In this class, I have learned many things. To narrow it down to three is difficult. I have never been the person to enjoy writing or literature, but I have grown to appreciate it during this semester because of the things that I have learned. During this semester I have learned to appreciate asking for help, that it is okay not to know something and fully understanding something is not just about knowing facts. Ordinarily I have always dreaded writing class. I believe it is because I never knew exactly what I was doing. I would just throw facts and statements onto a page and hope it sticks. During this semester, I have learned how important it is to ask for help more than ever before. I used to see asking for help as a weakness, never as a strength. After spending countless hours in the writing lab. I can now see that it is not a …show more content…
In fact, it is a great strength to ask for help and to state that you do not know something. Not knowing is unnerving for me. The lack of knowledge and to think that I am not smart enough to know, is one of my greatest weaknesses. In the short period of time that I have been in this class, I have understood that it is okay not to be great at everything and to take a breath every once and a while. Before this class in my mind, I felt like if I stopped even for a moment, I would fall behind. I have now learned that it is acceptable to give myself a break, even if that means I need to ask off from work every once and a while. As a full-time student, I need to spread myself less thin, so I can start understanding rather than just memorizing. The statement that knowing a fact is not the same as understanding the concept. This statement is something that I have unquestionably struggled with over the course of this semester. This fact is something that I have obliged
My Growth as a Writer Most of us write in some form every day, so you would expect that most of us would be well practiced and pretty good at writing. I read and write all the time; I have taken several college courses and nearly all of them require writing in some form. However, before taking this class, not only was I not a good writer, I knew I wasn’t a good writer. Now I am not saying that I am ready to write my first novel, but I am certainly more confident in turning in my college papers. The content of this course and the style of teaching was incredibly beneficial to me.
Beginning in grade school students are taught a basic curriculum for English, some of the basics being: five sentences equaling a paragraph and five paragraphs equaling a essay. The beginning of the English learning stage is a time to get engaged in reading and writing. Honestly, most children when they are younger start loving to read and write but do they stay that way throughout middle school, high school, or even college? No, nine out of ten times kids who started out loving to read and write end up dreading it. But why? Every students has their own personal reason. Some may have never fully understood how to read or write and was to embarrassed to speak up others may have disorders such as dyslexia which makes reading and writing difficult. In my case I had a passion for reading and writing when I was younger. As I grew up I did not like the material that had to be read or the papers that was required to be written; but since I knew the work had to be done accurately in order for me to pass the class I learned to tolerate the subject.
Well, it was really difficult to pick just three things that I felt were the most important things that I learned in this class. I actually learned more in this class than any other class that I’ve taken in my degree program at this point. Every single topic was interesting, relevant, and important. The three things that I picked as most important to me have made the biggest impression on me.
This course was the first course I took as an incoming freshman, as anyone could imagine I was scared and nervous at the same time. Also since it is a writing course; I was hesitant if I wanted to continue in the class because writing is very challenging for me as an immigrant. Returning from summer break, I found it extremely tough to continue where I left off with my writing skills from high school. The fear of writing that my old high school teacher instilled in me did not help my writing anxiety either. In contrast, I found that the professor and the course were not at all intimidating as I assumed, the professor took time from his busy schedule to help his students to further improve their writing and the writing topics were very stimulating and thought provoking. Composition 1 has helped me learn more about myself and my writing skills, which allowed me to further self-evaluate myself, find where I need improvement and become motivated to change.
I learned from my peers that I am a better writer than I thought I was and that increased my confidence in my writing ability. This didn’t just teach me about myself; I learned how to write several different types of papers. I improved throughout the semester as I learned how to analyze for rhetorical appeals, research an issue, and evaluate a topic. I am glad that I was able to learn a lot from this class, as well as read my peers work. It was intriguing to see how others write and what topic are important to them. Lastly, I was proud of all my work that I accomplished in this
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.
