The purpose of a college English class is to challenge students beyond what they thought possible. Composition and Rhetoric 111 has been one of the most challenging classes of my writing career. Various assignments, such as a rhetorical analysis, a proposal, and a public service announcement expand one’s writing because each assignment has attributes unlike the rest. This semester of writing has stretched me in terms of writing ability, mental stamina, and adaptation ability.
Throughout the semester, many different assignments have been designed to better writing ability. Though the assignments were difficult, my writing ability has changed for the better. Previously, my teachers have not expected me to limit the use of to-be verbs; this class does. At first, using few to-be verbs proved challenging, but the more I paid attention to how often I use to-be verb the easier it became to limit them. At the beginning of the course my teacher told the class that to-be verbs do not sound professional and limiting them can enhance writing and she was right. Before this course, I considered my strengths to be organization and professional diction; however, I have noticed a change in the sophistication of my writing simply by eliminating to-be verbs. The best grade I received in Composition and Rhetoric 111 happened to be my college essay where I used only two to-be verbs per paragraph and I cannot say this surprises me. Additionally, I have not had to include various phrases in assignments before this class. Having to identify such phrases as gerund phrases, infinitive phrases, participle phrases, and absolute phrases has forced me to pay attention to the appropriate time to include certain phrases. In college and my professional career...
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...er to question why that made Kennedy effective. In my effort to abide by the constraints I lost focus. In the future I need to not only keep focus, but also begin with the end in mind. Thinking of logical locations to place these phrases can help the logic and focus of my essays and help me gain more points.
Composition and Rhetoric 111 has given me the ability to grow as a writer. The class has challenged me in not only my writing ability, but also my mental stamina and ability to adapt writing to constraints given by the teacher. After taking this class I know I need to work on placing phrases in appropriate locations, limiting to-be verbs, and creating effective topic sentences. This class has allowed me to understand what makes me a good writer, but also a bad writer. Keeping these changes in mind I will continue to write, perhaps more effectively in the future.
English 101 is one of the most common college courses in the world. When I enrolled in the class, I was bothered that I would have spend forty hours in a freshman writing class; along with at least another forty hours throughout the semester writing for the class. What surprised me, was that when I began writing my essays I was not annoyed or bothered; I actually enjoyed the assignments. Most importantly, throughout the course of the semester, I have become a better writer and have ultimately met the course goals of English 101.
When I was first accepted into the AP Language & Composition course, I felt overwhelmed. I had always received above average grades in all subject areas, but because this was an AP course I was unsure if my English skills were up to par. During the summer, my anxiety about the course increased. I began to feel that my writing skills were inferior to the skills of my peers’. Before this course, I did not have a developed writing voice or style. I had little knowledge of what phrases or words to avoid using in writing. I started to wonder if I truly belonged in an AP course. After having completed this course, I have a better grasp of the English language and have acquired skills that have improved my writing.
In my first draft for “Death Constant Beyond love”, my points were vague and seemed to be repeated in different parts of the paper which seemed that I had multiple statements. However, I did a deep analysis through my paper and located the key points of my ideas to create an outline that will drive the reader to only one conclusion, my thesis statement. In this essay I found my weakness but with hard work and multiple writing assignments I improved in a way that now I can focus in only one idea. For instance my thesis statement in this essay was contrasting as I wrote:
In the beginning of the year I was not a strong writer; the first three essays we wrote I consecutively received a 4,5--, and 3 on the AP scale. The main reason why I scored low on all of these essays is mainly due to the fact that I needed to use a deeper thought process as well as eliminate the use of any absolutes I was using. Rhetorical analysis is the place where I have excelled the most because I
This trimester I began the class English 101 with mixed feelings. Depending on the topic and style, I could really enjoy writing. However, there were occasionally times where I just did not feel much inspiration, and consequently, my writing quality was not exactly remarkable. My previous course to English 101 was AP Literature, where I learned how to analyze writing and write powerful papers. Although, to my disadvantage for this class, the teacher was more concerned about content than presentation and grammar technicalities. I learned to create good ideas and responses, and while I did possess the ability to convey them with proficiency, I could not express myself at a college level. Nonetheless, I can happily report that I have acquired these skills throughout English 101, learning to curb my near addiction to prepositional phrases, in addition to halting my use of coordinating conjunctions to begin sentences. I find it pleasing to read and compare my first essay to my latest one, seeing all of the differences and enhancements. My writing has improved through the trials of in-depth analyses and short deadlines, enabling me to perform my best no matter the style or topic. Overcoming the oppositions found in the class and my own
As the first semester of my sophomore year wraps up, I begin to realize that I have learned a lot in all of my classes. The class that I learned the most from has definitely been my English 111 course. This class have given me so many opportunities to improve my writing skills. With all of the success I’ve had in this class, I believe I will do just fine with writing later in my life.
