A Very Wise John Green Once Said

A freshman college level English Composition course aims to improve students' abilities with writing, critical thinking, mechanics and usage, punctuation, grammar, and vocabulary. By studying English 101 at Luzerne County Community College, I will work diligently to improve in all of these aspects. My main focus is to develop skills specifically to create clear and concise thesis statements, strong and persuasive essays with cajolement, and to develop different perspectives on narratives and other essays. These writing skills may also improve my critical thinking and reading skills.

The challenging component this semester was the transition from high school English reading and writing level to college level. It is mainly because High school writing did not have many expectations from students, its main focus was on the ideal five-paragraph essays. As compared to college, writing is mainly geared and focused on one’s ability to thoroughly answer the assigned prompt. Initially, I was not sure if I was capable of handling a fast-paced course, however, I quickly adjusted to the change and I am glad that I chose to stay. In English 10, I have learned many valuable elements that I can incorporate into my everyday writing. I have included my writing from project 2 a rhetorical analysis on, “Black Lives Matter”, which effectively demonstrates my growth as a reader, thinker, and writer.

It is still so surreal to reflect back on my first semester as an incoming college student in the ENC1101 course, analyzing at my progression as a reader and writer in literacy. Since the first day of class I set in stone my goals for this class: receive a 4.0 GPA, develop my connecting theories skills in writing, and become more aware of objectives for each Unit throughout the course. All of these goals became achievements that not only make others proud but most importantly give me self pride. In order to earn the grades and achieve these goals, I went after every opportunity that I was given as an incoming college student, such as office hours and extra credit. By taking this course I have gained confidence with the utilization of literacy, and made an addition to my group of impactful literacy sponsors. Once students are finished with high school they assume that there is nothing else to learn beyond the stereotypical five paragraph essay, but they are so wrong. I was able to obtain so much knowledge about numerous course concepts from Writing about Writing, articles, and my professor. These concepts will carry on with me throughout a bright future of writing courses, job interviews, and any other skills that require literacy. The four outcomes listed below will help illuminate how I improved as a writer, by being a driven college student and going out of the way to earn my achievements in this course. In the first outcome I improved comprehending scholar texts,

Throughout the English 101 course, I believe I have thoroughly improved in my writing, peer editing, and analyzing readings, along with annotating my thoughts, misunderstandings, and difficulties. I believe I have especially improved on my thesis statements, providing the basis for my essays. My thesis statements have went from being plain and uninteresting to being more detailed, clear, and concise. This enabled me to produced better written essays that are rich in detail, rhetorical statements, evidence, and experiences. I feel as if I came into this course not exactly sure how to write a college paper. I was always more focused on the length of my essays rather than the structure, vocabulary, and ideas my papers were exhibiting. My writing now flows better and presents my ideas in a clear, organized fashion.

It is a common occurrence for high school students in their senior year to experience declines in motivation and performance; most call it ‘senioritis.’ When students contract seniorits they become lax, neglecting their homework, turning in late papers, and generally losing effort. The majority of seniors continue on to graduate, only to receive a rude awakening once they enter college. While students may be able to graduate from high school without putting in too much hard work, college is indisputably a different story. In the documentary,”The Expos 5,” five college students provided a first hand look into how they learned to navigate the difficulties of expository writing. I related best to Arpan and Yasmeen, but I learned great lessons from all of the students.

The head basketball coach from Tuskegee Institute once said, “Don’t limit your challenges, challenge your limits.” I was always afraid to challenge myself until one day, I learned to step out of my comfort zone. Taking GSW 1110, was an expected challenge as a high school student, but throughout this course I was able to accomplish a lot and improve as a writer. I can conclude that my writing has improved greatly due to the establishment of the correct principles of writing introduced to me this semester. Although improving during this course was something I always strived for, I am determined to continue improving so I am prepared for future academics in my career.

