English Reflection
This first semester at the University of Akron has flown by. I learned many new writing concepts that helped me become a better writer. English composition was a required class that I had to take in order to get my degree. Although this class was required I still wanted to take this class to become more knowledgeable about writing. Coming into English Composition I was worried about all of the papers and the workload that I would have to complete. I knew that I was going to have to write a lot more than I previously had in highschool, but I was unsure of just how much. The works that I decided to include in my portfolio comprise of my Literacy Narrative, Image AnalysisPaper, and essay titled Mayas Hardships based on Maya's experiences in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I selected these works because I felt that they are the ones that require the most improvement to them. The papers i've chosen show how far I've came In English Composition. I have learned how to properly articulate and develop a thesis statement, how to write while keeping the audience in mind, and how to engage in the steps of the writing process in English composition 110.
I decided to pick the first paper of the semester which was the Literacy Narrative. In this paper I learned how develop my thesis. I used the xyz form that I was taught this year to make my thesis more clear and able to understand. This was a major problem I faced coming into this year. I've gradually become better in this area taking Get
Overall, I think my experience in my first college level English class was an admirable one to say the least. In high school I was never one to take advanced an English class for the simple fact that English is my worst subject and I am not a big fan of reading. I think this is mostly do to my lack of imagination, and since I am a visual learner, I have difficulty visualizing and understanding what I am reading. This intro to college writing classes has moved me one step closer to becoming the writer that I desire to be and has taught me many things, among them, avoiding plagiarism, application of constructive criticism, and making my writing more interesting. In high school, I never cared to pay much attention to giving authors credit for their work and I definitely never cared to state what page in a reading I found my information from. Once I got into college Professor Jones helped me to avoid plagiarism and give the author's the credit they deserve. For example, in the in–class essay assignment I quoted the author as follows, "While conservatives see Euthanasia is illegal and 'unethical for a doctor to deliberately enable a person to terminate his/her life' (Squadrin 7)." At the end of my quotations I placed the author's name and the page number I located the information from in parenthesis then placed a period after the parentheses. Quoting the author this way allows the reader to know from who and where you got your information from, makes you a more credible source,
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Proficient writing is an essential skill in all aspects of academic and professional achievement. English 101, Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric, provided the framework to good writing, teaching me composition and rhetoric fundamentals, polishing up my grammar and style, and expressing a clear message. English 102, Composition, Rhetoric, and Research, continued to build on the skills I learned in English 101, focusing on the subject matter research process and employing various rhetorical and literary devices to better express a clear message to the reader. The course also improved my critical thinking capacity, allowing me to culturally evaluate my target audience, present logically flowing arguments using appropriate language and structure, and critically reviewing my writing projects for content and expression. Every writer inherently knows there's always room to improve and I hold fast to this mindset in all academic, professional, and personal writing projects. English 102 has both challenged and inspired me to grow into a much better writer than before I began the class, providing the necessary skills to be not just a good writer, but a great writer. Most of my English 102 writing projects are rhetorical arguments, intended to persuade the reader in one direction or another. Reflecting on the many skills I honed in English 102, my predetermined use of rhetorical strategies (ethos, logos, pathos), developing a concise thesis statement, and clearly defining
I would love to take the English Intensive and Intensive World Cultures and Geography for many reasons. First of all, one reason for me to take these courses is that I genuinely like to read and write. In the World Cultures class I think that learning about different cultures would really interest me. I have always had a passion for reading and learning in general and a more in depth class would help sate my voraciousness for new material. Although I have never really enjoyedwriting as I learn more about it I am beginning to like it more and more as I mature. I think that a hard English class would accelerate my learning and allow me to enjoy English at the same time. Furthermore, a class that really enjoys the material would be wonderful
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Writing doesn't always come easy for me, considering that English is my second language, my writing isn't the best. In order for me to get better, I took English AP courses in high school that encouraged me to stand at a college level and be prepared for essays comparatively to this one. Although I know I need a lot more improvement for mywriting skills, I am taking writing way serious than what I did my previous years. I am willing to learn and get the best out of this course. There are many reasons why I write, but the main reason is that "writing is everywhere" oftentimes is not my favorite thing to do, but doubtless is the most extensive and essential. I personally, need a peaceful surrounding free from interruptions to focus during my writing. Before I start composing, I must be in a comfortable place where I don't get easily distracted, and unfortunately my house is not the place. When my family is home, they usually ask me to do chores or to go pick up my brother or drive to the grocery store. At the same time, I get distracted by social media or TV. In fact, my phone can never be around because I know that even if I don't have any messages, I know that I will get distracted with something useless and time consuming. From there on, my level of focus goes down and ultimately I get lost on the writing assignment.