Stepping into unknown territory, the assignments in this course differed from the usual rhetorical analysis. The shift from high school writing to academic college research ranged in different forms. For example, the longevity of the research papers was about two times longer than the normal two-three pages required. In addition, the process of writing expanded from the typical rough draft to the preparation of the citation resources used. The communication in the assignments was often restricted and the message was not easily comprehended. The major components that have lagged in my writing have been the ragged organization, poor grammar, and ineffective citation, however, I have improved with the help of the writing lab, writing feedback
Up until this year, before taking the class intermediate composition, I thought I was a terrible writer. I was right. Writing isn’t something that I enjoy doing, nor am I good at. Writing is difficult for me because I’m not very good at explaining things in a professional manner, that can be easily well written. While writing you are expected to make little to no mistakes, which is not something I’m great at. I am so much better at explaining things with verbal words rather than written words. I had not taken any extra writing classes before this year rather than the mandatory ones. Like I had stated before, I hate writing, with a passion. I dread writing anything, especially an essay for school, like this one. I’m
After taking this course, this has been a struggling journey. I did not find fun in this class due to the grade I have now as a result. My writing skills did not improve from high school, losing confidence in myself to create well-written, interesting papers. However, this class has given me ideas about new styles of writing. Having done these papers helped me to discern the qualifications to write a rhetorical analysis essay from a visual critique paper. Here is how my experience in College Writing went.
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst, I walked in to English not knowing what to expect. English 111 was boring at times but in many ways helpful. College Composition I main objective is to teach students the fundamentals of academic writing and critical thinking. Aside from learning how to academically write, recognizing grammatical errors, tone, and different styles such as MLA, APA, and CMS, are some other things learned in the course. This essay will be evaluating the book as a whole, self-reflections, essays, my strengths and weaknesses and my professor.
One of the first skills I feel that I have gained throughout this course is the ability to prove my points in writing assignments. I feel that I have improved on making my readers know exactly the points I want to get across and the points that keep to the topic. For example, on essay number one in paragraph two, I wrote about the reasons of why I felt the stand your ground law needed to be changed or removed. To prove my point one of the reasons I spoke about was the Trayvon Martin incident, of which I felt could affect my readers on an emotional level and get readers to agree with my stance. I believe that proving your points and getting readers to accept and connect with your points is a tremendously essential aspect of writing that this course has taught me. I feel with the help of this course I have significantly improved in this aspect. Although I think essay number one was a quality paper, one regret I have on it would be not providing more history on the stand your ground law.
Initial Reflective Essay When I first thought of what I wanted to do with my life after college, the first thing I thought of was helping people. The next step in deciding what I wanted to do with my life was to examine how I could accomplish this goal. I started pondering and I was thinking about how much I love to take care of my body. Health care and personal hygiene has always been an important factor in my life. So I decided to major in Health Sciences.
Theoretical Studies is a wide array of academic courses, which employ the customary techniques of lecture, discussion, written examinations and research papers, which are designed to lead the students in the subjects of mathematics, and the social and natural sciences. The Boricua College’s educational model is in the interaction between the intellectual and affective skills, developed in the courses, and the subject matter contents of the theoretical studies courses.
I decided that for my Inquiry 4 I would be creating a website, a remix of my Inquiry 3 project, on cults. For this, I created my own cult. This was done by studying previous cults, using satire in my writing to elaborate the similarities of cults and what people perceive in cults, and using Heavens Gate (a cult from the 90s) still active website, as reference for my own. This was definitely challenging for me, as I am not tech savvy, and really helped me tap into my creative side when writing a blog for the website. In this website, there is also a store, where there are products generally associated with cults, and a small description that is associated with each product, again using satire. Through the systematic use of text, pictures, color, and tabs, I believe I have been successful in creating an ironic cult website.
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.