly introduce and expand every quote and cite each source in correct MLA format. In the beginning of the course I neglected this rule, I made mistakes in the MLA format and even finished my RA essay with a quote without describing how it related to the main idea. However, after attending Professor’s classes …show more content…
and office hours, I began noticing a significant improvement in my work with sources and eventually learnt how to use quotations correctly. I believe that my academic texts have considerably improved during the course. Nevertheless, I still have struggles with analysis. Sometimes, I do not provide enough evidence for my claims and don’t go deep enough into the rhetoric. However, I have used good research skills by providing the important sources for my RA essay and RIP project. I have also essentially improved the skill of writing the thesis sentence and have given a productive feedback, during the peer review, to my peers. My progress as is established in my portfolio shows how I have become a member of the academic community with competent and good writing skills. I believe my analysis techniques are competent. I often come with good claims about the text. However, sometimes I lack evidence to prove my statements. For example, in my RA essay I have introduced the quote from the Joyce Oates’s text and I analyzed it by writing that: “this quote shows that Oates believes that the birth of a new child always changes the family. The newborns, no matter if they are mentally ill or not, always affect the atmosphere of home” (Talonova, p. 2). However, looking back, I understand that I was not specific enough in my analysis of the text, because I didn’t explain how exactly the birth of Lynn had changed her family and I didn’t describe which rhetoric techniques Oates had used in her text to clearly state her message. I have made an attempt to improve my analysis skill in the RIP Companion essay by giving more evidence for the ideas and by using more details. In my Companion essay, I not only described that I have used feature article conventions, I also explained how I used them. I stated that I have used a personal anecdote in the begging of my essay to “emotionally persuade my audience to become interested in my topic” and I explained that I used that technique to “persuade my audience to put themselves in my place and imagine the scene as it was their own experience” (Talonova, p.2). My skill of creating thesis and making an argument is between competent and good. At first my thesis statements weren’t detailed enough, and they didn’t reflex exactly what I was going to write about. One of the thesis sentences, I wrote for this class was for “Genre and Conventions: An Overview” exercise and it stated:” I agree with this quote, because I believe that the genre is the important part of any text we read” (Talonova, p.1). Now I can see this thesis sentence was not strong enough, because it didn’t reflex my own opinion on the topic and just showed my agreement with the source I used. In the RIP Project I improved my argument skill by writing a thesis sentence, such as:” In my project, I am including anecdotes both personal and about other immigrants by presenting scientific research to educate my audience on immigration, to inform them about cultural shock, and to show how immigrants can be beneficial for society. I also use contrast and comparison technique to better illustrate the topic of immigration from different points of view” (Talonova, p. 2). I believe, this thesis sentence is quite clear and strong, because it shows what exact techniques I have used in my writing and addresses my audience by saying that I want to: “educate my audience on immigration, to inform them about cultural shock, and to show how immigrants can be beneficial for society” (Talonova, p. 2). By reading such thesis statement, my audience can easily understand what is my paper’s main focus and what I want them to learn by reading it. I have improved my process of working with sources, by learning how to integrate the material and how to use it in my argument.
At first, I was not skilled enough in the introducing my sources and was doing it by writing something similar to:” Randy Bomer wrote:” Every piece of writing, every text we read, comes to us both as a text—the piece it is—and as a kind of text—an instance of genre,” (Talonova, p.1). without proper explanation about who Bomer is and what authority he has on the question of literature genre. However, later I changed this practice, as one can see in my RIP Project, where I write:” My friend, who has moved to the US from Russia and now studies at the University Nevada Las Vegas, Viktoria Savatorova, says that: “immigration is a very challenging process, because a person needs to change their values” (Talonova, p. 9). This quote demonstrates my improvement in the work with sources, because here I not only wrote who I quoted, I also explained that this person is “my friend”, whose authority on the subject of migration, my readers can trust, because Victoria “has moved to the US from Russia” herself (Talonova, p. 9). I also used sources to create and prove the argument about the text. For example, I used a quote from Peter Guber’s text, “The Inside Story”, that:” telling purposeful stories is certainly the most efficient means of persuasion in everyday life, the most effective way of translating ideas into action,” to prove my belief that Oates wrote her …show more content…
article “The Lost Sister: An Elegy” in order to persuade her audience to change their opinions on autism. I use this quote as an argument in my essay by saying that:” every persuasive story plays a great role in explaining the importance of it’s message” and that Oates’s story will make its readers “become more caring for the mentally challenged people’s families, because they would realize that the mental health is the product of neurology not bad mothering” (Talonova, 6). By quoting Guber in my RA essay, I have proved that Oates’s text helps her readers to change their mental health stigma and become more willing to help the mental challenged community. My peer review skills are good.