At this point, I talked to my parents to let them know that I need my own study time outside of home. To do so I regularly go to places where the internet
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English Reflective Letter When first reviewing the course materials for English 202 this semester I felt a bit overwhelmed with the assignments. Though I genuinely enjoy writing, I thought that I would never be able to research a topic of my choice, develop a variety of strong evidence, and write a paper on it, but somehow, I made it through. I have learned so much over the course of this semester that will help me in future years of writing and am grateful to have taken this class. For my metaphor, I'm comparing composing this paper to riding an elevator. When you first get into a building, you may or may not know what floor you're looking for. People enter and exit the elevator at each stop, which can slow down the process and become frustrating. You might even have to ask someone what the right floor is you need to head to. The process has many ups and downs but in the end, you achieve your goal of getting off at the right floor. In this case, at the start of the semester, I was unaware what the topic of my research paper was going to be....show more content... I relate these to asking fellow elevator riders which floor they are going to when they enter the elevator. By receiving comments on each individual assignment, it gave me different views on my work that I might not have picked up on or thought of before. I took these comments into consideration when working on the next assignment and it helped me to expand and grow as a writer. At times when I was stuck on an assignment, I would look at other students' discussion posts to help lead me in the right direction. By having this feature in an online class, I feel that it made it seem more personal. Online classes don't have the conversation aspect of a classroom setting, so I found it to be rewarding to interact with other students and read their work through the discussion posts. It was also a bonus to gain feedback from comments written by fellow
This semester, we have practiced several reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Many of these that have helped me become a better writer this past semester. The readings, writings, and critical thinkings were not the only things that helped me become a better writer. I highly believe that the constructive criticism from yourself Professor Freeman is what helped the most. Every Time you graded a paper and left comments it pushed me to do better and improve on the next. So if I was to take anything to English 101/Composition 2 it would be a combination of determination to be better and all of my skills i've learned over this semester, such as outlines, organization, analyzing, and how to write a working thesis. One activity that definitely helped me with outlining was the outline and research paper scaffold for the argumentative research paper. I used this specific example because the research scaffold broke down the paper step by step, which helped me understand how I would layer and organize my paper. The scaffold made it easier to envision my wholethought process. By using the outline I was able to work my paper out one thing at a time. I think this skill will be beneficial because I'll be able to give myself a clear outline and write my paper with a clear focus. Before English 101/Composition I had no clue how to develop a thesis statement. Over this past semester reading these lessons and practicing working thesis's I feel like I've improved tremendously.
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Throughout junior year of high school, I always wondered why English was my worst subject. I thought to myself, "How can someone, whose first and only language they speak and know, be so horrible at it?" I could easily find the solution of a composed function in my math class, yet I had a difficult time matching words to their definition when the answer was literally right there. I was in a classroom filled with many peers who were at the top of the class as well as prospects for Ivy League schools, if not recognizable universities. Although I spoke to many of them, I was always nervous when they would read my essays in peer reviews. I felt I was too dumb, especially in English Literature. bell hooks sampled a poem by Audre Lorde, and it states, "When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard not welcome / but when we are silent we are still afraid" (4). This is exactly how I felt each time I would attempt to write an essay. I would be in fear that whatever I wrote was foolish and it would be laughed at. This fear would be over come after my bubbly English teacher, Mr. Aguilar, would read out one of my essays that I wrote; however, this glory was short lived as I found another flaw in my writings timed writing assignments. Mr. Aguilar would often have us do essays over the weekend, albeit I did take quite awhile brainstorming, I was able to get a decent one in; that is until he started making us do timed essays, and I would go into a panic. Each class was only
English composition has taught me everything I know now, from how to effectively write a thesis to grammatically fix my essay. This class fixed my writing skills to speak and write incorrect terms. English composition gave me the edge I need to take my writing skills to next level. This class has helped me understand the importance of documentation in a research skill. English composition showed me that sources either make or break your essay. The true honesty of this course was that I am glad I took it. At first, I hate this class so much, because this class required so much extra work to be done, but over time I realized that the extra work really pushes you over the edge to make your essay great. The extra work justifies your essay and molds
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English class has never been my strong suite. I always had to work twice as hard in English then I did in any other class. Writing paper always had me stressed and overwhelmed, I felt discouraged in my work. l never seemed to be able to get to the level I wanted to. I would try my hardest and paid attention in class, but when it came to writing the paper none of that seemed to help. I think that my experience in English Composition 1 has helped gain and grow in some areas, but I don't think that it highlights a well–written college essay. Some elements that I worked to improving was introduction paragraphs, tone, style, and thesis statements. Throughout my experience in English 101, I gained information on the element...show more content...
