Composition 1 taught me crucial writing skills and helped me grow as a writer. At the beginning of the semester, my papers utilized a considerable amount of passive voice, lacked transitional phrases, and the context was not always fully developed. But throughout the class, my writing became more clear, organized, and comprehensive. Passive voice allows the object of an action to be the subject of a sentence. In my first paper, the formal summary essay, I wrote, “The term describes situations, dating back to the 1980s, when excessive numbers of blacks were found to have been exposed to highly polluted areas.” The use of “were found” and “been exposed” distort the meaning of the sentence. Passive voice confuses the reader and makes comprehension …show more content…
In my second essay, the analysis essay, the only transitional word I used was furthermore. The lack of transitions caused the flow of the paper to be choppy and somewhat unorganized. My latest essay encompassed many transitional words such as: in other words, instead, however, generally, furthermore, although, and nevertheless. I learned to provide the reader with a better understanding of the text and more enjoyment while reading through the use of better transitions. At the beginning of Composition 1, my points were not always completely developed. The advice my professor gave was to develop “a paragraph on each that goes ‘a mile deep and an inch wide’ rather than ‘an inch deep and a mile wide.” I took that advice to heart. I strive to practice the skills we learned, like the SEE strategy, to properly develop my points and increase the comprehension of the reader. Over the course of the semester, I have grown much as a writer developing better organizational skills and creating a more easily comprehensible fluidity in my …show more content…
At the beginning of the year, I wrote a paper, checked for grammatical errors and thought I was done. After learning about the recursive writing process my process for writing papers changed drastically. My original thesis for the researched position paper was “Despite some people’s belief that technology is progressively destroying humanity, it is evident that technology’s advancements have greatly benefited human connection due to its contributions to improving education, health, and communication.” However, after writing the 5-page paper I used the recursive writing process to consider, inquire, proofread, and reconsider my essay’s content. Later, deciding my thesis was too broad, I narrowed my thesis to only focusing on education, rewrote the five page paper and tried the recursive writing process again until I achieved a paper I thought represented the best of my ability. A second area in which I improved was critical reading. The unique pieces picked for blog discussions exposed me to new content and the new perspectives from my peers. I found the blog discussion to be refreshing and inspired me to think critically from multiple perspectives. The blog discussion on environmental racism was particularly controversial. At first, I thought Flint’s situation was obviously a problem of race, but after looking at others opinions and their evidence to
One of the biggest weaknesses I have is not being able to transition from paragraphs effectively. In the Lord of the Flies and Asher Lev essays, I did not create a good flow through the essay, making it sort of choppy. I can improve this by increasing my knowledge of transition words and not expanding ideas too much. Also I have to work on slowing down my pace with writing and watch out for grammar mistakes. A way I could improve this is learning the placement of quotations in sentences, that they should be after a period in some cases. Another idea that I have to improve on is choosing the best evidence for my claim. In the Lord of the Flies essay, I had not chose the best evidences and it did not effectively show examples of the claim. I have to learn how to pick evidence that best suits my point of the argument and that I can tie in with my
I found that I needed to completely re-do my paper. The thesis in the rough draft was unclear, thus, I wrote a clearer more concise thesis. The rough draft I completed seemed to be all over the place, and nowhere pacific. I needed to make the changes in my commentary essay, because the draft was rushed, full of grammar errors, and not clear to the reader. Sometimes, as a writer, you have to keep going back to the drawing board. I had a bit of difficulty with this particular essay, however, with the revisions in place, I feel more confident.
The first essay given in this course was about our whole composing process. This essay was hard to write about and I remember having several grammar mistakes. Sitting down and writing my process on paper,
Anyone who is doing any type of writing piece has a process. They may not know it but it is there and it exists. It is one’s approach to their piece and how they go about accomplishing it. It has to do with how you write it, how many drafts you do, as well as your revision process if you even have one. My writing process however has room for improvement. A summation of my writing process consist of heavy planning, one draft, and little revisions. Anne Lamott, Shirley Rose, and Kathleen Yancey all drew attention to major points through their writing pieces that support and dispute my writing process. Through their pieces they have found a way to inspire, inform, and entertain me all at the same time while passing along great information that
I had written my essay in favor of pursuing higher education, coupled with a counterargument against Jon Spayde's informal "in-the-streets" definition of education. However, my thesis had not captured my argument as precisely as I had hoped. In addition, there were times where my ideas were forcibly stretched, and appear wordy or repetitive as a result. If I had more unique ideas, I would be able to write more paragraphs which would be more focused to meet the page count instead. Also too late into the essay, I found opportunities to incorporate counterarguments/refutations throughout the body paragraphs as opposed to limiting them to a single paragraph. Considering my peer was unable to find a clear opposing view I either needed to strengthen
Many of the mistakes I would have deemed inconsequential in the past resembles glaring flaws now. The introduction and conclusion paragraphs were where the most work was done. In the introduction, I inserted a hook and blended the paragraph together. I accomplished this by adding transition words and changing the tense to fit the rest of the essay. In the conclusion, I completely started over. The original was bland, boring, and just plain repetitive. In the revised version, I outlined the essay, restated the thesis, and ended by suggestion other applications.
