This semester has pushed my outside my limits not only as a writer, but as a person that is open to looking at new ideas and trying to understand different concepts that interest other people. At the beginning of the semester, I knew the basic ideas that we learned through English 101, and I knew how to analyze papers, but I never knew how to implement those strategies in order to create a paper out of it. Essay two, particularly, was a struggle because I could not find the information I needed or enough information on one thing, so it led my essay to fall short because I could not fulfill the needs of my original thesis in order to make the paper long enough. This taught me that if something with your writing is not working, you should try …show more content…
I realised how extensive you have to go sometimes in order to meet criteria, or even to make sense of what you’re trying to write about. Scholarly articles and books are particularly challenging because they can be extremely lengthy, and also very hard to understand. But peer reviewed sources add a tremendous amount of credibility and depth to your essay, which is why they are so beneficial. And also, I learned how to analyze websites in order to make sure if they are credible or not. All websites are definitely not trustworthy and being able to identify the good and bad qualities of a webpage can really help me in the future. Not to mention, when you research, it’s not always going to be what you expected. From time to time, you are going to have to change your topic search in order to find anything moderately close to what your essay is talking about, or you may have to approach it from a much broader angle and then work inwards. Being able to incorporate your resources into your essay after you have found them I have found also to be hard. I think it’s important to be able to write as much, or more, from your head compared to the amount of citations you use unless of course it is more of a historical or primarily an informative piece. Making sure that your choice of citations work in your essay is a key factor in making your essay successful. I think I understand this concept well. I do struggle
Writing essays was never my forte, it just never came easy to me like it would to others. Since other subjects came easy to me and I had to focus more than others on writing, I had a negative attitude toward the process as a whole. During this summer semester, I was able to grow as a writer, and gain a more positive attitude toward how I write and a better feel for writing in college. Writing a paper is a process in which there are many different stages. In high school I would never write outlines or any sort of pre planning work. Other struggles I encountered in my writing were my theses, and framing quotes.
My method of research has changed slightly. When i search the internet for articles, journals, and blogs, i always give it a quick scan. I look for key words and terms that are pertinent and if i feel that the material will be useful to my research, then i read it while taking notes. This semester, i tried to take less notes. I made sure that my notes were very specific to the focus of my essay. This way, i was not swimming in a sea of notes, thus overwhelming myself. While reading Amanda Ripley’s The Smartest Kids In The World, I made sure to keep important word and terms in my head on a chapter-to-chapter basis so that i had an idea of what to talk about in class. This helped in my in-class writing...
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.
English has never been my best subject. Reading books can be exciting, but the writing aspect of English can be dreadful. Somehow, however, I passed all my advanced English classes with at least a B, and my teachers always considered me to be “above average.” My impartiality toward English shifted to an indifference near the end of my high school career; my indifference then shifted to appreciation. This appreciation is attributed to American Studies and Honors Writing, the most difficult English classes at Belleville East Township High School. American Studies and Honors Writing have strengthened my writing skills beyond what I believed possible. I still do not believe that I am the best writer, and English may never be my best or favorite
Throughout the semester i only learned few new things but i did improve and solidify my skill of writing. Before my first year of college my skills have always undermined by other high school english teachers and with that came disappointing grades. I am writing this paper as a reflection of the semester and the progress i have made as a writer. I now understand many things that my high school teachers have done a poor job demonstrating and i am grateful that i decided to take my own route in my education instead of their syllabus. I entered the semester with anxiety that i would perform as i did before but i clearly outdid my own expectations by receiving top grades on my essays.
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.
English 102 has taught me a lot about my writing. Becoming a better writer and pushing myself to the next level was my goal for this semester. Therefore, I learned how to use research to back up my arguments. We wrote many different essays based on different types of literature, which is something I had not done before. Initially, I had a few problems, but learned from those mistakes to become better at writing. I definitely have things that I need to work on in the future. However, looking back on my semester I have overcome many of my writing obstacles and have become a better writer.
Throughout this semester we have had to write many types of essays. Although this is a college English class there is still room for improvement. I made much improvement during the semester of the class. I was able to identify my weaknesses. I learned how to make improvements to the areas I was having problems in. Although each essay we did was different I was able to begin with one essay and throughout the semester turn it into two other essays. I was able to change my style of writing to fit the type of audience I was working with. I will continue to work on my writing and keep improving it.
Studying other academic essays and becoming more focused in what I put into an essay and what I leave out should improve my ability to produce a balanced essay, which adequately covers its subject matter and includes all the necessary references.
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.
I was never a person that liked to write essays. This semester I really enjoyed writing those essays and specially because I was learning new things while writing them. Some things I could do to improve my essay writing are not to wait till the last three or four days before I turn my essay in to start doing it. Another thing I will do is if I forget how to do something or about some rule in the common errors I made I will just go back to all the lessons I printed out to have as reference. I think those will help me allot. And one last thing I will do to improve my writing is to try my best not to confuse all those words I got confused. I will do my best to learn each word and its rule of where it goes so I won’t have the same mistakes I had 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 in see what areas I lacked in and where I succeeded. Some of the skills I had shocked me as I didn’t think I had those capabilities in me.
Looking through my past submissions and pieces of work throughout this past semester, I have made many realizations in regards to my progress as an English student. Through re-reading my writing, and reviewing the feedback I have received on my writing, I can recognize my growth as an English student. In addition to realizing my growth, I am also able to see a lot of areas that still need work. This past semester I have faced many challenges, I have pushed myself to go outside of my comfort zone, and I have excelled in several areas. After analyzing my past works from this semester, I have identified many re-occurring strengths and weaknesses from each unit, as well as challenges and goal assessments for myself in the future.
...udy habits, and awesome test taking strategies. I also learned about creative thinking and how it applies to everyday life, as well as active reading as it helps with college level reading. Another thing that I learned a lot about was what exactly what my professors expect of me, and how to decipher what is actually being requested of me in a writing assignment. I also learned how to avoid plagiarism and retain my academic integrity.
Much like Benjamin Franklin believed, I feel that a person should take advantage of the time the person has in life with activities a person wants to do or needs to do. A person should not spend much time on activities the person does not want to do. Life is way too short to concern oneself with work or other activities one wants nothing to do with all the time. When possible, I try to forget about my responsibility and just let go of the ‘things’ that do not matter to me. I think a person should try to occupy oneself with something productive, worthwhile, or necessary at all times. Even though a person’s life is left up to a person to live, I cannot imagine thinking that I owe my time to society through working a job that I simply despise. I am a compassionate person, but I do not owe anyone anything regarding my time.