On September 20th, I walked in to the classroom for my first college level English class at 7:30 AM. As I sat down at my seat, I didn’t know what to expect. The biggest question in my mind, though, was this: Will I learn anything from this class? Or will this just be another class where I complete assignments, but don’t enhance my skills? My question was soon answered, since throughout this class I have learned innumerable skills which have forever improved my composition. Specifically, there are three main goals which I have achieved in this class: I have learned to think and read critically, compose and revise in context, and reflect and evaluate. The first goal mentioned in the student learning outcomes, which I have achieved is thinking …show more content…
During the first few weeks of the quarter, as a class, we watched a video of a blind man and his use of rhetoric when begging in front of an expensive store. We paused the video near the beginning, and discussed different aspects of the story, such as the setting. After holding a class discussion based on our observations, and hearing other’s opinions and claims on the video, we resumed watching it to see the man sitting in front of the store, who was previously receiving no money, all of a sudden, began to get so much more money. This all happened after a girl walking past the man changed his sign for him. At this point, Mr. Kopp paused the video again, and we were asked: “What is on this sign?” Again, we held paired and group discussions in which we heard other students’ claims, and had a chance to make an educated guess based on our observations. Finally, at the end of class, we saw the sign and understood why her sign brought in much more benefit to the begging man than the sign which he was holding in the beginning of the video. This particular class discussion was extremely memorable to me, since it was a pivotal point in my growth as a critical reader, writer, and thinker. Instead of simply watching the video in one shot, we paused and discussed segments of the video. This was extremely vital, because when thinkers react to texts critically, they break it …show more content…
After we had understood the methods of analyzing one single piece of text, we began exploring methods of analysis of many pieces of text. As a class, we first looked a different types of chicken nuggets. We also attempted this with a timed writing session. During another class, everyone in the class received a certain amount of time to write on the topic of love, and after we had done so, we turned to our partners and synthesized our responses. We then turned into groups of four, eight, and twelve students to repeat our synthesis together. This activity helped me gain a better understanding of the pros and cons of synthesis. Overall, these activities helped me build my critical writing and thinking skills, because through this, I learned to take multiple texts and analyze them to make a new claim considering these texts. This was a great leap in my skills, since before this, I was used to only analyzing one text separate from others. After this assignment, I began using this form of critical thinking and understanding in my daily life. Whether I am understanding a news topic, or writing a paper for a class, I now know how to think, read, and react critically to a variety of texts, and I realize how to identify bias and other fallacies in these texts. Today, I can read a variety of evidences, and present a synthesis of all of them in my research papers. Before this
In this English course for the past semester, I have learned many new forms of essays and many new techniques. There was much more conversation with my classmates this year and I believe that lead me to a better class experience and grade. The essays have also taught me many new skills that can help me in the future. The rhetorical analysis, Causal Argument, and Proposal essay have taught me many new writing techniques and the advantages of peer review.
Going into this course, I felt that the reading and writing skills I learned in high school were very beneficial in preparing me for an English college course. In high school, I was enrolled in GATE and AP English courses. In these classes, I was assigned several readings and was taught to actively read by doing annotations. I was to summarize the writer 's main points, to write down my own opinions, or to connect it to any personal experiences. These annotations helped me understand the writer 's message better because I was able to break down the things the writer said and only focused on the important points. Then, I was also able to form my own opinion on that topic by deciding whether I agreed or disagreed with the author’s opinion. Moreover, I used evidence from the text to support my argument.
Throughout this semester, I gained skills learned in class and through peer evaluations that improved my writing skills to make my papers more academic. In the beginning of the semester, I was still using old skills that I had in high school for my papers. I would just add sources randomly in papers. This evidence would not flow with the rest of the paper. After adding the evidence from a source, I would just summarize the quote or sentence. I would not analyze or explain how it supports the paragraph and the paper. One example of me committing this is in the Gabriel Summary assignment. ...
As a first year college student this course has taught me many core aspects to writing and critical thinking. Writing has not been one my strongest points in education, but I feel this course has helped me make strides in writing in many ways. This course has enlightened me on various aspects of writing and has taught me many different ways of writing quality essays. A few things that this course has taught me is how construct an acceptable thesis statement, how to prove my points in body paragraphs, and how to properly cite sources. Although I have learned an immense deal of writing skills within this course there some things I feel I can improve upon, such as, introductions and properly heading papers.
