Out with the Old, In with the New

I feel as if I have become a better writer and my improved writing skills are shown within each essay. When I first signed up for English 101 at soar, I thought it was more of a reading and comprehension class instead of a writing class. On August 19, the first day of class, I learned that this class was opposite of what I thought and it made me super nervous. I never had to write so many lengthy essay in a short amount of time. When I first enter the class I saw myself as a writer that needed a lot of work.

The thoughts running around in my head were telling me that this essay might be a little better than the pre-assessment. After all, Mrs. Robinson had proclaimed she graded harder to teach us, but there were still doubts in my head. I thought to would write something personal, since that was what I was used to and it worked well for me. Upsettingly, I spent time on this essay but didn’t use all the resources to my benefit. I didn’t read it aloud after being finished and go back and check to see what I wrote made sense.

The thoughts running around in my head were telling me that this essay might be a little better than the pre-assessment. After all, Mrs. Robinson had proclaimed she graded harder to teach us, but there were still doubts in my head. Those doubts made me think to write something personal since that was what I was used to. Upsettingly, I spent time on this essay, but didn’t use all the resources to my benefit. A key part I didn’t use was reading aloud the essay after and going back and check to see if it made sense.

Before taking English 1A, I was a discouraged writer because as an English learner, I did not believe that I had any ability to be an acceptable writer. Therefore, I did not have any joy while I was doing writing assignments. However, I have gradually loved writing through this semester. I fortunately got plenty of helps from my classmates and professor; thus, my writing skills have gotten improved a lot. I currently can feel that writing is a quite enjoyable process, and I like delivering my ideas to other people by writing, too.

Once I learned a variety of new genres, techniques and ways to improve my writing process, that fear faded. Currently, I don’t feel terrified with the idea of English 102 and on; this class has not only given me tools to succeed, but a positive set of goals that will prevent my habit of procrastination that I loathe. What I have learned has changed me as a person and a writer; my new mindset and approach will hopefully keep my writing process growing and my drive to improve in high gear.

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

For the first time since middle school I got an A on a major paper for English. Even though I got an A I was still scared to write my senior paper. I kept telling myself just because you got lucky with one A doesn’t mean that you will get even more. I wrote and rewrote my senior paper at least four times until I finally was satisfied with the finished product. It took about two weeks for her to grade and I was truly scared during that whole time.

This was an idea suggested by my professor in the beginning of the year. This worked at first; I would get into my writing mojo, and not stop for an hour or so. Suddenly, the ten minute technique stopped working. I would sit down, and get distracted, or do anything but my assignment. This was when I realized that this habit would take a lot longer to break that I originally thought.

Ashley made the course very enjoyable, and retained the fun aspects of writing, which I thought would fade away upon entering college. In the end, one point of improvement that I have noticed is that I have refined my ability to articulate myself in writing (thanks to the various styles of writing we did). I can write with feeling. As for my future in writing, I hope to improve my scope of vocabulary, and I believe I could start by reading a lot more. English 101 has taught me the ropes of writing in a delightful way, and I can only hope that English 102 will be the same!

IB English 11 taught me to be a more analytical thinker and refined my skills as a writer along with enhancing some of my weakness like transitions and vocabulary. One of my biggest challenges while writing was time management; I have procrastinated working on essays more often than not. I would put off working on an essay for TV shows, movies, other school work, etc. Though I am able to write under pressure, I cannot produce my best work under pressure; time