Reflection Of Reading And Writing

Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.

Throughout the semester, I have noticed a great improvement in my writing. In the beginning of the year, I struggled with understanding how to use APA since this is the first class I have taken that uses APA. The most difficult part about APA is the reference page and in text citation. To get a better understanding of how to write a reference page and use in text citations, I would use websites such as Purdue Owl and at times I would also use Youtube. Another skill I developed is learning how to use Logos, Pathos, and Ethos in my writing. Because of this skill, I was able to not only use it for English 102, but also for my Creative Writing 101 class.

Throughout the school year of 2015-2016 at the Founders Academy, I have wrote numerous essays, with generally positive results. Several of the essays exceeded expectations, while others reached expectations to a modest extent, but all of the essays were supported by the writing skills that I had learned that year, regardless of my strengths or weaknesses with these skills. These techniques vary extensively, from comparing and contrasting ideas in a text to editing and revising essays for quality results, which is proven in my writing portfolio.

I have been practicing on how to improve my writing over the past few weeks, which has taught me a great deal about writing. My teacher would like me to evaluate and explain my strengths and weaknesses in my own writing. This evaluation is in between my two essays. One on my own and another with my teacher's help. I have strengths and weakness in my introduction, body paragraphs ,and my conclusion.

When I look back at my writing before having any college experience, I can see that I had a lot to work on. I can say that I was never really a big fan of writing anything much less essays. Even when I was younger, I just did not have a great big interest in writing. This was because I felt that I could not elaborate as well as others. I was not use to having to write anything really, but I now feel that I have a better grasp on the steps that I need to take to get my writing on the level that it needs to be.

Writing is an important form of communication. It is a personal process that portrays your thoughts and views to someone else. It is not only an important skill to have for school work and certain professions, but daily messages such as emails, texts, and tweets as well. It can have a big impact on how you come across to certain people. Because of this, it is very important for me to practice writing. I believe that this course has improved my writing, which will help me in many ways in the future.

Olympian, Kim Collins said, “Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” This quote can also apply to students in school in many different ways. Students always want the best project or writing grade that they can possibly get. While that is a worthy goal it is not realistic because students are not perfect and they are still learning, and developing important skills. In my personal essays throughout the year I did strive for perfection, but I learned that I could not do it. I had to make slight improvements to better my writing for the next essay.

I have trouble writing because my writing seems to be a little “tongue-in-cheek” as my AP English teacher said. (I have a couple unfinished examples that I will attach). I tend to not know exactly what I am trying to say in my essays. It is not that I am a poor writer per se; I just have an issue focusing my writing. I enjoy writing; however, I become engrossed in the way I want to present my ideas. Perhaps it is that I do not know the audience to whom I am writing. I usually use proper grammar and mechanics but that is definitely not enough to write an exceptional essay. In this course, I feel strongly that I will develop these skills. Another concern I have with writing is when it is timed. I have never performed well in a timed writing assignment;

Throughout high school, I was regularly told that writing was not my strongest skill. My teachers would constantly “shoot down” my writing because it was never “good enough,” except I never understood what that truly meant. However, this class helped me realize that my writing has “potential for greatness,” but it just requires some more time, thought, and clarification.

Before this course started I didn’t believe I would become a better writer, but to a certain degree, I have. Since taking this course I have been able to grow and learn as a writer, editor, and creative. I have tried to improve particular aspects of my writing such as paying closer attention to my audience. I have learned writing skills and techniques from The Art of Rhetoric which I applied to my writings. In addition, an important and useful skill that I learned from this class was to start writing early. The next assignment was a working draft; it helped me write down all my thoughts and sources I had found and also determine if my focus was valid and in the right direction. After, having the working draft reviewed, the next drafts were

