Over the course of this semester I learned a lot about myself as a writer. This English 101 class has really allowed me to expand my essay structure and ways of thinking. This was my first college writing course and it has given me much more freedom when writing because in high school I felt limited and like what we were writing was not very important. In high school I would write essays to just to fulfill the required word or page count and to a degree I still feel like this but maybe that is why I am an engineering major but in this course I actually was able to express my ideas and for the first time really test the limits of my writing capabilities. I really enjoyed being able to incorporate my voice more in my essays and I believe that I developed my own personal style a bit from this. At the beginning of the semester my writing was quite choppy and there was plenty of room for improvement in the overall flow of my essays. Now, I use several different tactics such as outlining to create better connections between paragraphs. I believe I was able to move beyond many of the high school ways of writing and make general improvements to my essays. The assignments given in English 101 were very interesting for me. I think that the course layout couldn’t have been better. There were a few assignments that I found interesting. In particular, I found the article by Malcolm Gladwell, “Offensive Play” to be really interesting. It was relatable to me because I used to play a lot of sports and now I invest a lot of time watching high contact sports such as football and it is intriguing to see the “behind the scenes” aspect of the game. However that being said, I did not really like writing the summary of this article. I found it difficul... ... middle of paper ... ...dless of what I am trying to accomplish. I feel that I am much better now, in persuading someone through my writings; which would definitely come in handy in the future. The responsibility I have gained during this experience is incredible and has taught me to be a much more organized person. During this semester I was taught a process of how to write a paper and organize it. I found that all of these responsibilities have made me realize that I could definitely take the next step forward in my academic career. Each new experience I involve myself in has made me continue to grow and constantly learn something new. I am someone who has never really enjoyed English classes in the past and I when I registered for English 101 I only saw it as a requirement to graduate but I really did enjoy this English course and I know that it was something that was worthwhile for me.
Entering this course I was worried because I have struggled with writing in the past, and writing has never been my strongest area. I feared writing classes in middle and high school, and had the same expectations for this course. I had wondered if I was ready for college English, and was worried that my skills and abilities would not be one the level they needed to be for college courses. My attitude and understanding of my writing process have both changed since the beginning of this semester. One thing that really helped my attitude and confidence was the fact that I was able to complete the assignments and get a decent grade. I was worried that I might not be able to do college level writing, and when I started completing the assignments and learning new ways to write my confidence and attitude changed. Another thing that really helped me throughout this course was that there was plenty of reading and information available to guide me through my assignments. I realized that there was more freedom when it comes to writing than I had experienced in high school. Being able to write more freely, and the freedom to choose what subjects I would write over made the assignments more enjoyable and easier to
This semester has been full of ups and downs in all aspects of school, but English has created a challenge and reward all its own. I found this class to be relatively laid back and smooth going especially compared to General Chemistry. My biggest accomplishment in English 110, in my opinion, was writing my Rhetorical Analysis. I was required to write many different papers in many different ways in high school, but I never had to judge another author on their effectiveness of writing. After I wrote my analysis, turned it in, and read it for myself I was fairly happy. I thought that I did very poorly on it, but I did fairly well for my first analysis. I took what I thought I was suppose write, put my own spin on it, and it worked.
Another semester has ended. However, this time in English class, it was different. It started out the same: the required course work , the dreaded reading assignments along with the required essays for the class. Once class started, the professor went over the syllabus. I thought to myself that this was going to be a long first day. By the time I got to the second essay (about the sixth week), I started to realize that this English class is not like the others; it had much more to give. Before this class, English was all about structure and writing without errors. It concentrated more on the skeleton of the content rather than the content itself. This class taught me to look at English or more precise, literacies, in a different light. I have been able to develop a clear line of argument that incorporates ideas and evidences from sources; recognize that writing is a flexible and recursive process; and incorporate conventions for source integration such as paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting. I have a newfound respect and exhilaration for the English discourse.
English 101 is one of the most common college courses in the world. When I enrolled in the class, I was bothered that I would have spend forty hours in a freshman writing class; along with at least another forty hours throughout the semester writing for the class. What surprised me, was that when I began writing my essays I was not annoyed or bothered; I actually enjoyed the assignments. Most importantly, throughout the course of the semester, I have become a better writer and have ultimately met the course goals of English 101.