Use transitions and make connections not only between paragraphs, but among sentences, too. Play with different types of sentence structures (some long, some short, etc.) and more vivid, descriptive word choice to make the essay engaging to the reader.
Over the course of this class I feel like I have become a much better writer. When I go back and look at some of my Journal entries and assignments that I did at the beginning of the semester, I can’t help but tense up at some of the things I wrote. Sometimes the things I was writing didn’t flow well, or I might have even have missed glaring grammar mistakes.
Writing is a process I’ve grown to despise. Ever since grade school, I’ve had problems trying to express my ideas on paper. My writing process involves thinking about what’s being asked and trying to reflect my thoughts the best way I can on paper, but my thoughts don’t always come out as clear as I want them to be sometimes leaving a question not fully answered. My writing process isn’t a consistent set in stone process, but since being in ENC 1101 I always follow some of the same parameters such as revising my drafts, grammar usage and considering context and audience.
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.
Throughout this semester, I was able to learn many writing skill and was able to develop as a writer. When I found out that I was scheduled to be in English Composition I, I was very nervous as I have always felt that writing was one of the skills that I needed to improve on. Although I usually received good grades on my essays, I did not like writing them since it would always take me more than five hours to write a one page essay. If I wanted a good grade in English Composition I, I knew that I was definitely going to have to improve on my grammars. The main skills that we learned in this class were writing a clear thesis statement, paragraph structures, and sensory details. Through this class, I was able to attain more knowledge in these areas and gain confidence in my writing skills. The areas that I have improved on over the course of the semester are staying in the same tense, using
In the beginning of English 101 I was what you call a novice writer a person who only wrote what they felt was required. However, certain techniques that I learned in English 101 made me realize that writing was not about filling requirements; it’s about speaking out, exploring and proving a point. “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” (Trimble, 17) In John Trimble’s quote he tries to point out that writing is something that you grow with and learn as you go along. I believe this growth was achieved with a technique that was introduced to me by my professor called repetitive revision. What I found out was that revision of your essays helps in recognizing your mistakes and enhances the flow of your essays. By providing me...
In the beginning of my junior year of high school, one of my close friends told me she was getting confirmed at church next Sunday, completely clueless I only nodded in agreement and said that was great! When we arrived home I asked my mom what confirmation was, and she explained to me that it was the next step, or Sacrament, in a Catholic’s life where you confirm the relationship you have and want with God.
Throughout the Mid-SEE I have written reflections on my writing and participated in group activities. I have received comments back from my peers and suggestions to help with revising my paper. With the help of my professor, Professor Church and my classmates, I was able to comprehend their suggestions to me to make my essay better and by revising my classmate’s essays, I was able to point out mistakes that I might have made in my essay, which made myself go back to my essay and check and see if I had mistakes that just flew by my eyes.
During the course of this semester; the variety of writing styles and essays assigned to me in my communication skills class encouraged the development of my writing skills, as well as provided me with more self-assurance in my abilities. My writing, research, and presentation abilities enhanced through practice, determination, and the understanding I gained during this course. With every single writing assignment, I learned new innovative approaches and skills, which enhanced my abilities to improve my thoughts logically, enabling me to write more clearly, and to organize my papers more effectively. At the beginning of this semester; despite the fact that I already knew the terminology MAP: message, audience, purpose; I never really understood the significance of MAP. For this reason, my writing lacked clarity, organization, and my writings appeared less focused on the topics. As a result my research papers and essays did not flow as smoothly from one passage to the next. Furthermore, I was unaccustomed with the precise procedures used when writing an essay. For instance, my previous classes before college, although requiring a reference page, did not require me to include proper citations in my writings. After evaluating the quality of my writing toward the end of the semester, I recognized vast improvements in several areas of my writing. By concentrating on the beginning stages of my writings, I could distinguish ahead of time my audience and my message. As a result, my essays are clear, and I remain on topic. In addition to that using transition phrases efficiently also helps my writing to flow smoothly. The proper use of transitions makes my writings easy to follow from one topic to the next. I also learned that pre-writing...