My initial intrigue with poetry began due its musical nature. I value the coupling of figurative language and ambiguity to communicate emotions and personal experiences in a distinct, original way. In the past, I have written poems and lyrics as a means of sorting my thoughts and dealing with overwhelming emotions. Entering the course, I knew my struggles would not lie as much in writing poetry, but rather, through deciphering the meanings and messages behind others’ poems. Throughout high school, I questioned my ability to annotate poems and write about them in an academic format. In my self-assessment, I identified my greatest writing weakness as “my inability to be concise” because "I think of numerous ways to express [an idea or thought] and have trouble narrowing it down to a single one” (citation). Throughout the semester, I have become an efficient editor, revising my papers …show more content…
Partially, I think this is due to the fact that I chose to write on Gwendolyn Brooks’ “The Boy Died in My Alley,” which is one of my favorite poems. Also, I used Linda Koolish’s interpretation of the poem as my opposing argument source because I agreed with certain aspects of what she said, but mainly found that she “focuses too much on the individual incident and not enough on the overarching issue of violence that Brooks’ is addressing” (citation). Overall, I was more confident in my ability to interact with the argument source, respond to what was Koolish’s interpretation, and refute it with my own observations and interpretation of Brooks’ poem. In the feedback I received from Professor Tandon, he noted, “your engagement with the argument source [could] be more nuanced. Your analysis [could] be more consistently insightful. Your argumentative structure [could] be sharper and your prose style more concise” (citation). Despite these notes, my paper earned an A-, showing that I had made improvements from Paper
I am more knowledgeable about invention, arrangement, style, and delivery, all in which create a masterful piece of text. A few examples, I have learned to organize and construct my thoughts and ideas clearer. I have been taught to use stronger transitions and focus more on the delivery and content of the body element of essays. Further, the instructions and advice I have received throughout this term have influenced my understanding of the purpose of writing. My outlook on writing has been modified by shifting my perception of writing from, writing to prove I am a good writer by perceiving it as using “fluffy” or BIG words to impress my audience. I grew to understanding that good writing’s purpose is to engage the writer by mind-striking ideas and arguments, which therefore will prove and title me as a “good writer”.
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.
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
English 111 was different from what I expected a college English course to be. I was expecting to have to read books and analyze the meaning of the themes. I found it challenging to have to analyze different websites and design our own. This was different from what I experienced in high school English classes. This course required that I expand beyond my comfort zone when writing essays. This required that I put more time and dedication into projects. It allowed me to learn valuable skills to use in other courses in college and I learned what abilities I need to concentrate on. I carry with me the abilities to use rhetoric devices to analyze websites, research techniques to polish the ethos of my papers, and the knowledge that I need to refine using other sources of media (i.e. websites, PowerPoints, etc.) to present an argument from English 111.
Although many will argue that great writing will require time and practice, opponents claim that great writing is like a puzzle which means one can put the pieces together to create an astonishing puzzle. This was the case when I was a 10th grade. As a tyro, I didn’t know much about writing elements and styles. Fortunately, one of my English teachers, Mrs. Roberson, change my outlook on writing. She taught me countless techniques. From that point, I started reading books to increase my knowledge and vocabulary. This was an incredibly wondrous experience for me. I was learning new information while expanding my learning capacity. This was stupendous. It was a life-changing moment for me. Throughout my high school journey,
Coming into this experience, I questioned where I would find my place in the Senate. In 2014 I came here as a page and was able to witness daily floor action, but I never had the opportunity to be a part of day to day office business. I knew I would be at the bottom of the totem pole as an intern, but I wanted to feel as if I was making an impact on Senator Reid’s last year in office. In an office as large as Harry Reid’s it is hard to feel as if you are making an impact. I had the misconception that I would be working closely with him; however, thus far I have only spoken with the Senator one time. Within the first week I readjusted my expectations to try and find my role within the office. I was still doubting the impact I would make here this summer. With the Senator retiring, the office is tending to run particularly slow. When available, work was handed down to us by the Legislative Correspondents. Work primarily consisted of covering hearings, attending briefings, and doing research. When given the opportunity, I have worked as hard as possible to complete tasks to my best ability in hopes of getting more work in the future. As I may
I signed up for English 131 because I enjoy writing and figured it would be a fun and informative course in which I could learn writing strategies to help me in my college career and beyond. I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty good writer, as I took AP English classes in high school and it has always been a subject I’ve naturally gravitated towards. This course exceeded my expectations as to what I could learn in ten weeks. I feel that my writings skills have developed in all aspects, and I can take the skills I have learned and applied them to other courses and my future career. It’s an extremely good feeling after finishing an assignment, reading it over, and feeling very proud of how I was able to develop my thoughts and resources into something that has the potential to make a lasting impact on its readers.
