Senior year is the time when students are either studious or negligent in their studies, when they take either advanced or mediocre courses. Although I, a senior, am neither studious nor negligent in my studies, I am enrolled into advance placement and honor classes. One of the AP classes I am currently taking is AP English Language and Composition instructed by Steve Wyrick, and it is unequivocally not elementary. To substantiate my point, Wyrick once had the class work on three concurrent essays, or major papers as he refers to them: Major Paper #2-1, #2-2, and #2-3. Additionally, all three essays had to be no less than two fully typed pages minus their headings. To challenge my fellow peers and me even further, Wyrick currently has us compose what he introduced as the SCTAD: Self-, Course-, and Teacher-Assessment Document. For the SCTAD, I have to evaluate the assignments Wyrick distributed, the classroom processes Wyrick established, the impact Wyrick has on me, and the road I plan to pave out towards an extraordinary life – all within eighteen paragraphs. The monstrosity of the document is only marginally diminished with the additional fact that Wyrick laid out what information must be included in each paragraph.
To complement this prodigious essay, the first factor, which is the value of course assignments, should be addressed with the aforementioned major papers. The middle child of the three essays, Major Paper #2-2, accomplished at a minimum of two curricular requirements set forth by the College Board: C3 and C5. Curricular requirement three specifies that “students should be able to write for a variety of purposes,” and the essay achieves that in two parts. One, the essay in itself had a specific purpose I had to accom...
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...g the essential tools. I am so far accumulating knowledge that can be used to overcoming the various hurdles I will eventually face. Only after I determine a potential life path will I be capable of actually building my extraordinary life. To figure out that life path, I will attend college next year with classes that can give me glimpses down various roads. Until then, I will just be gathering my tools with the help of Wyrick and my other teachers.
With teachers like Wyrick to give me my life tools, I have no doubt I have the potential to achieve an extraordinary life. Even if I fail in my endeavors, Wyrick has left his positive mark on me. Exactly how deep that mark will go, I do not know. What I do know is that the mark will continue to go deeper and deeper as I learn in this impact teacher's presence. Hopefully, the mark will remain rooted inside of me forever.
However, though John Warner’s argument is strong, Kerri smith’s argument is stronger. In Kerri Smith’s article “In Defense of the Five-Paragraph Essay,” She claims that the five-paragraph essay should stay taught in schools as a guideline for a well-structured essay. She explains the five-paragraph essay as an “introduce-develop-conclude structure” that even great expository writing follows this structure (Smith 16). She purposefully communicates to her audience this idea to show that this structure gives students the knowledge and capability to write a professional essay. The five-paragraph essay includes the three key points to have a well-structured and organized essay. By mentioning that other great writers use this form of structure, she creates a stronger argument as to why the five-paragraph essay is important to education. She continues her article by explaining her early stages of writing and how she was taught; over time, her teachers would show her new ways to improve her writing which, in the end, she was told to think “of those five paragraphs simply as a mode of organization” (Smith
In Patricia Limerick’s article “Dancing with Professors”, she argues the problems that college students must face in the present regarding writing. Essays are daunting to most college students, and given the typical lengths of college papers, students are not motivated to write the assigned essays. One of the major arguments in Limerick’s article is how “It is, in truth, difficult to persuade students to write well when they find so few good examples in their assigned reading.” To college students, this argument is true with most of their ...
Academic writing is a very discouraging topic that most young writers do not even want to begin to think about or imagine doing. Throughout college everyone will be asked to write multiple academic essays regardless of their major. We have read two sources in class that have helped clear up some common myths and also helped make academic writing not seem so foreign. The two sources we read were “What is Academic Writing?” and the first chapter of the book “From Inquiry to Academic Writing”. Many young students seeking a college degree are fearful about the amount of work needed to be done in order to survive their college courses. Academic writing is a challenging topic that many young people struggle to get a grasp on. Once the skill of
For my Final Reflection Essay I attempted to focus on the most obvious adjustments I made from writing high school papers to producing college level essays. This approach compelled me to examine a few of the papers I submitted in high school and look back on the steps I took to write them. By reviewing my previous work I realized that during Dr. Kennedys English 111 class I have effectively learned how to apply an outline, utilize research, and incorporate that research into my final paper. English 111 has helped me to understand the importance of the multiple steps of writing a great college level essay by forcing me to complete each step individually. My overall performance in this class has been above average and I have really demonstrated dedication to improvement.
Throughout high school, the English courses were very time consuming and over whelming resulting in me disliking the subject even more. The assignments and readings that were usually given took up the majority of my time; this resulted in work from my other courses being left unfinished. My last two years of school consisted of research papers and in class compositions. But nothing compared to the tedious work that I encountered my junior and senior year when I decided to challenge myself by taking AP English courses. Many people said it was just like any other English course with a little extra writing involved; my view was completely different. The AP English class...
My first college English class was ENC 1101 at the State College of Florida. In this course, I learned a vast amount of information about writing, reading, and grammar. When I first walked into ENC 1101 in August, I expected the class to be like any other English class in High School; with rushed busy work and a lot of useless tests and quizzes. However, throughout each week of the semester, Professor Knutsen’s class made me beg to differ. This class was not like any other high school English class. In this class I actually learned important information and did not do work just to complete it. This class had a few assignments here and there, enough to maintain, in order to learn proper information. I learned a lot in this class because I was not rushed to
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.
