English 101 Reflection

As the Fall 2017 term comes to end, I look back on what I have accomplished in this class. English 102 – Composition II was one of the most challenging and toughest class I have taken at UW-Stout, but feel as though it has helped me to improve my writing skills. Even before the semester started the feeling of anxiety had taken over, as writing has never been my strongest skill, but stayed positive and confident I would be successful. Much to my surprise, my instructor, Michael Critchfield quickly addressed that this class would not be easy and amazingly changed my views of writing throughout the entire semester.

As I reflect on English Comp II 112, I have a variety of mixed emotions about this. I was unsure of the class at first, for many reasons. My very first day I remember leaving the J off my professor’s name and I just knew it would be a downward spiral after that. To me, writing was something I loved to do but I had a difficult time putting my thoughts into words and organizing my paper. Usually, once I typed my introduction I thought my thoughts would just flow from that point, but they never did. Never the less, I kept striving to have a great paper.

Throughout the English 111 class, my writing ability has grown to meet all of the course outcomes. In this class I was required to analyze fictional texts and make complex claims that matter in an academic contexts and revise them in order to make grammatical sense. For the 1.0 sequence I focused on Night, by Elie Wiesel and Sarah’s Key, written by Tatiana de Rosnay. Short papers 1.1 and 1.2, focused on each book respectively while major paper 1.3 allowed me to back my claim with both of the texts allowing for a larger exchange of ideas. Within the 2.0 sequence I focused mainly on the Poisonwood Bible, penned by Barbra Kingsolver. The short paper I have chosen to focus on for this sequence was 2.2; in which I had to write a letter to a character

When I was a young student, my first English professor taught me the alphabet. After one year, he taught me to put those letters together to make words, sentences, and finally paragraphs in essays. During the high school I learn to write short paragraphs, with ought putting in the correct structure .When I moved in America I stared the course of English as a Second Language and I finished with success last year. My professor advise me that when I starts the English 101 my writing it will be more fulfil and more structural. He has right as when I arrived in English 101, I realized there was more to do not just writing words on paper.

The last writing project I did was an Argumentative. I choose to write and argue about the television and its effects on children. What the consequences are on playing violent/aggressive video games in young ages. Using credible sources and prove by evidence I could convince my reader about my opinion. In this paper I had to be fare and show both sides of the subject to give the reader a reliable opinion. The most important thing I learned was how to use all the sources and present them in the text. Using MLA format was something new and different for me. I realized the importance of presenting the sources in the correct format to keep the high credibility in my paper. I also understood that the MLA-format is very useful for paraphrasing, summarizing and quoting in my text.

The beginning of my junior year seems like it was such a long time ago. This may be because of how much I have grown since the start of the year. When I began AP English, my writing skills needed improvement. For instance, I often used incorrect grammar and struggled with staying on topic. In just one semester, my writing has improved immensely. The more than I write, the more I learn about how to craft a good paper. I have worked on improving my grammar, using rhetoric, addressing my subject, and many more elements of writing. In addition to improving my writing, I have gained many skills to become a better student. I have learned about effective study techniques and time-management skills that allow me to be the most successful. Since I always try my best, I know that over time I will continue to grow in my studies. This year I have gained countless skills that will help me succeed in English in the future.

Most students and professionals will likely be asked to find and utilize a source of information at least once. The information that is available to people is countless however, not all sources of that information have the same value. A few things that make a source reliable and usable when one is writing are evidence to support statements, a good structure that can be read and understood with ease, and lastly it should be current with when it is being used.

Conducting an annotated bibliography is very valuable to writing a research paper. It allows you to evaluate the important points from different sources that pertain to the research topic. While summarizing each source you can see how each source relates to your thesis. This way you can determine which information can help support your different claims. I chose to include sources I found through the Shapiro library. I determined which sources to use by seeing if they could be used to help me argue my point on school polices. I didn’t have too much difficultly since I used the Shapiro library I knew the sources I choose were scholarly and peer reviewed. I did have a little difficulty finding articles that were current many articles were older.

Throughout my academic carrer, I have had a history of struggling with English classes. I was excited to take English 101 because I believed it would most effectively teach me the basics of successful writing and communication. In high school, I developed mediocre writing skills and struggled with reading comprehension so I knew these topics would pose a problem in any English class I take. Despite the fact that I was in AP Language in high school, I learned very little and did not improve my writing and communication skills as much as I would have liked. In English 101 , I would like to change that and enhance my time management skills, grammar skills, and overall writing ability.

English Comp 1 was an eye opening experience. The course was emotionally and physically draining, but I strongly believe it prepared me for Comp 2. Learning and improving are a few of the rewards I received through hard work and dedication during the course. Throughout English comp 1, I discovered my biggest weakness. I improved some of my various difficulties, and I achieved a rewarding high point.

When you think of a researcher you think of a scientist doing an experiment. I feel like that is the same as a research paper just without the experiment. So, in a research paper it’s your own interpretation or evaluation or argument. Meaning, you use everything that you personally know and have researched about that topic. When I am assigned a research paper the first thing I do is look it up online to understand more about it. At that point, I try to figure out what is worth talking about in the paper or figure out what I can argue to get my point across. As for library databases, I never used them once because I use technology. I can give a detailed report on the assignment with the correct amount of research and citations.

After finishing my annotated bibliography I thought finding sources was the hardest thing ever until, I started comparing the sources I already had. From the comparisons I made it seemed easier to find new sources with like or opposing ideas that dealt with my discipline. I had a writing workshop that helped me understand that I had no idea how to cite correctly. Most of my citation had no page numbers or periods in the wrong place. After going through the paper many times using Hack and Summers I was able to correct most problems I found. The Literature Review taught me how to find like ideas in research while also finding opposing ideas. At the end of each comparison and difference I made a statement of relevance to prove my research fit

I have several expectations for success in English 101, from my teacher, from my classmates, and from myself. In this course I expect my teacher, Mrs. Carroll, to demonstrate how to properly compose interviews, essays, and research papers. I also hope to learn how to write the papers in the correct formats. Additionally, I expect my classmates to be courteous, to avoid being disruptive, and to be respectful. Furthermore, I expect myself to strive for greatness, to never give up, and to improve daily. I expect many different things from many individuals, but I realize that is the only way to be successful in life and in English 101.

During this class I expressed the use of rhetoric in the four major essays I wrote, including the Narrative Essay, Rhetorical Mode Essay, Argumentative Essay, and Research Essay. Being able to think critically is a crucial part of success when it comes to writing these essays. At the beginning of this class, I had a much less understanding of this particular area. I struggled with being able to use research effectively to persuade others of a certain argument. I also had difficulty with grammar issues, and paying attention to my overall “voice” of an essay. I believe that I improved significantly in all of those areas because in each essay I have learned to put myself in the audience’s position and view the piece of writing in the reader’s point of

Furthermore, I learned through my work in this class that I struggle with conventions and mechanics. After, submitting many of my essays, I noticed that in my feedback I had received many notes about conventions, grammar, and punctuation. This revealed to me that I had to work on proofreading my essay deeper and make