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My first semester at Michigan State University was filled with many challenges that have made me a better student. It tested my ability to work under pressure, as well as encouraging me to properly plan out a healthy work schedule. Most importantly, it put the responsibility solely on my shoulders. Not only did this require me to stay on top of my work, but it encouraged me to find value in the work I was doing. All of this allowed me to look back at the semester and see drastic changes in my abilities. This was especially noticeable in my writing course, a subject that I have struggled with my whole life. Throughout the semester, with the proper resources, I was becoming an experienced writer, and learned many skills that I struggled with in the past. Coming into the semester, my writing skills were lacking. I never learned a proper writing process, and lacked the skills to revise my papers. I was used to turning in papers after writing them once, and then getting feedback after I received the grade. This was sad because I wasted so many years in high school where I could have improved my revision skills. Through WRA however, I have learned what a proper writing process looks like. From the first outline to the final paper, there are many things that need to be done to ensure you turn in your best work. Throughout the course, the saying, “shitty …show more content…
I have challenged myself as a writer to go above and beyond what I have done in the past. This has turned me into a much more well-rounded writer. I feel confident that everything I have learned will help me in the future as I advance towards my degree. I appreciate everything this class has done outside of my writing as well. This is my first semester of college, and WRA will go down as one of my first college course I have completed. For that, I appreciate the tools that this class has given me to help me be successful in my classes in the
I have always considered writing to be a work in progress, and it constantly can be improved. I have always been devoted to writing. I loved to write stories as a child because I could use my creativity and create any type of character I desired. But I have struggled with writing as well. English has never been my forte. I have received A’s, B’s, C’s, and D’s on essays. I truly never found my voice in writing. In my high school, English teachers would give me mixed reviews on my writing. For example, in 9th grade my English teacher said I was organized with my thoughts, and my writing process was excellent. While in 10th,11th grade ,12th grade my teachers only said negative things about my essays. Not being a strong writer made me despise writing. Then I started to believe that writing is not important. I came to conclusion that writing is not important ,because I am going to be a Math major. I had the mindset that I am not a writer, and will never be a writer. But, my thoughts about writing changed when I started taking English at CSUN.
My development as a writer has flourished throughout this semester. The first week of this fall semester started out with writing responses from our readings in the textbook. Looking back through and analyzing my reading responses at the semester to now; I noticed a substantial improvement in not only my grammar skills, but also my summarizing, and in-depth studying of writing adeptness. Another way I have progressed this semester is the vocabulary of my writing has significantly improved and become more scholarly. Another advancement I noticed was that the content of my work has matured, along with my organizational adeptness.
For the entirety of my undergraduate career I had the distinct ability to successfully write research papers, critical essays and journal entries. On the whole I feel that my writing was successful due to the fact that I received excellent grades as well as glowing comments of support from my professors. Please understand that I am not boasting about my grade point average, class rank or even attempting to claim that I am a good writer. However, I do feel confident in my abilities to write papers that speak directly to the question at hand while simultaneously addressing, although not necessarily adhering to, the professor’s point of interest. I must credit much of my success as an undergraduate to Mr. M of the High School English Department. My outlook on academic writing was drastically altered during the fall of 1997 with the help of Mr. M and a writing course entitled College Prep II.
In the past three months I feel like I have accomplished a great deal. As the semester comes to an end I find myself reflecting not only how I have survived the first semester but also what I have learned. The most important thing I have learned so far is how to become a better writer. I did not think it could really happen to me. I did not think I could handle all the work. I did not think I could actually become a better writer. Some how after all the hours of writing, and putting effort into the papers that I wrote this semester, I became a better writer. I did this because I concentrated on two very important areas, with the attitude of, if I could just become better in those then I would become a better writer. With help from an awesome teacher and a reliable tutor I have become a better writer by improving my skills in the areas of procrastination and content.
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.
College writing professors teach writing in a variety of ways around the United States and the world. The reason for this is that some professors are trying to teach their students a different aspect of writing an essay or a paper. Two views on this particular subject that I found interesting were Maxine Hairston’s essay "Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing" and also Thomas Bray’s newspaper article "Memorial Day and Multiculturalism". These essays are two totally different views on how diversity and multiculturalism is to be applied in America or taught in the college writing classroom.
I learned from my peers that I am a better writer than I thought I was and that increased my confidence in my writing ability. This didn’t just teach me about myself; I learned how to write several different types of papers. I improved throughout the semester as I learned how to analyze for rhetorical appeals, research an issue, and evaluate a topic. I am glad that I was able to learn a lot from this class, as well as read my peers work. It was intriguing to see how others write and what topic are important to them. Lastly, I was proud of all my work that I accomplished in this
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.
I am sitting in my bed, thinking about my process of writing as I am trying to go through it. It seems the more I think about it, the less I understand it. When I am writing, I don’t think. Which I know, sounds bad. But, I spend every single moment of every single day over thinking, over analyzing, and over assuming every aspect of my life. When I’m writing, I’m free from that for just a little bit. Until of course, my hands stop typing or the pencil (no pens- never pens) stops moving, then I’m right back on the carousel that is my brain. Heidi Estrem says, “...writers use writing to generate knowledge that they didn’t have before.” (Writing is a Knowledge-Making Activity 18). I believe my ability to write without an exact destination
...on, this course has taught me many different aspects to writing that I was unaware of in high school. This course has been incredibly fulfilling for me and has been nothing short of an amazing experience. I truly believe all of the things I have learned within this course, such as, writing proper thesis statements, proving my points within the body, discussing topics that critically engage my readers, the use of grammar, and many other essential skills will help me tremendously on my educational path. Although I have learned many skills as to writing a quality essay, I know there are many aspects to writing I can improve on, such as, expanding on my introductions and providing more background within my topics to the readers. I am extremely grateful for the various skills I have learned throughout this course, and I fully intend to utilize them all as I move forward.
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.
In conclusion, I learned many different things this year about my writing abilities, including what kind of writing I like, how to write efficiently and fluently, and the many ways I changed as a writer. When I walked into Mrs. Means language arts class, I was expecting it to be similar to last year, but with different material. I was totally wrong. I was challenged a lot in language arts to keep up with assignments and due dates. Most importantly though, I learned how to write a quality paragraph; something that will travel with me for the rest of my life.
To think that my first semester of college will be over this friday makes me realize how fast time flies. The first few weeks of college were tough, tiring and full of anxiety. Being in a new environment, a different state and not knowing one single person was something that I did not prepare myself for. Throughout all of the tears and the frustrations, I had to constantly remind myself that I am at The University of Akron to gain an education and become a successful individual.
This class has helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses in literature. This has allowed me to grow and realize that I am a work in progress. I am confident that by the end of this class my big issues in writing will be improved. Each assignment in this class is helping grow and is making me into the writer I know I can be.
Throughout this semester I realized that college is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I developed skills that I believe will help me get through my classes to come. I know I wouldn’t have been able to realize the complexity of college without the help of my Professors. They showed me college isn’t a joke, and that I need to work hard in order to get high grades. This semester was a headache because I was going through the transition from high school to college. I was learning new things and I lacked the traits a college students needs to have in order to do well. I know now that my next semester will defiantly go smoothly, because I now believe I have the traits a college student should contain thanks to my Professors!