Carr, K. (1990). How Can We Teach Critical Thinking? ERIC Digest. Retrieved June 22, 2007,
The first learning outcome in which I would like to discuss is writing. Writing effectively for rhetorical situations while working on my discourse community paper about Kappa Delta Sorority is perhaps one of the areas I found myself struggling the most in. This is because I consistently got stuck when making sure the paper had a logical flow within each paragraph and keeping
Coming into this experience, I questioned where I would find my place in the Senate. In 2014 I came here as a page and was able to witness daily floor action, but I never had the opportunity to be a part of day to day office business. I knew I would be at the bottom of the totem pole as an intern, but I wanted to feel as if I was making an impact on Senator Reid’s last year in office. In an office as large as Harry Reid’s it is hard to feel as if you are making an impact. I had the misconception that I would be working closely with him; however, thus far I have only spoken with the Senator one time. Within the first week I readjusted my expectations to try and find my role within the office. I was still doubting the impact I would make here this summer. With the Senator retiring, the office is tending to run particularly slow. When available, work was handed down to us by the Legislative Correspondents. Work primarily consisted of covering hearings, attending briefings, and doing research. When given the opportunity, I have worked as hard as possible to complete tasks to my best ability in hopes of getting more work in the future. As I may
In freshman seminar, I learned so much that could help me out with any class in college, with maybe the exception of science. I acquired the knowledge of how to write a self-evaluation, a biography, and a resume. Critiquing myself in a self-evaluation is better than trying to watch myself in the mirror and fix my mistakes on the spot. Taking the time to write out notes and learn as I go helps me remember what areas I need to improve in. Even though I gained an excessive amount of knowledge from freshman seminar, I still struggle with writing papers due to uninspired high school classes and the inability to reach into expanded detail. An important subject that was greatly appreciated in freshman seminar was eating habits for dancers. Eating
This semester was my very first semester as a college student. Being the first, it was probably the semester I would learn the most in. I learned the expectations for writing that I will have to live up to for the next four years of my college career. Though my high school teachers were usually demanding because I was in the Honors English section throughout high school, writing in college has still ?raised the bar? for me. Also, in high school, we would have weeks to pick a topic, create a thesis, outline the paper, write the paper, and then revise the paper. In college, the time restraints are not quite as lenient. I?ve had to learn to manage my time and be more productive with what free moments I have. Strangely enough, I?ve found the college English experience to be much more rewarding and enjoyable than in high school.
Writing is one of the most powerful tools of communication ever created. Contrary to what most think, modern generations have been exposed to more reading and writing, thanks to social media and other non-traditional sources. Although more Americans have been reading due to these other forms of media, not all of these media produce quality critical writing. Ultimately, critical writing involves thoroughly supporting one 's argument, making readers re-examine their own personal views and recognizing that one 's own argument is not foolproof.
No writer is the same, and no writer is perfect. As you start writing and learning new and different things in life you develop as a writer. Being in AP Language and Composition after each assignment I learned new things about me as a writer. I learned the effort it takes to make a really good essay. Prior to this class i would just whip up an essay and not really edit and revise it- it was basically one draft with small edits and turned in. Whereas with this class i learned to make a worthwhile reading of an essay by taking time on each paper and getting other people 's perspectives to see what is good and what is lacking. Throughout AP lang to make me at my full potential i took more time and pride into my work, i tried to take others thoughts
When assessing my current writing ability, I recognize my ability to efficiently relay a message; however, I struggle with using strong phrases and advanced writing. When I begin drafting a paper, translating my thoughts and ideas into words comes naturally, and I do not get lost in the process. As mentioned previously, the general areas that need improvement include using strong vocabulary to convey a professional level of writing. Also, I believe that I need to work on transition phrases between ideas.
Writing is an important and useful way to communicate with people. Without an essential writing skill, people may have difficulty communicating with others. In Pace University, English Department focuses on improving students writing by adding a workshop class to improve students ' writing. Over the course of the semester, I have learned a better technique and tips from Professor Boylan, reading an essay from authors and class discussion. Writing had always been one of my weaknesses, but it was challenging to take that initial step past high school. When I am first taking English 120, I have decided to take all the help that are available to minimize grammar mistakes, better sentence structures, and better vocabularies usage. Reading an article or essay before every class improves my vocabulary usage, Doing discourse community essay shows me a way to express my feeling about being
The adjustments that I have made to become a stronger reader have not always been easy. However, it became feasible in my junior year of high school when I decided to with draw myself from a standard level English to an advance placement course to face the challenges that came along with learning new material at a faster pace. Nevertheless it was also a comparison between my more advance peers and me.
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.