On another hand, before this semester, I had not found a way to use prewriting to my advantage. This course taught me a new method of prewriting that came in very useful. I noticed that, over the course of these past few months, I began using my prewriting more and more while composing my essays. I learned a method of prewriting that breaks my essay into questions or goals. By compiling the information I need to answer those questions and achieve those goals alongside each other, I effectively create a guide for myself. The information that I pair with the questions is not necessarily detailed. I learned to simply give myself an idea of the content I wish to put there, giving myself the ability to be flexible. This method also works well with my own style of writing. Using this method of prewriting allows me to keep a certain kind of flow to my writing. Instead of having a specific and strict structure to my paragraphs, I convey my message and make it all seem like one cohesive piece. I notice that when I have very …show more content…
I greatly improved my use of more advanced punctuation. Instead of using the basic punctuation that students are taught in elementary school, I have gotten much closer to mastering the use of hyphens, semicolons, and other punctuation marks. I have also expanded my vocabulary. I opened up to more advanced vocabulary by researching synonyms for basic words in an online thesaurus. This was a goal I set for myself at the beginning of the semester and I have achieved that goal. Specifically, my goal was to use new vocabulary words in each essay, even if it was only a few. My goal was fairly simple, but the achievement of that goal shows my initiative and desire to continue improving upon my skills. This was my greatest improvement this year, and my essays overall demonstrate an excellent knowledge in things such as grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, and
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.
I did not have a firm writing philosophy before this semester, but I to some degree I understood the importance writing can have on a situation. Now I understand that writing has two outcomes: gaining support or losing support. When writing an essay it is best if the writing is as specific as possible. This way the audience is hopefully not left with a confused opinion about the topic. Since the beginning of the semester I have put a conscious effort to change my writing style. Instead of the box format that is learned in high school I try to use a more graceful approach while still being organized. Also, I evaluate the credibility of a source before I use the information to support my thesis and understand the roles of using ethos, pathos, and logos. My assignments are now written with more developed thought by elaborating on ideas in the body paragraphs. By participating in the assignments throughout the semester I have accomplished, to different extents, the objectives for the English Composition 101 course. My writing has improved in multiple areas such as knowing who my audience is, and how writing drafts and making revisions help me evaluate the effectiveness of my essay. I am also aware that academic writing differs from day-to-day writing because for academic writing I need to present the most credible evidence in an organized format. Furthermore, I now can effectively evaluate my writing to know where I can improve.
A person could clearly see that by simply looking at the grades that I have made on my final essays. On each essay so far this semester I have been able to earn a higher grade than the previous essay. One thing that I was able to correct by looking back on was usage of the word “it.” As stated by Schwartz, “It is a pronoun, so it must be replacing a noun or pronoun, what is it replacing?” By reflecting to my previous essays and reading this comment I was able to further understand the usage of the word it, and along with this I would be able to correct it in essays after that. Along with getting better grades on my final papers, I was able to further understand the purpose of pre-writing assignments. In the beginning of the year I would look at pre-writing assignments as almost a waste of time, but as I progressed through the course I would see just how much of an impact they could have. Whenever I would do badly on a pre-writing assignment it would usually translate over to a mediocre rough draft. Whenever I realized this I was able to grow off of previous mistakes and spend more time on the pre-writing. The more time I spent on the pre-writing the better grade I would get on that assignment as well as the rough draft. Despite me constantly reflecting to my previous essays, it is still one thing that I need to work on. During one of my essays I was making the same mistakes that I had made in previous essays, so much that my professor stated “See comments in previously graded assignments and apply them to the writing in this one” (Schwartz). I was making so many of the same mistakes that I had to go to my previous paper to see what I was doing wrong. After I read this comment I realized how vital it was to assess the comments made on my papers and apply it whenever I am writing. During the final parts of the course I was able to comprehend comments made by
Transitioning from high school to college can be overwhelming. Before English 1301, I thought that I did not have to worry about being prepared for college. I quickly realized that my little background in writing essays was not going to be enough for college. Writing is not just something that I will use in English classes. In college, I will have to use effective writing skills in all my classes to complete research papers, essay tests and communicate to professors. Throughout my education, writing strategies persisted to be something that did not come easy to me. I dreaded writing because I could never find ways to get my thoughts down on paper. Ironically, a class that petrified me due to the amount of writing that was required ended up helping me in so many ways. English 1301 and my professor prepared me so much for college and real life.
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.
While being enrolled in my English 112 DL07 composition class, I have faced some challenging situations. For instance, writing a rhetorical analysis is not as straightforward as one would imagine. There are several strategic techniques that need to be implied; there is also planning, note-taking, forethought, and prewriting. On the other hand, I overcame this tough situation by taking the appropriate amount of time to get my thoughts and ideas together to create a rough draft. I believe I do fully understand what is academically expected of me for this term. This may sound like sarcasm, but it is the truth, I enjoy writing, and analyzing essays. Writing is a passion and stress reliever to me there is nothing better than writing an essay. Achieving
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.
Compared to the beginning of the year, I believe I have improved as a writer. I also think that my writing style has changed. For example this year I have learnt how to cite sources and direct quotes properly. In my “Last Rung on the Ladder” essay, I used to place a period inside the direct quote like in this example, “‘...have had a child.’ (King,15 ).” I have also improved on introducing the quotes. I do not say “the following quote shows…” anymore either. Now I usually talk about what the quote is about then present the quote. Another thing I have improved on is transitions between paragraphs. I used to say, “the first reason is …, the second reason is …” and so on. Now I connect my previous paragraph to the next one so that is is more
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.
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.
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.
This English course was a vastly informative class. We covered lots of criteria material and discussed topics during class. During the course, I have accomplish a variety of goals I once thought were unachievable. I still have a little ways to go to become the best writer I can be but by taking this course I have been able to expand and learn as a writer, editor, and analyzer of my work, peers work, and academic work. I have learned from others as others have learned from me. I have tried to improve particular aspects of my writing but continue to struggle with other aspects. I have found new strategies and breakthroughs that have allowed me to improve my essays. However, I am still learning how to write and believe that I always shall be.
Over the past semester, I have found the most challenging part of this course to simply be the transition from high school composition classes to college. Because writing expectations are so different in college than in high school, even with AP and Dual Enrollment “college level” classes, I first found myself being overwhelmed with the pressure to write the perfect first draft. The pressure came from knowing how much a final draft of a paper contributed to my grade. This left me sitting in front of my computer for hours at a time with thoughts of what I wanted to say racing through my head, but unable to deliver these thoughts into organized, structured sentences. I learned, through writing my persuasive essay, that instead of trying to write the paper start to finish and already in its perfect form, it is easier for me to look at the paper through its different components and focus on them individually, then work to best organize my ideas fluently.
Did you know that writing is an essential part of college life? Every student, from freshman to graduate, needs to develop good writing skills in order to succeed in life. Writing is important to success even if one chooses not to attend college; it is needed in everyday life. For many people, writing is a worst task that teachers require, however there is a solution: the writing process. The writing process is a technique that includes: prewriting, drafting, revision and editing. After reading Murrays, Lamotts, and Sommer’s essays concerning writing process and how to write an essay, I think I should use more prewriting methods to improve my writing.
I also improved my organization. While this still remains a challenge for me, I believe that I’m still improving in this area. Through the semester, I realized that before I even start to write I need to have my thoughts and research as complete as possible. When I did not do this my writing was confusing. I absolutely now know that I must make a list of ideas, facts, and think through the organization before I start writing sentences or the final product is really never as good as if I had started it