During high school, I seemed to get marked done for the tone used in my paper. I learned in this class that tone is a very important element in writing a paper, and can help the paper flow better. My sentences in my high school papers didn't vary in length very well then. I always had a problem with short choppy sentences. When writing my profile essay, research easy, and personal essay I tried to make sure I had a variety of sentence lengths. I feel I gained some improve on this element, I know I still have issues but I have grown from where I was before. Some papers were stronger than others and I struggled a bit more when constructing my paragraphs. My strongest paper in tone I would feel was my Personal essay. "She wants them to believe they can do whatever their hearts desire but they have to be willing to work for it. As a mother, it's important to work with your kids and help them discover how they learn best. It's important to teach your kids that there are going to be certain things that they have to be willing to work harder at" (Profile Essay). During my essay writing process, I could fix these problems easier in the body paragraphs and struggle a bit more with the intro paragraph. Overall I think that the element of tone was not my best work in my
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Since beginning to write papers in English class, I have had countless successes and failures. While many of my English classes have taught me how to improve my writing, I have not learned very much in others. My most recent English class was last year, my sophomore year. My class was particularly undersized; therefore, it gave each student the opportunity to have additional individual attention. Throughout the class I experienced high points, weaknesses, and even difficulties that I never overcame. Overall, my writing skills improved, but only marginally. One of the high points of the class was consistently making high A's. We wrote a variety of different types of papers, and my grade was always respectable. Succeeding in this class made me feel adequately prepared to write proper papers. Although I made impressive grades for the class, I was able to do so with only minimal effort. Therefore, I knew I could execute my papers better. The quality of my writing seemed to stay stagnant over the course of the year. This class would have been exponentially more beneficial had it challenged me to improve my writing, however it never did. Although I was not overly challenged in my last English class, I have several weaknesses as a writer. My biggest weakness is neglecting to ask important questions that could improve my writing. Receiving...show more content...
One of the most problematic difficulties I faced and am still facing is self–revision. When writing a paper, it is extremely important to revise your essay multiple times before submitting the final version. Every revision helps to build a more polished essay. I feel that my paper fails to progress enough from the rough draft to the final. To fix this, I need to give myself longer breaks between revising. Becoming skilled at revising my own papers will allow me to develop into a more competent, successful
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I feel that the subject of English Language Arts is vital for a student to excel in. In previous English classes, the teachers gave multiple comparative essays, persuasive essays, personal anecdotes, reports about news articles, essays analyzing historical figures and events, and other assignments to their pupils to teach them the various forms of writing and how to improve their creative writing skills. Even with this teaching, I do hope to improve my persuasive writing since I prefer to keep papers relating to actual events or issues mostly objective and to not misrepresent the opposing argument or side of the story. I also hope to improve my vocabulary and my grammar, as neither as improved substantially. I feel that in the past my vocabulary was improving and expanding due to my frequent recreational reading, a habit I've abandoned in recent years. Books that I definitely enjoyed include The Book Thief byMarkus Zusak, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson, SYLO by D.J. MacHale, and The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. When reading The Book Thief, I ended up appreciating the novel more than I did initially. My favorite character was Death, mostly because of his moral dilemma even as a metaphysical entity and his cynical view of existence, which made him sympathetic yet slightly unlikable.
There are many goals for the sophomore year that I've been trying to set. I'd definitely like to improve my note taking and
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As an incoming freshman, there is such a multitude of things running through your head. Am I going to pass, will I be able to fit in, what if I embarrass my parents. As the first day of classes was underway Dr. Challender's class was my second class on that Monday. Immediately when I sat down and began to have a conversation with him I knew that this was going to be a very inspiring and beneficial class. Throughout my high school career, I was the student that constantly took AP classes which included English. English has to be one of the most intricate and important subjects within every curriculum. I feel that every writer has its flaws and that with instruction and guidance you will be able to advance your writing skills. Dr. Challender uses a plethora of ways that allows young millennials such as myself to achieve greatness within our writing. Personally, I had flaws in my writing skills that consisted of repetition, grammatical errors, and/or a clear understanding of the paper.