I always strive to give a productive feedback on the works of others. Before this class, I didn’t know how to write an effective peer review and was not sure why this task was important. All peer reviews, which I received myself before this course were too positive and vague. My classmates only wrote that I was doing good job and didn’t specify how I should improve my skills. However, while studying in the Writing 39 B class my opinion on peer review has greatly changed. It was most influenced by the "To Give is Better Than to Receive: The Benefits of Peer Review to the Writer's Own Writing" essay. By reading that essay, I have realized that by doing a peer review a writer learns to” better understand the writing criteria and better revise my (their) own text” (Talonova, 1). I have done my best in this class to give my most objective and specific reviews on the works of others. From receiving a feedback from my classmates, I was able to see my work from the other points of view, and better understand how to edit my
drafts. My class techniques are good. I try to both actively listen and participate during the class discussions. I always listen to the Professor in order to better understand the material, and if I have any questions, I don’t hesitate to ask them. I am trying to be a good team member. While working on the class presentation with my group I often came up with useful suggestions and ideas, which I shared with other team members. For example, I volunteered to do research of the articles which we later used in our presentation. I was the first one in our group to complete and submit their part of job, and after it I also spend time to help others in their work on the project. I almost always turn it work on time, starting working on the assignments several days before the due date and doing some part of homework everyday. I never skipped a class, because, I know that the attendance is the requirement for productive academic environment. I believe, that by attending every class and participating in every class discussion, I show that I am interested in the material and am willing to work hard on improving my writing skills. Writing 39 B was a very important step in the process of my improvement as a writer. Due to this class, I got a better understanding of the academic conventions and achieved a significant progress in my writing skills. However, I still have a lot of room for improvement. In Writing 39 C, I will continue to work hard on every task to improve my writing persona. I know that the skills, which I have acquired in the 39 series would greatly help with my academic career. By using them, I will create a respected ethos in the communication with my co-workers and students and will write more successful future research and grant papers.
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
Other than learning how to argue (my boyfriend loves my new ability) I learned how to source my research using MLA format. This new skill is tremendously important in college because most professors, if not all, require their papers to be submitted using MLA format. Throughout my upcoming years at Valencia and then The University of Central Florida I will find writing papers significantly easier because sourcing will be practically second nature. In class we were taught how to use the in-text reference throughout our papers, build our own citation and how to set up our work cited page. Although in high school we used the MLA format for papers, prior to taking this class I hadn’t noticed how many small details go into the actual citation, the authors name is last name then first name, the commas must be in the proper place, page numbers etc. In some classes you “learn” how to do things however it is only stored in short term memory because you don’t consider it an important attribute or useful for future classes. Personally, I made sure I knew how to do MLA, every aspect of it, I reviewed the rules, did my assignments, and then reviewed my assignments in order to store this new skill in long term memory. By doing this I have successfully transferred the information to long term memory and made it into a skill.
2. Also when quoting you must always place in parentheses the name of the author and the page on which the quote can be found. This way your readers can look up the quotes for themselves.
...Academic Writing. Ed. Gerald Graff. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 179-189. Print.
In Holistic Versus Trait-Specific Evaluation, the author claims that the best person to professionally judge a writer's work, is the person writing them self. They can look at their own writing by using what's provided after the reading, they're called "self-talk" rubrics, used as guides for talking to one self about their own writing. The self guide offers statements for talking to one self ,for one's writing. The author argues that students have to learn how to talk to themselves in a way that their professor do, when grading the student's papers. If a student understands what their professor is looking for, then the student will increase their chances at success. The author uses the Olympic games as an excellent example to show how working
Writing can be very frustrating; laying your ideas out on paper so that others can grasp the concept you are trying to convey is a very difficult task. In Writing 101 I have learned how to formulate good theses that are arguable and also how to validate articles that have to do with my topic. The most important element of a paper is the thesis statement. It captures the reader's attention and tells them what the essay is about. Having a well-structured thesis along with evidence to support that thesis are the main ingredients to a well-written essay. I have also learned how important it is to research an author’s background to ensure their credibility. This is a very important step in writing because today we can find information on a topic, however, it is not valid. By researching the author, we can see if he or she is an expert in the area and so this would make his or her information more credible. There is a ...
They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (2nd ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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.
Gradually through the whole semester, Peer Review sessions became a great and positive influence on my writing. It is very helpful to have two people with different views on writing read and critique my paper, and give me feedback on what they think I should improve or correct. We didn’t change peer review groups and I was very delighted because I have gotten a chance to see my group members grow as a writer. When it’s time to revise my paper before I turn it in for a grade, it is very helpful to have some options on what to exactly revise in my paper. For example, in my comparative analysis essay, both of my peer reviewers wrote that my introduction was not effective and i...
The first English course I took in college was a basic introduction to writing, during this course we learned how to write a good essay, we learned techniques to improve our writing and we learned how to organize our ideas and put them in a logical manner. We did a lot of discussions and during this class was the first time that I was involve in peer reviewing. My second course I took was with the same professor, Mr. Braun. I believe he was a great educator and he really showed interest in helping their students that’s why when I had the opportunity I choose him to be my professor
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.
If you are someone that has no idea how feedback can truly affect a single person's ideas or feelings, I invite you to sit in on my eight o'clock morning class for College Writing. As the students shuffle in, half asleep, a few nervous classmates sit quietly at their desk...
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 to see what areas I lacked in and where I succeeded.
I thought that they helped with pointing out some of the things that I might have done wrong. For example, the peer reviews helped the most with my word count. A few times I didn’t have enough words in the writing. In the argument essay I didn’t have enough words and the peer review helped me realize that in time to add another example of authors that didn’t like the movie adaption and that was enough to get enough words in the writing.