     As writers, many students write to the expectations of their professors and not to their fullest potential. Throughout English 101 I had been writing only to please my professor or to fill the basic requirement to pass English. I always felt that my writing ability was never enough for my professors throughout the previous years. They always wanted clear and concise essays, which for some reason was unreachable by me. However, starting college and taking English 101 helped me with my weaknesses and changed my technique of writing essays. My experience in English 101 taught me to write to my fullest potential and to write what I felt; rather then writing what was required.

I have attended WRA 110 almost four months and I appreciate that I have a deeper and further impression about American college writing. Since I am an international student, honestly, I am not good at writing at all, I have to spend more time on fixing some grammar problems in writing, especially, analyzing article. Sometimes I even very struggle with how to write it clear for readers, but after I accepted advice from professors and peer review, I have improved my writing skills and learnt a lot from the class.

As the semester approaches a conclusion, I have discovered for myself that I happen to exhibit not simply on how I have endured this semester, but then again also what I have gained in knowledge of. In the past four months, I would consider that I obtain an accomplishment of achievement in improving my writing techniques. The most important principle that I have discovered so far ensues on how to become an improved writer. With each writing assignment, I learned additional methods and skills, which tweaked my capabilities to develop my thoughts in detail on paper, to write clearly, and to organize my essays efficiently. In previous years, I would frequently catch myself irritated believing I had terrible writer’s block standing in my path of writing an organized essay. This created a feeling as if I could not distinguish how to write properly and the reasoning behind my hatred for writing. During high school, I learned the Modern Language Association (MLA) formats for bibliographies and parenthetical citations, consequently at the beginning of the fall semester, I knew only this format. I was able to learned the correct format for the American Psychological Association (APA) style when doing each assignment at hand.

There are many changes needed in high school’s English classes across the country to prepare students for college writing classes. The high school teachers need to start preparing their students for college level work from their freshman year in high school. However, they do not need to teach the things they already know otherwise they will have difficulties in college. In college students have hard times understanding the material because they understand something different then what their professor wants them to understand. There are many changes my former high school need to make versus my high school. The changes my former high school English classes needs to make are the vocabulary, sentence structure, and the important of Citation.

In High School, English wasn’t a topic I had lots of trouble with; I would do good in the class. When I got my test results back, I noticed I was placed in EWRT 211. This is a mistake I argued, there is no way my English level is that low-ranking. Being placed in an EWRT 211 class was a shame in my eyes. I thought this class is going to be a waste of time I don’t need to improve my writing. The placement test made a mistake. All the excuses you could possibly think of to tell myself that I don’t belong here. I soon came to realize that I was wrong, this class could actually fix my writing. Throughout the course of the quarter, we used multiple books. My favorite was, They Say, I Say. This writers guide helped me greatly as it presented me with new tactics. One of which I found to be extremely helpful was how it suggested I break down the quote and analyze it. Since we would use the same format in class when we analyze quotes given by our

Working a full-time job, raising children, and attending college are not an easy task as many people could think. Parents always have difficulties in managing and prioritizing their time. I had to sacrifice my social life as well as my family this semester because I needed to focus on my English 1100 class. MacCaughey, who is my English 1100 instructor, has helped me grow as a writer because of the way he taught us on how to be a good writer. My confidence as a writer had always been low and I never had a clear direction in writing. Through this class, I was able to learn how to develop my ideas into writing process. Ascending the banisters of my writing process, I greatly learned about the narrative style of writing, the formal way to critical analyze a text, and write a response about it. I also learned how to write a persuasive text in a conveying manner and answering a question with the help of a secondary source more of

What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?

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

My biggest struggle in writing would be starting my introduction because I never really know what information to add in my stating my thesis statement. Although, one way I’m trying to improve this struggle is by either adding small quotes or definitions to hook the reader and to add some info about my topic. Furthermore, one essay that I feel reflects my writing the best would be the midterm essay. I picked the midterm essay because even though it was timed I still took my time and carefully picked which examples I thought would best represent my opinions. In addition, I feel using the quote “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” by Nelson Mandela was a very powerful way to keep the reader interested. Ultimately, while I still haven’t overcome the obstacle of writing an introduction I know I’m slowly starting to find my way towards my goal of not struggling when it comes to starting my essays.