College Writing Challenges

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.

A blank page. All writing begins with a white sheet of unnamed possibilities. And yet with skills, knowledge, and ideas, a blank page can morph into something magical. Shakespeare did not simply stumble upon Romeo and Juliet. Instead, he had to use his heart, mind, and pen to produce his masterpieces. Throughout freshman English class, we have been developing the skills to fill that daunting blank page with meaningful words. Moreover, students have been exposed to esteemed authors and asked to synthesize their thoughts in individual writing assignments. Consequently, I have learned a variety of important and life-changing skills that have sculpted my English knowledge throughout my time as an English 9/10 student.

As stated above, this section of the book specially emphasizes change of focus of your compositions when you start college writing. In high school your writing assignments are mainly executed using your personal opinions and your own self encounters. On the contrary, college writing is much more factual and involves critical thinking. Instead of your writing being inspired by your emotional thoughts on a subject, your words now need to be backed up by scholarly sources that can prove your information. This, however, does not mean that you will never write about yourself or your personal opinions, it just means that you need to provide proof for your beliefs. College writing also introduces you to different genres such as essays,

Restate your Thesis Statement in a new and interesting way by briefly reminding the reader of your strongest argument(s).

Think about your experiences of writing at college. Which types of assignments have you found helpful in strengthening your writing skills? Where do you want to improve your writing? What’s the most useful advice you’re received that’s helped you improve your writing. Be as specific as possible.

I began writing with basic vocabulary and barely any sentence variety. As the year progressed, I learned to advance my vocabulary and word choice in addition to incorporating a diversity of sentence structure. Nearing the end of the school year, I acknowledge that I have grown and learned more about writing. I anticipate that I will receive even more arduous writing assignments that require more research and time. Although it will be challenging, I feel confident that I will do well because I feel well prepared from all I’ve done this year. As I grow older, I will have to continue to write. I know I can take the knowledge I’ve learned this year and apply it to future papers for years to

In “Expectations for College Writing,” the author indicates the importance of thinking and communicating to succeed after college. A writer’s style acknowledges a social or academic expression. A writer’s skill to rationalize ideas and think critically demonstrates an essential technique for enhancing communication in the work environment.

In the beginning of the term I was assigned an essay that described me as a writer and thinker. With this essay being my first assignment, I was quite stressed with the feeling of failure. After this assignment I learned the importance of the drafting system. After my paper was graded I received it back and noticed multiple mistakes. This was the first step I practiced improving. Writing multiple drafts helped me analysis the material I wrote from another point of view. For example, I was able to eliminate sections that were unrelated from the main point. Building my vocabulary up another step I had focus as a writer and thinker. I used a combination between the dictionary and thesaurus to help me increase my vocabulary. Overtime with experience, I saw improvements in all of these categories that I was struggling

All of these things - diction, details, language, syntax - must be woven seamlessly together to create a sound essay. That is hard work, hard work that I did not want to do. I love writing, but I struggled more than I thought I would and feared that my lack of creativity would write the essay instead of granting me control. But before I could take control of actually writing, I needed to decide what to write about.

In my English 1010 class, I have learned to do a number of things through writing essays. I have written a Literacy Narrative, a Discourse Community Analysis, and a Writing Research essay. Firstly, I have learned to identify how an author’s purpose, audience, genre, and context determine effective writing. The purpose of the literacy narrative was to help me understand myself better as a writer (Jones 1). My teacher was the intended audience of the narrative. The genre of the narrative was non-fiction by cause of it being about my experience as a writer. The context of writing made my writing more interesting and more effective. Knowing those elements helps you to compose writing that is more effective due to you needing to know what you need to write about and who is receiving your writing. I displayed these skills by going into detail about my experiences with reading and writing through my life. As shown in the following sentence from my literacy narrative I shared how fun and exciting it was when my second-grade class received the opportunity to write a book, A Book of Future Astronauts, “Everyone in the class was truly excited to be writing our own book,” (Writing is Good).

Although I have not appreciated writing like I should, it has increased my knowledge on many subjects. From reading vivid stories to reading elaborative articles on difficult subjects, I've developed the skills necessary to understand at least the minimum that is required to continue through the subject. Because of this, I appreciate what I've learned from reading and writing countless short stories, elaborative essays, and reading books on subjects I am interested in.

What all is a demonstrated when an argument essay is being written? A writer, when discussing a good argument, will use four important sections. They are the introduction, the presentation of the writer’s position, the summary and critique of alternative views, and finally the conclusion (Ramage, Bean, & Johnson, 2012). Argumentative essays are in a form of the writer’s way to either have their audiences be in agreement with the topic or being in a disagreement. Creating a rhetorical triangle argument, a template or order of structure in an argument can be the best form of question development to begin an argumentative paper. (Ramage, Bean, & Johnson, 2012). The different appeals that are called persuasive

I have never been an excellent student and perennially struggled with English, Math, and Science growing up. These subjects would cast a pall over my day and school work. Anxiety would well up inside of me which often resulted with me passed out across my desk sleeping through parts of class. When I would return home at day’s end, I rarely completed my homework. When I did try to complete homework, it often ended in tears of frustration or the hurling of a book across the room. Taking this class has helped to quell a portion of that anxiety and frustration. It was a grueling class, seemingly impossible at times, but taking this class has given me the confidence to know that not only can I finish the class if I work hard but can also excel! Writing is something that I will exercise throughout my college curriculum and my life. It will help to convey my ideas to the instructor, peers, bosses, and co-workers. In my college curriculum, it will also show my instructors that I’m learning the information provided and how to apply that knowledge appropriately. It will allow me to complete assignments, discussions, and reports, and I will also apply writing in basic communication when necessary.

Writing is an evolving skill that may be fine-tuned through years of improvement and learning. As a product of the evolving nature of my writing skills, a primary difference between my writing in high school and my writing in college would most certainly be the quality of the writing itself. Thus, my writing should also see an increase in focus, depth and clarity as compared to its high school form. A major component of high school writing, especially in my experience, was the issue of predetermined length in writing. Often, this mandate of length required excessive amounts of filler content that was entirely irrelevant to the general theme or purpose of the piece. In contrast, my writing in college applications should see an increased

When I first started college I did not know what to expect with an English class. I liked writing about topics that interested me, but high school did not allow me to do that. I took American History and we would have to write