The frog, which made it out of the well.
“Everybody has to start somewhere. You have your whole future ahead of you. Perfection doesn't happen right away” by Haruki Murakami, the quote woke me up since six years ago. When I first came to America, my English was humorously sounded like a frog. Thus, I thought that how could my teachers make me write in many different subjects every day, when I could barely communicate in English; I was wrong. While I did not like writing, I did not hate it either. In fact, writing was the stairs for a frog like me to climb out of the isolated well.
Before I was able to enter main high school program at Fairmont, they placed me into an ESL program due to my frog-like English. The program was placed in a special campus; it was like an isolated facility. But it was not too negative, since I would have feel even more embarrassed to face other native speakers with my English then. There, the teachers tried their best to babysit their students with tons of essay and journal topics to crawl out the students’ hidden potentials in English. Additionally, they also added some simply high courses so that students would not fall too far behind with their education programs as well as giving a sense of American education system.
A year after my arrival in the unfamiliar land, I completed the high school ESL program through my succession in PSAT test. But I never get to enter the main high school program at Fairmont, my parent decided to transfer to an air force academy as the result of my relatives’ recommendation; Randolph-Macon Academy was told to be a best in discipline as well as a high-quality academic high school. Indeed, I never got to experience a life of normal high school teenager by the cause of ...
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...ts’ research. Why? Because I am certain that my professors already spent at least ten times the amount of research than I did; so my professors do not really get excited to see those resources beyond doubt constructed again on my papers. No revision is deadly; I felt a chill behind my back after realizing my College English professors only gives one chance submitting for all her essay assignments. While one of my classmates seems to be carefree with it, I am yet to find this confident in my writing; this confident is perhaps what I am going to seek to obtain after the course.
In conclusion, I still remember every step of the stairs for me as a frog which tries to climb out the well and join in the open world. But it was not the end of the struggle in writing ever since the moment that I stood out of that well. Therefore, I will face this inevitable struggle.
For my Final Reflection Essay I attempted to focus on the most obvious adjustments I made from writing high school papers to producing college level essays. This approach compelled me to examine a few of the papers I submitted in high school and look back on the steps I took to write them. By reviewing my previous work I realized that during Dr. Kennedys English 111 class I have effectively learned how to apply an outline, utilize research, and incorporate that research into my final paper. English 111 has helped me to understand the importance of the multiple steps of writing a great college level essay by forcing me to complete each step individually. My overall performance in this class has been above average and I have really demonstrated dedication to improvement.
‘I am going to fail’ was the very first thought that crept into my mind on that very first day of class. Before I stepped into the classroom on the first day, I felt pretty good about my writing. I had done previously well in English, and didn’t think this class would be much of a challenge. This all changed on the first day of school, when my professor talked about the level of reading and writing expected for this class. I remember thinking ‘I don’t read, why couldn’t I have been born someone who likes to read?!’ Since this moment on the very first day of class, I have grown immensely through hard work. In this essay, I will explain what I have learned over the course of this class about myself, and about writing.
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.
When I first came into English 1101, I lacked confidence in my writing. I didn’t know if I was writing correctly or even forming an essay correctly, also I experienced trouble with research papers and the process of writing these kinds of essays. I would often feel overwhelmed and embarrassed since I was never taught how to write any essay correctly. I was thinking to myself, how could I have not known how to write? Writing should have been something so first nature to me, but through the help of Mrs. Hermanson and her positive attitude, eager to teach, and nurturing nature, I felt unafraid to make mistakes, I became more confident in my writing and ready take on the world of writing.
As migrant and English language learner the transition of living and studying in México to El Paso, is not an easy for any age student. I immigrated to El Paso when I was in my last year of high school and wanting to pursue a career at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. My father decided for the family and we were moved to a school in El Paso. In the high school I attended for about three months, I was placed on tenth grade and in regular classes. I just had one hour daily of English as a second language instruction. The system back in the 1980’s on ESL classes was not as they are in schools now. They made me feel like I did not had other option but to droop school, which eventually I did when I realized that I was going to be placed in the special education department. My self-esteem went down the hill and I was not willing to comply with what the school wanted. Especially if I was coming from almost finishing high school with an average of 9 of a 10 grade scale, I felt that it was not fair for me to be place in the special education department just because I had limited English proficiency. Fifteen years after I had drooped school, I returned to school and learn English at El Paso Community College, and now I am pursuing my master degree as instructional specialist in bilingual education. Coming from another country with different, or similar, family values affect the students’ learning and the way that other look at those students, especially in schools.
As a student, I have learned many different skills that I will take with me throughout my journey from this course. We have traversed many different types of writing styles, which any college student, or any person for that
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...
Educating a student takes a massive amount of collaboration between schools, communities and families. It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child and this saying is truer when it is applied to a child coming to America from a foreign country. The differences in culture, family values, social interaction and personal upbringing can often leave both students and teachers wondering how to connect with each other. It is precisely for this reason that all factors be carefully measured when coordinating efforts to educated English Limited Learners.
“Don't be afraid to write crap because crap makes great fertilizer”, said author Jessica Brody, a quote I recently plastered above my computer. Throughout school, I would always dread English. If it were conveying personal thoughts on paper or having to stand up and read a book report aloud. I never felt comfortable. Reading beautiful plays, poetry or stories always brought a sense of jealousy. It was not a subject I was efficient at. My poem would be critiqued while another's is praised. It made me want to hide my feelings. I started to lean towards science as a strong suit to focus on; English was pushed into a corner to evade rather than improve on. My weaknesses, experience and learning passage as a writer is nothing to write home about.
The most difficult characteristic about this English course is the numerous number of times revision was necessary. A major obstacle in my writing in the past was completing an honest revision of my own work where I could improve my writing afterwards. One way that I have started to hurdle this issue is through the implementation of some of the techniques I acquired from the textbook, such as creating an outline of my writing in order to highlight the key points in my essay. Additionally, I have used the simple strategy of prolonging the time between writing and revision in order to adjust careless errors that would have been overlooked without the break. Execution of these strategies into my revision process has led to me writing more confidently and has contributed to my overall improvement from the beginning of the
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 period of time that I was in this course, I thought it would be a very simple and easy to finish class. But as time went on, I found myself to be demanded more of what I think, what I feel, what must be relied on my ability to understand the concepts and conventions of not only the essays, but of what goes on in the writers mind when writing.
During the course of the semester, all of the writing and research skills I developed helps to strengthen my self-confidence in many areas and it aids me in achieving my goals for the future. By developing more effective research approaches for finding and citing sources, I advanced from an inexperienced writer to a confident writer with the suitable knowledge to create effective essays to capture my audience. Having confidence in my abilities to use the skills I learned will help me to become a success in college. With more practice and valuation of my strengths and weaknesses, I can continue to improve and become an excellent communicator in the future.
_I feel that I have become quite well adapted to writing the language which has become the "common coin of the realm" at colleges and Universities._ I could sit here and write puffed up, stagnant, and wordy paragraph after paragraph, and still hold the interest of many of my instructors. But that is not my desire...I seek to free my muse from the shackles of formulae, the bondage of format, and the unrelenting ambiguity of "the same old stuff."
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.