Constructive Essay: How I Changed My Writing

Like transforming from a caterpillar to a butterfly, my writing style transformed from something mediocre to something quite exceptional. In high school, even when I took advanced placement English and Literature courses, I was never good at writing. My writing would lack structure, reasoning, syntax, and a well-defined thesis statement. My inadequate grades on writing assignments lowered my self-esteem, so I assumed I would never enjoy writing papers because I believed I could never improve. However, since attending a university my writing style has improved far beyond my expectation. My EN 101 course enhanced my understanding of the different ways I could approach my writing. Also, it enhanced my comprehension of outlines to complete assignments. Investing quality time into my writing made a substantial difference because I became a stronger writer. Through the late nights, constant revisions, and agonizing head traumas, I learned that my writing is truly spectacular whenever I incorporate well-defined thesis statements, provide sufficient supporting evidence, and maintain a clear focus in my assignments.

As I look back on my English 101 experience, I have come to the conclusion that I have learned many new things that have improved my abilities as a writer. I have learned some new techniques that have improved my ways of approaching an essay. I learned all about the rhetorical appeals and how to apply them in my writing and how to look for them in a essay written by a author. I have also learned how to argue both sides of a argument, and how to look for reliable sources and to properly quote and site the author of the essay. I feel as if I have become a better writer and my improved writing skills are shown within each essay.

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.

Over the course of this semester I learned a lot about myself as a writer. This English 101 class has really allowed me to expand my essay structure and ways of thinking. This was my first college writing course and it has given me much more freedom when writing because in high school I felt limited and like what we were writing was not very important. In high school I would write essays to just to fulfill the required word or page count and to a degree I still feel like this but maybe that is why I am an engineering major but in this course I actually was able to express my ideas and for the first time really test the limits of my writing capabilities. I really enjoyed being able to incorporate my voice more in my essays and I believe

My writing styles have changed drastically over the past four years of high school. This memo will explain how my writing has changed and how my knowledge of writing has improved.

Throughout this semester in English 101, I have made a significant improvement on multiple things, including how to be an exceptional writer and thinker. English has always been one of my most favored subjects to study because to me it instructs students how to be intelligent, how to become a more creative and critical thinker, and be able to develop ethical values and imagination. You can express yourself more efficiently in English than you can in any other subject. This class has truly made me a more confident writer and helped me express myself in different ways through the different types of papers I wrote. By writing different types of papers I have improved multiple areas of my writing. I have grown as a student in diverse areas such

The first day of class I wasn’t confident in my writing especially writing analytical essays. On the first day we rated our writing attitude on a scale of 1-5 and in the beginning of the semester mine was a 3. Now after taking this class, looking back as my essays I rate myself a 4 on scale. Activities that I found that supported my growth as a writer was connecting the Big Ideas to my essay as well as making connections to other experiences. Also what made me grow as a writer was the fact that when we did essays in class and on our own we started from the middle rather than starting with the introduction and not knowing where to start. This helped with writing our character analysis in Unit 2 The Ron Clark Story.

it was brought to my attention that I need to pay attention to how I structure my essays. As a writer I think I need to focus on how structure my essay. I am stuck writing the typical five paragraph essay. I need to step away from that style of writing into something more complex.

Over the eighth grade year, I have learned to effectively use feedback and reflection skills to strengthen my writing. These writing processes taught me to include peer and teacher feedback along with self-reflection to earn a better grade on my writing pieces. In the beginning of the year, I would simply complete the drafts my teacher assigned. Proof of my original writing process is shown in the essay, titled One Necessity of a Hero: Personal Sacrifice, in which it reflects on the Thematic Unit. To demonstrate my poor writing process, a segment of my original introduction stated, “After analyzing documents from The Hobbit Thematic Unit, I discovered that the principles of heroism involve personal sacrifice. I also learned that a hero is

Throughout the course I have become aware of the numerous weaknesses and strengths that I possess. And a major weakness that I observe in my skills which can be detrimental to my writing is that I lack the ability to organize my essays properly. When I write essays I tend to do so without the aid of an outline, however, after this course I was able to understand that an outline is important for me to use. An outline allows me to pace myself while I write, so that I will be able to properly organize any essays.

Over the course of my studies at university, I have grown and learned more about academic writing and numerous writing styles. I believe there is so much room for me to master my writing skills to succeed and complete my degree and improve my academic writing and personal skills through more practice. However, I have become concerned with my first attempt submitting my piece of paper through the online test in the Writers’ Diet diagnostic tool and was labelled ‘flabby’ in my writing. Analysing my errors and referring to the textbook ’Communication Toolkit’ by Grellier and Goerke (2014), also submitting my piece of writing to Grammarly and paper rater I was able to measure my weakness in the area of sentence structure, punctuation and grammar.

Growth, I believe, is inevitable when one is compelled to learn and apply that knowledge which has been presented to them. This semester has proved to be a time of development, change, and substantial growth. During my time in English 101 I have had the chance to really explore new genres of writing such as memoirs, rhetorical analyses, and persuasive essays. In this class I have been able to build upon old writing skills and cultivate new ones; and I have also come to recognize what I like and dislike writing about through the completion of the assignments we were charged with. Through this semester in English 101 I feel as though I have had the opportunity to enhance my ability to apply the rules of rhetoric to my work, convey my thoughts and ideas with greater clarity, and recognize the places where I can improve my work through the revising process.

In the beginning of the essay, the outline is not the only thing that makes the essay better. It starts internally before one can even hold a pencil or type on a keyboard. One should think of what they are going to write, when they are going to write, and how they want to write. Once one does that they should find what works best for them and make them their rituals. Outlining can be a very advantageous ritual it actually may be the most helpful ritual a writer may have. An extreme example of a ritual is the ritual of the famous author Schiller. Although his ritual is odd he took a whiff of rotten tomatoes before writing. For most writers’ rituals are always necessary for the process. As Wyche puts it in her essay Time, Tools, and

I believe that my approach to writing has changed over the course of the semester. My confidence in my writing has grown, as well as my knowledge in sentence structure, grammar, and word choice. At the beginning of the year, I doubted my writing abilities, but at this point, I feel as though I can handle large, intricate papers. I did not expect my writing to change drastically, but I did expect the small, technical details in my papers to improve, and I think they did. Overall, I have grown about as much as I expected to as a writer, and it has been very beneficial.

After looking at my writing assignments I think that my writing style has not changed much since the beginning of the semester. I use the same format as I did in the beginning to write my Literary Responses as well as the Homework assignments. Although the style and formatting of my papers did not change much, I think my analysis of the works have improved. I am able to describe the artworks better, and I have an easier time reading the Literary Response passages and interpreting it to my writing. In the beginning I struggled with writing these essays, but as the course went on it become easier for me to write them. These assignments really help’s with writing the essays on the exams, I am able to describe works more thoroughly and I can get my thoughts on paper