English Reflection

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.

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.

Before I enrolled in English 101 my ability to write specific types of papers (argumentative, rhetoric, narrative, etc) were mediocre at best. However, from reading The Norton Field Guide to Writing and They Say, I Say I gained a deeper understanding on how to better argue a point or write a narrative with a clear theme. Moreover, from my time of being in English 101 I have improved tremendously in the given areas: Rhetoric, Technology, Research, and Collaboration.

Since the beginning of this semester, English 101 has helped me realize both my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. One weakness that I have realized about myself is my tendency to not fully plan out my essays before I start writing the rough drafts. This is one thing that English 101 has helped me to improve, by creating well-planned out outlines before starting to write. A strength that I have is writing strong commentary that supports the provided quote and shows why the quote is relevant to the essay’s overall thesis.

During the fall semester I enrolled in an English 111 course to help improve my writing skills. Throughout the semester I was instructed to write four papers, not including this one. The topics for my essays were about; the value of education, victims and creators, a report essay, and last but not least a review essay. Each essay became more challenging than the previous one. As each essay came along, I applied the skills I learned in class and necessary peer evaluations to correct my mistakes so that I could get better at writing.

The toilsome component this semester was transitioning from being a high school level writer to a college-level writer. However, English 10 has by far been my best experience in writing. By taking this course I have retrieved many helpful elements, that will help me become a successful writer throughout college. In high school, essays often gave me stress and anxiety, however, when taking English 10, I was able to learn to enjoy the process of writing purposefully and mindfully. Even though, I have taken advanced placement English courses in high school and have taken a practice run of college level English over the summer with Professor Brenda Venezia, I was still able to retrieve a lot more from this course. To showcase my progress in

What have I learned in English 102? When I began this class, I had not taken a formal English class in over thirty years. I understood sentence structure and essay writing to a point. To elaborate my understanding was based on story telling rather than research and factual commentary. Of course, rhetorical review and research was foreign to me. I had a loose understanding but had never practiced or been in a position to apply these skills. Or at least that is what I thought. Since beginning this course, I have found it both challenging and enlightening. I feel that my skills have developed over the last few weeks and a greater understanding of what it takes to identify and understand complicated subjects has progressed. Not just that I can read difficult scholarly text, but that I can focus on what they are trying to say, their argument, and then develop my own counter argument in support of or against the authors statements. It is more than just saying I concur or I do not agree with you. It is stating how my point of view differs and supporting my statements logically and directly with facts, not just conjecture. Within the following paragraphs I will discuss, in more detail, the specific areas where I feel I have matured and how I intend to apply this new-found knowledge to my future writing as well as reading materials to assess their value.

Throughout the course of English 16, I have improved my writing. The worksheets and notes provided helps me become a better writer than I was when I first stepped into the classroom. Revising my paper after the second draft or ‘final copy’ helped me better under the process and time that must be in to make a perfect paper. In the course, there were four assignments, a research paper, a research proposal, diagnostic essay and a essay about appearance.

During the fall semester of 2015, I was enrolled in an English 101 Composition class. At first, I did not think much of the course. I have never had a passion for English classes. I thought it would be a fairly boring class that I would end up loathing. However, I no longer feel the same way toward the course. I learned to like that class. The professor was brilliant. Professor Grefski taught everything with such as ease. It almost became comforting to hear her explain the assignments or lessons. I felt as though I could understand the class better with her teaching. I really learned a lot in the course. The badges themselves were a great help to my college career. I thought I knew how to do all those things before the class, but I now realize

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

Before taking this class I never liked my English classes more specifically writing essays for them. I didn’t understand much of how to use strategies while writing essays and focuses little on learning it. By taking this class and using the strategies that I was provided with it made taking this class easy and enjoyable while writing analytical essays. I was willing to put in the effort and do my part in order to get a good grade in this English class and it worked. I feel that my performance in an English class has improved significantly.

In English 101, I mastered getting to the point of getting to my essays with less disappointment with force; I learned the significant use of scratch paper. For example, I wasn’t always use to writing my essays on scratch paper; however, keeping in mind that the scratch paper was a nondurable tool as I finished my paper, because I knew they would be thrown away. Also, the professor required us to submit our scratch paper along with our essays. With this procedure, I was forced to rewrite my essays. He felt that the scratch paper would be a help to us as we continually to learn how to effectively write our essays.

I'm writing this in the hopes that whomever it is that I should contact for help with scheduling may find it. I am not entirely sure if it is currently going to someone whom it may concern as the only counseling email listed is yours. If you are capable of assisting with this plight, please disregard this paragraph, otherwise I ask that you please forward it to whoever will best handle it.

Throughout Honors English II, I not only became a more advanced reader, I also became a more experienced writer. All throughout the semester, I learned to analyze works of literature and look for themes in the novels I read, which also helped me to become a more thoughtful writer. I also greatly improved my vocabulary throughout the semester, which helped me achieve more advanced writing and reading skills. Overall, by using new writing techniques and new vocabulary, I was able to build on my previous reading and writing skills, and I hope to see a continuation of advancement in my reading and writing abilities in the years to come.

This first semester at the University of Akron has flown by. I learned many new writing concepts that helped me become a better writer. English composition was a required class that I had to take in order to get my degree. Although this class was required I still wanted to take this class to become more knowledgeable about writing. Coming into English Composition I was worried about all of the papers and the workload that I would have to complete. I knew that I was going to have to write a lot more than I previously had in highschool, but I was unsure of just how much. The works that I decided to include in my portfolio comprise of my Literacy Narrative, Image Analysis Paper, and essay titled Mayas Hardships based on Maya’s experiences in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I selected these works because I felt that they are the ones that require the most improvement to them. The papers i've chosen show how far I’ve came In English Composition.