Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Steps of a writing process
The writing process part 2
Teaching styles in pe
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Steps of a writing process
I entered my first-year college composition course believing I was equipped with the knowledge, skill, and ability to write an efficiently researched and well-organized essay. In high school, I learned how to create the traditional five-paragraph paper with its introduction of a thesis, explanation of that claim through three sections riddled with supporting quotes, and conclusion that restated the author’s substantiated statement. This was the prescribed formula I had learned and grown accustomed to using for book reports, compare-and-contrast papers, and research essays and, from my bestowment of high grades and praise, I’d never thought to question or deviate from its pattern. When I attended my first college writing class, I thought it wasn’t going to be difficult or challenging because I believed I was familiar with the procedures and rules of writing.
The course, vaguely entitled English 1A, was a general requirement for all students attending the University of California, Riverside. I figured I was well prepared to write about whatever topics the instructor assigned and so I counted on the course to be unchallenging and uninteresting. However, the syllabus that the instructor, Professor Cardinale, supplied to the class was very unlike the English course outlines I was accustomed to. I began to panic when I read about unfamiliar methods such as freewriting and peer editing, which were going to be used in the class because I had never allowed or was required to have other students read my work. The most disconcerting aspect of the syllabus, though, was that the students were to choose their own topics to write about for all three of the required assignments. I had absolutely no idea how I was going to choose my own w...
... middle of paper ...
...learn about our world, to evaluate what we learn about our world, to communicate what we learn about our world” (4). I still use this writing process today because I believe it helps me to navigate, collect, and arrange my thoughts on whatever topic I am writing about. I now embrace the use of prewriting methods like freewriting and the recreation of memories to assist in my discovery and formation of a writing topic. Although I do not perform every writing tactic that Professor Cardinale employed, I believe that my current writing has undoubtedly strengthened as a result of the processes I have learned and now habitually apply before each essay.
Works Cited
Murray, Donald M. “Teach Writing as a Process Not Product.” Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: A Reader. 3rd ed. Ed. Victor Villanueva and Kristin L. Arola. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 2011.
“Unteaching the Five Paragraph Essay” by Marie Foley demonstrates how a five paragraph essay formula disturbs the thought process of the students and limits what they can write. A five paragraph essay is an introduction with the main idea, with three supporting topics showing the relationship to the main idea, and a conclusion summarizing the entire essay. Foley argues that this formula forces students to fill in the blank and meet a certain a word limit. She noted that this formula was intended for teachers in the education system to teach an overcrowded class how to write. While it is beneficial for the first-time students learning how to write. In the long run, this standard destroys any free style writing, new connections between a topic,
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 ...
The art of writing is a complex and difficult process. Proper writing requires careful planning, revision, and proofreading. Throughout the past semester, the quality of my writing has evolved significantly. At first, I struggled with the separation of different types of paragraphs, and I found writing them laborious. Constant practice, however, has eliminated many of my original difficulties, and helped to inspire confidence in my skills. As a collegiate writer, my strength lies in my clear understanding of the fundamentals of writing, while my primary weakness is proofreading my own work.
The first essay given in this course was about our whole composing process. This essay was hard to write about and I remember having several grammar mistakes. Sitting down and writing my process on paper,
The question of the day is how was Barbara Bileks English composition class and how it helped me better myself as a writer. The class overall was a very informative experience and I feel as I learned a lot. Whenever the class started I considered myself a mediocre at best writer and thought that I would never improve. However, Ms. Bilek taught me to become a better writer by using many techniques that I did not know existed. In high school, we were not taught how to write academically because to them it did not matter. Anything that we had to say was just a paper for them to read and it could not change their minds or influence them in any way. College is different because the university is a research institute meaning that our work if deemed worthy, could be used throughout the university as an example of good quality work or as a new discovery for the modern world. This class helped me in three ways: improving my writing ability, helped in expressing my opinion, and making me a better person in todays society.
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.
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
We would do research on a subject or a person, and write about them. We, once again, were not allowed to be unique in our writing or think creatively or critically. This is the time when I was taught the five paragraph essay. As stated in Gray’s article, the five paragraph essay is detrimental to students’ writing. This format for writing is damaging because it doesn’t allow students to express their own ideas about a topic. It does not allow for any creativity or uniqueness in a paper. In tenth grade, I wrote many papers for my English class, but I never once got an A on them. I was led to believe that my writing was weak because I could not relate to what I was writing about. I did not have any emotional connection to the research papers I had to write, and it made it harder for me to write them. I had grown up not being allowed to think critically, and therefore, my papers in high school lacked creativity and deeper
Writing can have many goals: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain, but in each section of writing the major
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.
Over the period of time that I was in this course, I thought it would be a very simple and easy to finish class. But as time went on, I found myself to be demanded more of what I think, what I feel, what must be relied on my ability to understand the concepts and conventions of not only the essays, but of what goes on in the writers mind when writing.
As I look back on my schooling I can’t believe how many papers I’ve written throughout my life. Naturally as I’ve grown up, my writing has developed from learning how to write sentences all the way up to the pages of essays that consist of deeper criteria. I know for a fact that I’m a better writer now than I was before. College writing is more challenging and I’ve had to learn how to adjust to it.
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 .... ...
The writing process is not a practice that comes easy to all people, especially with students who are below their grade level in reading and writing. Even at the high school level, students still struggle with fully developing their writing. Teachers today are under the constraints of state grade cards and standardized tests which often ask students to write in almost every subject level. Content teachers become frustrated when they feel like they need to add writing to their already full curriculum. The reality is that writing needs to be taught with content curriculum. Writing takes students beyond the regurgitation of typical multiple choice questions. Writing allows students to prove their understanding of the relationships and complexities of the materials covered.