The first day of my junior year I was extremely overwhelmed by this class; all the essays we were required to write in the first week didn't help much either. However, since the beginning of the year I have learned so many useful and important lessons which have guided my learning throughout this first semester and, I'm assuming, will continue to guide me for the rest of my high school experience and beyond. In addition, I have made many goals which pertain to essays I have written, and I believe I have met those goals.
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 end, this semester has really helped me out with my writing skills. It opened my eyes to the simple fact that writing does not always have to be miserable and boring. Having the right subject to write about can make or break your attitude about the papers you have to write, personal ones were never something that I would dread to write. Learning how to incorporate rhetorical styles into my papers really did help spice them up and make them more interesting. The online discussions showed me how to be more outgoing and reach out to other people to help edit my paper and return favors in the end. Over all this English class has changed my outlook on English in general and really did help me enjoy it a little bit more.
Another course outcome I have mastered in English 102 is continuing to apply the writing skills covered in English 101. One of the course objectives in English 101 was to compose essays with appropriate content development, organization and style by practicing the steps of the
English 105 was a very helpful class. I hadn’t taken an English class since my first semester of senior year so it was good to brush up on my skills. The order of papers that we did was also encouraging because the farther we got in the semester, the harder the papers got. We started small and worked our way up to a 10-page paper. I didn’t believe that I would be able to write as many pages as was necessary, but my research was thorough enough that I had to cut information out. That was one of my proudest moments in this class. In English 105 I learned how to write a rhetorical analysis, a research paper, and an evaluation.
As I look back on my English 101 experience, I have come to the conclusion that I have learned many new things that have improved my abilities as a writer. I have learned some new techniques that have improved my ways of approaching an essay. I learned all about the rhetorical appeals and how to apply them in my writing and how to look for them in a essay written by a author. I have also learned how to argue both sides of a argument, and how to look for reliable sources and to properly quote and site the author of the essay. I feel as if I have become a better writer and my improved writing skills are shown within each essay.
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.
First thing I experienced walking into English 101 as a freshman was anxiety and nervousness. Going through high school I was never really good at English and having English 101 as my second class as a freshman was eye opening. I have learned to use proper technique while writing papers, looking through my paper for grammar errors and also that it is always good to ask for help when confused and if you are stuck on a paper.
As writers, many students write to the expectations of their professors and not to their fullest potential. Throughout English 101 I had been writing only to please my professor or to fill the basic requirement to pass English. I always felt that my writing ability was never enough for my professors throughout the previous years. They always wanted clear and concise essays, which for some reason was unreachable by me. However, starting college and taking English 101 helped me with my weaknesses and changed my technique of writing essays. My experience in English 101 taught me to write to my fullest potential and to write what I felt; rather then writing what was required.
This semester was my very first semester as a college student. Being the first, it was probably the semester I would learn the most in. I learned the expectations for writing that I will have to live up to for the next four years of my college career. Though my high school teachers were usually demanding because I was in the Honors English section throughout high school, writing in college has still ?raised the bar? for me. Also, in high school, we would have weeks to pick a topic, create a thesis, outline the paper, write the paper, and then revise the paper. In college, the time restraints are not quite as lenient. I?ve had to learn to manage my time and be more productive with what free moments I have. Strangely enough, I?ve found the college English experience to be much more rewarding and enjoyable than in high school.
...larify the structure and destination in which I was headed. By revising my essays I was able to make the content and message seem more important and made the final drafts seem a slight degree better than the originals, but the finals were better nonetheless. The instructor did a very good job in guiding me and helping find my way into writing by focusing on some of the problems I was facing and clarified them so that I would better understand them. The instructor helped me expand on my grammatical by helping me discover what it was that I lacked while constructing basic sentence structure; the usage of commas and semi-colons, quotations, and how to sight titles of books and articles within an essay. This English 101 course I have attended has helped me develop better writing skills as well as helped me create more profound essays and a very satisfying research paper.