What Makes an Effective Writer and Learner

At the start of this course, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had a goal for myself to improve and learn skills that would make writing less daunting for me. I have learned so many things about my writing that I didn’t think much about before. Another goal I had was to break the cookie-cutter mold that was set upon me throughout high school. During the process of revision, I discovered many things about myself as a writer and techniques that have been effective for me in the writing process.

Students are still usually mentally asleep in the morning and it affects their learning performance. “ Society’s provision for learning is school, but the brain is sleep”(Knapton pg.2).

Time goes so fast and the quarter comes to an end soon. Writing 39A, as my first formal university writing courses, has helped me to acquire many skills needed to become better as a writer and a reader in college and for my future. During the ten weeks, the development of professionalism and effectiveness of my writing makes my writing become closer to the college writing standard and make me feel more confident about my writing. This portfolio is a collection of the whole written works I completed in Writing 39A, which support my definite comprehension of the course and show the improvement I made. It does not only show people how I have progressed as a writer but also demonstrates what I have learned about myself as a writer in this quarter.

This course has helped me enhance my writing abilities and display the rhetorical purpose of my essays. Coming from Lebanon, this course has definitely been a challenge, yet I believe I have learned a great deal this semester. This course encouraged me to engage in ideas of my own that I discovered throughout my writings. The articles I have read challenged me intellectually allowing me to view a writer’s perspective on a specific topic. The engagement with my classmates and the feedback given during this class gave me the opportunity to extend my thinking abilities. The two main techniques that I have learned this semester is; identifying the purpose of my writing, integrating evidence from my articles and supporting my statements.

Throughout the seven weeks that I have taken this writing composition course, I have developed skills to help me improve my own writing. Using the writing process is one of the main focuses in the course. The writing process helps writers develop and revise their essay as they work their way up to creating the final draft that can be presented. Although there are many areas in my own writing where I can get better, I have found that my writing has improved in many ways while practicing using the writing process.

This semester I was surprised by how much I actually learned and developed my writing skills. I was given the opportunity to learn the many steps that it is required to become a good writer. Writing requires a lot of work. It consists of various steps; prewriting, drafting, rewriting, proofreading and publishing. . All of these components are extremely important, and necessary, and will need to be follow to improve student’s writing.

I like to consider myself a writer and often look for ways to improve upon my craft. I found Crafting an Effective Writer and was pleased with the long-term effects completing this course will have on my life. These effects will cross over all aspects of my life: personally, academically, and professionally as I view them as all being intertwined. In this class, I learned to see that the writing process does not have to be difficult. The guidelines that I have incorporated will ensure that my writing stays on track. My writing will be more focused and better organized. Following my outline will take the guesswork out of what to do next in order to complete my project. Another

The overall course of English 102 with Professor Lyn has impacted my writing and me as an individual. Not only did the course help me improve my writing, but it helped me think of the ideas and norms that we ascribe to in the world as more complex. This portfolio shows how some of the learning objectives of English 102 reflects my growth as a writer and thinker. The papers that are included in this portfolio demonstrate my mastery of the learning objectives of this course. There are first drafts to show where I began in my writing process and final drafts to demonstrate my understanding of what was wrong in my first submissions. My ability to edit and recognize errors in my paper shows my improvement of writing. The different types of writing and audiences the papers are intended for impacted my approach of writing these papers.

When I entered your classroom on the first day of school this year, I was confident that what I had learned in previous years was sufficient enough to call myself an experienced and competent writer. However, I discovered throughout the semester that this confidence hindered my ability to improve in the beginning. The first few days of analyzing essays and literary works was something I had never experienced before, opening up my eyes to a side of literature and the English language that I previously did not pay any attention to. After we finished writing our very first in-class essay, I was extremely surprised to see that the score I earned was a 6. But when I look back on that very first essay, I am even more surprised to see what I could improve using the knowledge and strategies I learned in AP Junior English.

My English 908 class almost comes to a close, and now it’s time for me to think “what I have learned in this class?” Reflecting on the past two months, I notice that this class has offered me the ability to aware of my personal strengths as well as weaknesses and also provided me methods to strengthen them. In addition, because of the huge amount of journal entries that we need to write week after week, both of my attitude toward writing and my point of view of studying and daily life aspects have matured. Now, I enjoy writing compositions and expect a higher quality of my work. Moreover, the quizzes helped me understand how to use comma, articles, and transitions properly so that I can transform my mediocre work into a well-composed essay. Therefore, knowing how to become a more effective writer is the most important benefits of attending this class.

I have struggled with writer's block with often. In the past, I've learned to take breaks while writing to help alleviate symptoms of writers block; however, during the semester I have learned to carry a pad of paper with me so that I can write down idea's while they are fresh in my mind. Writing down my thoughts has helped me avoid writers block because I have a list of thoughts about the subject before I have even started writing. When I struggle less to write it improves my essay's by decreasing my stress, this can be seen in my writing. I was afflicted with writer's block while trying to write both my compare and contrast essay and my description essay, this caused me a lot of stress and caused my essay to suffer. On the other hand, when I wrote my classify and divide essay I did not have to deal with writer's block. As a result the stress level was greatly decreased and the improvement is substantial.

Overall taking this course has greatly improved the way I address writing. I learned so much about the importance of language and the inclusion of the proper building blocks when crafting a piece of writing. For instance, our exploration of the use of figurative language in the beginning of the course continued to be very helpful to my writing all throughout the semester. A second example would be the importance of establishing proper objective and obstacles when writing. While we made use of “objective” and “obstacles” in our work with fiction and character development, I was inspired by our exercise to think about the day in terms of what our day to day objectives and obstacles were. As a result I identified a larger connection with both

Writing is way that we can express ourselves, it is a way to interface ideas and thoughts and to prove a point. Throughout my writing experience or process I have struggled with writing especially using details or really expressing myself my work. In this course Facts & Fiction: Portraits in World Art I expect to gain more knowledge on how to write a perfect essay, story, letter, and assignment. I expect to learn new genres and rhetorical situations. I also think my writing will improve academically and I will develop my skills in writing. Also taking my writing to a different point of view, level, and writing something different rather than the usual. I look forward to getting feedback from my peers and learning their thoughts on my writing and how they can help me improve.

This Eng1513 portfolio is about my reflections on this course. In the reflection, it highlights how I accomplished my goals in improving the quality of reading, being a critical thinker, grammar and improve language proficiency. Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection. A critical thinker can understand links between ideas, approach and solve problems consistently, reflects on self, solve arguments and produce ideas. Academic writing style presents information that displays a clear understanding of a subject. It is based on pursuing readers to accept the writer's opinion, telling a story, explain and describe something. This portfolio will showcase my expectations of the course,

The written coursework this semester has provided ample opportunity to identify problems in my writing and to improve not only my ability to analyze works of literature, but also in expressing this analysis and other thoughts in written form. I think there is a clear progression apparent in the three essays discussed below, demonstrating the refining of my writing abilities and my analytical process that occurred during this course. By identifying specific successes as well as ongoing issues in these three essays, it can be seen that I have identified and achieved some clear goals in my academic progress.