In my experiences at the Writing Resource Center, I have found that the biggest area of concern that I have run into is the feeling that I am an ineffective tutor as far as tutoring the students that come in search of writing assistance. I feel that I am a very inadequate means of relief for these people, yet they still come to me for help. In this paper, I will explore these thoughts and try to find out what it is that makes me feel so ineffective.
I have always known that writing was not my strong point. Entering writing 101 in September I was very much afraid. I knew that the expectations would be very high for this course; thus it would be more difficult than any other writing class I had previously taken. At first writing was a nightmare for me, but thanks to the assistance from professor Smart and my tutors, I have improved drastically in my writing skills and, as a result I am now a better writer. During the course of four months, I have learned so much. There were a few bumps in the way throughout the semester, but I managed to overcome them. It is hard to believe that my journey in writing 101 is coming to an end. Through my hard work and dedication, this class has helped me to build confidence in my writing that will help me throughout my college life.
Never have I thought of myself as a writer, and after reading On Writing by Stephen King, I realized that I am most definitely not one. In his novel, King emphasizes one point that I find particularly compelling. He says, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot” (145). In other words, King argues that the best way to learn the craft is with practice. Yes, books and classes can help, but nothing compares to good ol’ trial and error.
Writing has never been a favorite subject for me, but I am glad that I took this class because it has improve a lot on my writing, and researching skills. Knowing the fact that writing has always been a part in our everyday life, and so it is a very important skill to have. Throughout this semester, I have learned more and more about the process of writing a research paper. I learned how to pick an interest topic, to put my ideas together, and to produce an effective paper in college courses. I noticed writing a research paper is not as easy as it sound. For instance, finding a trustable source, and a legitimate research can be extremely hard. Like how I went across many websites, and have read many articles, most of them contain a lot of
This past week I have learned a lot in Professor Tartaglia’s class. We have learned about textual and contextual analysis, beginning steps to learning how to be a better writer, Observation techniques, and critical interpretation. Which before I didn’t know much about any of these topics. In school, I never had a writing class. Of Couse, we would have to write papers for maybe your English class, but you never really had to have it in MLA format. A lot of things are very different for me here than they were at home. I like that fact that we don’t get homework every day and we have a while before our papers or journals are due. It gives me time to think and plan everything out and the finally start to write the paper and due my work. The only
I learned many different things this past semester. I have learned to write an essay using the MLA format. I also learned that trying and paying attention helps you pass the class. I think the one thing i have improved on is writing essays. I used to be terrible at them and always using incorrect punctuation, but after writing essays and getting feedback on them i have gotten a lot better at it. This may be the last essay i do write, but if it isn’t I will be prepared on the correct way to write one.
Going into my writing class of the semester, I thought that I was going to hate coming to class every Tuesday and Thursday but I was completely wrong because this class was very different from my writing and critical reading class that I took in high school. I was nervous about having to take this class because both of my older sisters used to complain about their gen-ed writing classes. After the first few days of going to our class, I was no longer nervous about this class because the class was run differently than my other writing classes. Instead of only focusing on one or two major essay, we would usually have short assignments due each class followed by a discussion. I also realized that Professor Almjeld wanted to make her writing classes
I also learned to appreciate poems. Way too often I would read the poems and rush through them and never take a minute to attempt to understand them. I would look for a simple story within the poem and I would never take the time the poem needed to completely understand it. I feel like this changed a lot during the end of the semester because we first started interpreting poems such as “Directive” I had absolutely no clue what it meant. Then towards the end of the semester I could witness my improvement when I read the “Black Snake” and I found meaning in it gradually. I really enjoyed this class because it taught me how to interpret and analyze literature better. It also helped show me my improvement.
Throughout this class, I have learned and worked on skills that I feel have made me a better writer and reader. By taking this class, I feel that I have become better at textual analysis of works throughout different time periods, I have learned how to discuss literary works among my peers both in class and online, and through the work in class I feel like I have become a better writer.