My biggest area of improvement this year as a writer was my style and structure. Last year, in English I, we learned a writing technique called “The Evidence Sandwich”. It was a basic claim, evidence, commentary, structure for writing body paragraphs. This was helpful when I was a freshman, but as a grew as a writer sophomore year, this made my writing sound static and robotic. As my writing progressed through the school year, I started breaking free from that structure, enabling me to add flow and style to my writing, while still maintaining the requirements for a successful body paragraph. Meanwhile, my writing started shifting from pure summary to actual literary analysis. These changes transformed my writing into more improved and polished papers. A challenge I faced this year was my writing process and my work ethic. At first I was very excited about the amount of essay writing time we had in class. However, as the year continued, I found the stress of sophomore year and all my other classes clouding my focus. This made it very hard to sit down in class and work on my essay without reaching to my other binder. I feel that if I had worked harder to focus in class and get more work done, my essays would have been much better because I would have had more material to revise ahead of time and ask Ms. Hursh questions on, and less work to do the night before the deadline. Next year, I will aim to use my time in class wisely so I have more time at home to focus on college and other junior year items.

Before my senior year in high school I dreaded the thought of writing a paper, writing came as an immense struggle for me. I never had any confidence in what I wrote; I couldn’t help feeling that my writing was very subpar when compared to that of my classmates. It always seemed that the reason for my passing grades on papers was due to my teachers trying to rush through grading, rather than my ability as a writer. I felt like this was a reoccurring theme ever since I had entered middle school, because of this I felt my confidence as a writer slip from me slowly but surely. This continued until I met Mrs. Blevens, the instructor for my senior year writing class. I felt like she was the first teacher that I had that cared about her students writing. No person comes close to what she did for me my writing like she does. Mrs. Blevens knew how to push her students out of their comfort zone, probably the most important thing you can do for a young writer. In order to grow as a writer you need to be pushed at times in order to gain, even if it makes you uncomfortable and that’s exactly what Mrs. Blevens did for me.

I have been through a lot of difficulties in life; but the most frustrated for me have been learning English. As a college student I have to read and write a lot. I’m taking English composition I class a course that is helping me to deal with my challenges as an English learner college student. In which I am learning academically and about myself. English 101 have been a bridge for me to realized how good I am writing. I did three essays that I was impressed with myself and realized how much I have improve as a college writer student in this class. Reading is an important part of English composition class in which I learned that I am not good at reading. I have to read a book named The Pearl that Broke its Shell. We were supposed to read 10 chapters per week; while I was reading the book, I found part where I didn’t understand, and I wasn’t able to complete the reading. While we were reading the book, we had to do double entries. A double entry journal is a two-column journal that has quotes from the text on the left and an individual’s responses on the right. We have to read the book and take out direct quotes from the book and them explained the quotes. I did good writing the responses, but there were times when I didn’t understand the book. However, reading and writing are the most important component for English composition I; by reading and writing I learned my strengths and weakness in writing and reading. I considered that writing is one of my

Writing is essential in the everyday human life and everyone is different when it comes down to writing. I enjoy writing personally I like writing about things I love doing such as playing soccer and gaming. When I find the right words to write to express something I feel like a genius. Writing has never been my forte. I have not written many essays in the past but I continued writing so I can learn from my mistakes and become a better writer. The hardest thing for me is to write about something that I am unfamiliar with, that causes me to procrastinate. In this paper I will be writing about my writing process with my three past essays individually. Writing has shaped me into a more intellectual individual and I would encourage anyone to always improve their writing skills.

Reading and writing were never strong suits in life, and continues to be until today. I have tried to improve my skills over the years, and in the process of doing so, has led me to enjoy the art on this topic. After many years of school and getting to understand myself more I came to a realization. Due to the great academic opportunities that my parents offered me, I was able to find what made me want to go to school and work hard in life. I was able to find the passion of learning and writing and realized it was what I wanted to carry out into the world and in my future. My journey in finding my passion was difficult but taught me many lessons. After years of experience in english I attained that reading and writing it could lead to success throughout all courses and is a crucial component in being well rounded and an educated person.