The end of the semester has arrived and with it comes time for reflection. This semester has had many ups and downs. However, one thing is for sure: it was a fantastic first semester of college.
My first semester at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has been everything that I expected it to be. I knew it would be strenuous to move to a new city totally different from what I had grown up in. I also know that this would put a strain on making new friends, keeping up with my social life, maintaining a healthy mental and physical and healthy lifestyle, and achieving my goals - nonetheless, I have managed to do all of these things and have a splendid time doing so.
We should strive for perfection in all walks of life, but if we are to be successful on life`s journey we must hold these truths to be self-evident: that error(s) are a must in growth and perfection is impossible. Throughout this fall semester in Writing 101, I have grown as a more confident writer. I have learned to overcome the fear and hindrance of inadequately transcribing my true thoughts to paper- selfishly working to please the reader and not my idea(s). Sharing my perspective, without fixed add-ins, is what makes me unique as a writer. I feel this can lead to constructive debates and can act as a learning tool for uninformed readers, but if the writing tampers the room for debate and learning is lessened. As a writer, I pride myself on the ability to pay close attention to detail; however, it was not easy for me to become a more confident writer. Although I praise the work of my first essay, Common Readings, because it
Before I came to UNCP, I went to a school called High Point Central (HPC). We were labeled as one of the poorest schools in the state because we sat in the Guilford County Public School System. At HPC I had a teacher named Mrs. Gilmore she was the first real English teacher that really taught us how to write. I went into the class with my “9th Grade writing” (as she would call it) as a Jr. it was the first experience I had ever gotten a horrible grade on my writing. The very first thing she told us was that “If you do not know how to write in MLA you are not going to make it past 2nd semester in college.” This struck me in a way that I knew I had to get my writing together, the last day in her class of my senior year she told me to watch
The time passed so quickly, this semester is almost done. After this semester of study, the goals I have made the most progress is the course Objective 1: “Reading texts from a variety of disciplines in a variety of genres”. Before when the teacher asks to read some articles I will just read it once and get over it. So I often times forget the detail of the story. And have to reread the reading all over again. I don’t like to read something over and over again, because that will make me get bored. For example, my history class is requiring a lot reading, and all the reading about history is boring and long. So I only read it once, because in my opinion spending a lot time in reading about this boring history book is horrible. Unfortunately, we are having a quiz on it, I start to recall, and I have some blur memory about the book. So I take out the book, and start to read, but is all too late for it. I have a bad grade on it, I will forever remember this lesson. If I read more in-deep and carefully, I might not get a bad grade on my history quiz. In order to correct my reading process, I decided to use sticky notes and
In the early years of my life, I had never once thought that an individual would have an impending circumstance that would lead them to be unable normally process life’s simple problems. This idea changed from early on in my third-grade year to where I would bring home a constant string of Ds and Fs in my occasional assessments which would eventually turn into my grades. Little did I know, this complication would land myself into multiple summers where I spent most of my time in classrooms rather than the pool. It was not long after that where I finally discovered I have a math learning disability. From what I have learned through my own impacting endeavors, I fully understood that amid any and all disabilities a person may carry, they have
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.
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.