English Composition II has unexpectedly improved my writing into an academic level. As I studied various English reading and writing courses, this class “English Composition II” did not immediately caught my eye. However as I researched about the concepts of this class, the decision to make was not so difficult since I was lacking in critical thinking and the interpretation of works. Also as a Business Major, it made sense that the subject of English would be of interest to me and as a career requirement. During the first weeks, I thought that I would be fully prepared for this course after taking an accelerated course in English during the spring semester. However, after attending class for about a month, I certainly did not expect to learn an entirely new process of writing
Dual Enrollment English was the first real college-level class I ever had. I actually have taken other college-level classes before it, but Dual Enrollment English was the only course that gave me an accurate representation of how college will really be like and what it will expect of me. My journey through Dual Enrollment English began with a sense of fear and self-defeat and ended with a sense of satisfaction and confidence with many highs and lows along the way. This portfolio catalogs the evolution of my writing during my two semesters in Dual Enrollment English including seven different types of papers as well as each of their respective drafts and tutor feedback.
Every English 111 textbook should consist of three main things: the proper way to write an academic essay, review of proper grammar, mechanics word usage and a short transition chapter of the difference between writing in high school and college writing. Successful College Writing by Kathleen T. McWhorter has many of the essentials but noticed it lacked examples of a noble essay. All throughout class students critiqued essays but never actually saw an example of a good, noteworthy complete essay. Having examples of what a person shouldn’t do in an essay is always beneficial but should be followed by a precise academic essay. How are the student supposed to improve their academic writing skills if they have nothing to go by? Just because the book lacks a few of the basic essentials doesn’t mean the book itself will not be beneficial in any way. The book as a whole is pleasing but still has room for revisions.
For me, being a college writer means writing well-organized essays that readers enjoy reading. Being a well rounded writer was also important. Each unit in this class challenged me to write in a well-organized, concise way. During each unit, we conducted some sort of revision activity where I was exposed to other students’ writing. As I read their work, I picked up on their use of transition words and separation of paragraphs to make the essay flow. Naturally, I began implementing more transition words in my own work and learned the appropriate ways to split paragraphs. The structure of the class was key to the organization of my ideas which was crucial to the development of my essay. During the third unit of this class, we were asked to identify an issue on campus, conduct research on the issue, and finally propose a solution to correct the issue. At first, it was difficult to get my ideas down and figure out what it was I would research. What I learned in class allowed me to first identify the issue I would research, write a rough draft, and hear what others had written before the final paper was due. This helped me to identify the main points, brainstorm and figure out what additional research I would need to find to support my argument. Being able to organize my thoughts from the beginning made writing the paper a much easier process. This course has helped me to grow as a writer and make
Many may caution against writing the college essay in the fashion I intend too. English teachers, college tutors, and fellow classmates all live by the rule that writing about sports is cliche and overdone. Furthermore, when applying to art school, writing about art is seen to be redundant and commonplace. But it is more than just sports and art that I intend to write about. It is about the balance between these two juxtaposing activities, and how these are the two consuming passions that wake me up every morning.
I have learned many things throughout the course of the term, including such things as: how to write an essay and how to improve on essays that I have already written, how to locate and composite better research through the use of numerous resources found at the campus library, the internet, and the “Common Sense” textbook, how to cite research, examples, and quotations properly within the contents of my research paper as well as document it accurately according to MLA standards. Through the exploration of the “Subjects and Strategies” textbook, I have learned nine different methods used when writing an effective essay and how the different writing styles affect the overall theme and tone of the essay when used properly. This past semester, I have encountered many difficulties when trying to write these essays, but through the use of the textbooks, the aide of the instructor, and once I was able to classify the different types of essays and styles, I found them possible to overcome.
Each of the essays included an original version, followed by a revision memo, and last but not least a final revised version of the essay. After we completed an essay, the professor would grade our original essay and give feedback on how to further improve on our final revised essay. We then would have to take his corrections into consideration and write 2 paragraphs on how to fix our mistakes called a revision memo. The first essay we were asked to write an “Argument Description”. For this essay, it was required for the students to find the writer’s primary and secondary claims of a particular essay chosen from the Best American Essays book and describe how they work. Secondly, we were asked to write an “Argument Analysis”. In this essay it required the same work as the “Argument Description” essay, but we were asked to find the implications about the claims stated. The next essay, Professor Stuart asked us to write was a “Genre Analysis”. The “Genre Analysis” essay required us to develop an argumentative analysis that explains the expectations of the assignments. This specific essay required us to explain the strategy and process, and evaluate how we had to adapt to the assignment. Our final essay for this course was called an “Argument in Literature”. The “Argument in Literature” essay required us to compose an argument analysis over one of the course readings and give an evaluation of the ideas
Therefore, it is imperative that the plan allows sufficient time for revisions. Another critical strategy is to write with a clear sense of purpose and audience. Each academic field presents the college writer with specific writing styles and unique writing expectations. As stated by Johnson, “College level writing involves more than collecting information from sources and inserting information into your paper” (2009, para .... ...