Rearview Mirror While looking back at my first semester in English Composition 1, I am surprised by how much I actually learned and how much I developed the writing skills I already had. The rough drafts and group work we did helped me a lot during the four papers we wrote. My portfolio of the semester includes four pieces of writing and this reflective essay. The four assignments we had were a culture description, observation, comparison-contrast, and a persuasive essay. During the semester and the papers we wrote, I found out some things that I struggled with but also found that I’m pretty good at certain aspects of writing. Throughout the four essays we wrote I struggled with detail, sentence variety, but did well with apostrophes. Out …show more content…
A lot of points I lost was because of bad sentence variety. My first paper about cultures, and I started many of the sentences with the word “the.” This caused me to lose two style points in my first paper. Also In the opening paragraph of my observation paper I started seven sentences in a row with “the.” Then in the last three paragraphs I started multiple sentences with “the” and “she.” Mr. Bays wrote “need to vary sentences,” and circled all of them making my paper look like a spider web. This showed me specifically what I did wrong so I could fix it for my next papers. Though I did lose many style points for sentence variety in my first two papers, I was happy to see that I didn’t lose any style points for sentence variety in my last two papers. This showed me that I did a good job of mastering sentence variety, and taught me to look for these errors while proofreading my …show more content…
I always did poorly in high school with grammar, so I thought I would carry this same struggle over with me to college. It made me happy to see that through all four papers did I only lost 2 points for grammar. In the culture paper I had a couple of comma splices causing me to lose points. I wrote “The weight room was like a second home, there were days we wouldn’t get out until 6 P.M.” I should have put a period after home instead of a comma. I had a few small comma issues causing me to lose the two points, but other than that I did really well with grammar. I was very happy with how well I did with apostrophes. In high school one of my biggest problems was showing possession with apostrophes. In the four papers we wrote I didn’t lose any points for apostrophes. What helped me a lot was the group work and the rough drafts. If I did make an apostrophe mistake either Mr. Bays or my group members would point them out to me. Then I was able to go back and fix them while I was proofreading my
The art of writing is a complex and difficult process. Proper writing requires careful planning, revision, and proofreading. Throughout the past semester, the quality of my writing has evolved significantly. At first, I struggled with the separation of different types of paragraphs, and I found writing them laborious. Constant practice, however, has eliminated many of my original difficulties, and helped to inspire confidence in my skills.
In one semester of English 101 I have learned so many things about writing. I used to believe that writing was just putting words on paper, but have since learned that writing is much more than that, I now understand that writing is a way of exploring my mind and of making connections with other writers and readers. Over the course of the semester I have been learning to write in a way that uses the skills of reflection, critical thinking, and much more. I have used these skills to compose two academic essays that I am submitting in a portfolio to determine my final grade in English 101. In order to have a passing final grade my essays need to display skills I have learned in the course that are required by the Portfolio Assessment Rubric or
My sixteen week class in English 111. I was really nervous about this class. Because English has never been my strong point. This class has hard, but fun all at the same time. I learn a lot from this class. Meanwhile,the first day of class you handed a paper with a question on it. “The first thing I want to say to you who are students is that you must not think of being here to receive an education; instead, you will do much better to think of being here to claim one.” Even though putting my all in what I have learned, claiming my education with hard work because using the skills of the meal plan, as we write to different audiences and learning to be a Critically thinker as I start becoming a critically-Literate Citizenship.
When I was first accepted into the AP Language & Composition course, I felt overwhelmed. I had always received above average grades in all subject areas, but because this was an AP course I was unsure if my English skills were up to par. During the summer, my anxiety about the course increased. I began to feel that my writing skills were inferior to the skills of my peers’. Before this course, I did not have a developed writing voice or style. I had little knowledge of what phrases or words to avoid using in writing. I started to wonder if I truly belonged in an AP course. After having completed this course, I have a better grasp of the English language and have acquired skills that have improved my writing.
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.
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.
This semester entering English 102 I thought of myself as a bad writer with a lot to say and no idea how to coordinate it or express it. A big reason why I took English stretch composition was to strengthen my writing skills. I feel like I have a better idea of where to put my ideas but I really need help with the technical writing and how to do research papers correctly. My concerns over the semester are not the same as they were at the beginning, they have changed. One of my concerns was that I wouldn’t know how to organize a college essay, but that concern is gone now. A new concern I have this semester is my run on sentences and the punctuation and the lack thereof.
Comparing myself from the beginning of the semester to now, I may honestly say I have improved in my grammar usage and punctuations. A prime example of my punctuation problem was seen in my personal narrative essay, “Nevertheless, I was first born here in Honolulu, Hawaii in the pink hospital, but did not stay here long” (Personal Narrative Essay). Within the example, I have an error of overusing commas. The overuse of commas happens to be a horrendous matter of mine. While in high school, my English teachers would
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 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
This semester I learned many new things in my English 1301 class. I took this class last year but I had to drop it because I didn’t have a professor explaining the work to me. And I really didn’t understand what I was doing. At first, I was scared to take this class. During my high school years I wasn’t that good of a writer. I thought this composition class was going to be hard since I sometimes thought it was hard in high school. My writing experience was good and sometimes bad. This semester in the composition class I had many writing strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses is what helped me learn the errors I was making while writing essays this semester.
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.
As I look back on my schooling I can’t believe how many papers I’ve written throughout my life. Naturally as I’ve grown up, my writing has developed from learning how to write sentences all the way up to the pages of essays that consist of deeper criteria. I know for a fact that I’m a better writer now than I was before. College writing is more challenging and I’ve had to learn how to adjust to it.
Before taking English 1A, I was a discouraged writer because as an English learner, I did not believe that I had any ability to be an acceptable writer. Therefore, I did not have any joy while I was doing writing assignments. However, I have gradually loved writing through this semester. I fortunately got plenty of helps from my classmates and professor; thus, my writing skills have gotten improved a lot. I currently can feel that writing is a quite enjoyable process, and I like delivering my ideas to other people by writing, too. I am really proud that I have enhanced my pre-writing skills, writing structure and revising skills and have learned how to write an effective thesis statement and how to deal with rhetorical analysis. However, I still have lots of deficiencies in my articles, such as grammar problem and the lack of logical transition.
In this “Digital Age” that we currently live in, it becomes very easy for an individual to become infatuated with the amount of social media outlets available on the internet. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat all revolve around the idea of showcasing one’s personal life for the sake of receiving positive feedback or attention by peers and strangers from the outside world. An episode of the Netflix sci-fi anthology series, “Black Mirror,” decides to tackle this topic in a surreal yet imaginative way. The episode in particular, “Nosedive,” investigates a hypothetical future or alternate universe where social media profiles and star ratings have become the norm. The plot revolves around a young lady named Lacie, who