In the English 150 course you are expected to learn and gain things that will allow you as a student to flourish within the university. In the course, we have written an academic research essay and a term paper which in itself helped me in a tremendous way. Whenever you write any sort of academic literary work you need to understand your audience, purpose, and context. The reason each and everyone of those is important is that your essay would be useless and incorrectly written if you
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When I was signing up for my classes for my senior year, I decided to take English Composition 1 for my final English credit for the sole reason that it takes only half a year to complete. I had been warned by veterans of the course that the class would be difficult. This did not bother me too much, as taking AP Physics my junior year taught me that I work harder in an environment with rigorous work. During the course, I was delighted when I discovered that the class has heavily improved my essay writing skills throughout the year. Each consecutive essay had improved my writing for the better. At the beginning of the year, the class was assigned to write a simple essay about the story in a photograph. For this assignment, I wrote an essay about a picture of myself and six friends during our freshman homecoming. I clearly remember writing that sample essay the night before it was due without much thought or care into the paper. As it turns out, the grade I received reflected my work, as I earned around a sixty percent. Thankfully, the professor of the class corrected everything wrong with my paper and verbally discussed with myself and the class on what our biggest weaknesses were during our writing. It was at this point that I learned that in order to succeed both as a student and an essay writer, I would have to focus harder and care more for my assignments. For the next essay, our class was tasked to write a persuasive about something that we were passionate about. I
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Being a high school student while taking two college English composition classes has been anything but effortless. Essay after essay and something is almost always due the day of class. The assignments are never worksheets that take little to no thought or quick reads in a text book. No, what happens in English 111 and English 112 is the gaining of rhetorical knowledge, mastering the process in developing an academicessay, and plenty of critical thinking. Throughout both English courses that I have taken at the college level, I have attained a higher level of rhetorical knowledge. Particularly in 112, there was a focus on incorporating a range of support strategies for a singular claim. A key point in most grading rubrics was achieving/addressing the ethos pathos and logos of a piece or in your own writing. For example, in Project Onewe were asked to analyze an article and discuss what strategies the author used successfully or unsuccessfully. Next, in Project Two we had to incorporate those same support strategies into our...show more content...
It was pointed out to me in the Stasis project when I received an 86% on the paper. This is actually a grade I am not used to getting, I typically get A's on most of my assignments in any subject so this was a little disappointing. My transitions or line of reasoning were derailed and did fit together properly. I knew there were a few times throughout the essay that there were paragraphs which did not seem to correlate and I tried to fix it, but was unsuccessful. However, after getting that feedback, I make sure my transitions and paragraphs flow together and make sense to my main idea. It is my number one focus and I have found sources online that help me do so. Even though it was disappointing to get a B, it greatly helped my writing from then
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English 101 has been such an adventure. I know that sounds corny, but I just couldn't help myself. When I decided to do a short–term English class, I thought it would be fun and challenging; My expectations were correct. As I write this reflection, I look back on the topics and assignments that existed in this short period of time from post 1 to the multi–modal project. I will list the challenges I experienced which creating the creative project, what I learned from the beginning of class to the end, and what I need to work on in the future. This English adventure started on post 1 and 2 and ended at the multi–modal project. When I first did post 1 and 2 ,I was excited because we were incorporating fallacies to our discussions. I previously learned more about fallacies and ethos, pathos, and logos from a previous communications course and I appreciated the review. I found that it was challenging to respond properly to posts created by other classmates. My initial response was always to support each and every classmate by telling them that they did an awesome job. I had trouble analyzing their work without agreeing with every claim. The multi model project brought tears to my eyes and I do not mean tears of joy. At first I loved my ideas and was excited about the outcome, but my stress and nervousness...show more content...
For some reason, transitions are the hardest aspect of writing a paper. I will try my best to practice writing the best transitions. My summaries have been unnecessarily lengthy because get excited about my writing or the topics I write about. I felt so bad for Professor Granillo because my second essay has a summary that was a page long. She must have been so annoyed, but I thought I was giving her the proper information. I just need to remember that the bulk of the information goes in the following body paragraphs. I have some things to work on, but feel comfortable with my growth as a student and a Get
