First-Year Composition Course Analysis

The first few years of college student’s lives are not necessarily the most enjoyable time, having to take the basic core classes. Unless someone is planning on getting their degree in something that involves the basic core classes like; Math, Psychology, any Humanities, or English. English has not been my strong suit and I know that I still have work that needs to be done to make me a better writer, but I believe that I was able to meet and achieve the goals and requirements of this Composition two class.

One of the challenges high school seniors face is to choose whether to further their education or not. Many students choose to go on to college to get degrees or certificates, but many do not. College certainly is not for everyone. College is important though for people who want to obtain jobs that require getting a degree. I am a person who wants to get a career that requires a quality college education. I will experience many challenges and obstacles throughout my college education. I know taking a Composition and Rhetoric class will be one of these challenges. I am taking English 1101 because I have to in order to get my degree, because I want to get ahead, and because I expect to develop better writing and communication skills.

Composition 1, also known as English 101 or FYC (First Year Composition) is an entry-level course taken by a majority of college students to introduce them to college-level reading and writing. FYC is a prerequisite course at many colleges and universities and therefore must be taken before students can enter into courses specific to their major. Though FYC serves as a bridge to college-level reading and writing many students and even some compositionists (those who teach writing in a college or university) do not see the relevancy of the course and instead view FYC as a course with very little applicability within the majors and future careers of college students. Others, including Nathalie Singh-Corcoran, believe FYC is a crucial prerequisite course that does teach skills crucial to the futures and lives of college students. In her essay, Composition as a Write of Passage, Nathalie Singh-Corcoran first, speaks to the purpose and overall goals of an FYC course before explaining how the skills learned in FYC can actually be applied to the majors and future careers of college students.  From the very beginning of her article, Singh-Corcoran establishes a strong foundation from which she can reach her main audience, but, she fails to support her main points in the best possible way by a very sparse use of non-anecdotal or personal experience based evidence.

In Freshman Composition I learned what metacognition means, and how it applies to academic writing. Next I learned about textual evidence and backing up your opinions with research. *I expect this class to help develop my writing skills, as well as find my voice in writing, all together I expect this class to be challenging but rewarding. Therefore I have set a few goals for myself, my first goal is to step out of my comfort zone and research topics I have never heard of before. My second goal is to not second-guess myself on my writing topics and/or choices. Furthermore I expect great things to come from this

Writing isn’t simply a skill that you can check off your list. The point of taking writing courses in college is to help you grow as an author and researcher. Take advantage of the great writing resources — including required composition courses — that your institution has to offer, to help you become the best writer possible!

My high school years were not spectacular, nor were they terribly productive.I left high school without learning how to proficiently write an essay. However, CUNY's Borough of Manhattan Community College afforded me a desperately needed second chance. It was at BMCC that I sharpened many of the skills I should have mastered in high school. I was able to greatly improve my writing ability. I began college as a student who found writing a 2 page paper to be a terrifyingly daunting task, but due to practice and numerous resources offered by CUNY, I soon was able to compose papers consisting of 10-14 pages with confidence and efficiency.

Completing freshman composition is one of the greatest accomplishments I have achieved throughout my high school career. I have experienced an immense amount of improvement on my writing as well as a huge deal of stress throughout the semester. In the past, writing was never one of my strong suits; however, I have learned quite a bit, for example, how to use semicolons, write with metacognition, and how to correctly do a works cited. During my time in this class, I have: reflected, set goals, learned the writing process, tracked my progress, and learned a huge deal about myself, life and college.

When I started the English Composition course I expected an entirely different type of writing. I expected more of a story telling writing, novelist, story and screenplay writing. To my surprise, it was a different world of grammar, style, voice, sentence mechanics and structure guidelines. I was afraid of something new and challenging. I expected more of a three act structure to write a novel or a short story but the course was different. Different in a helpful way that it opened my eyes to how the overall writing process works.

The essay ‘Composition as a Write of Passage’ by Nathalie Singh-Corcoran points out the importance of writing beyond the bounds of the first year of universities. The author attempts to emphasize that first year composition (FYC) requirements has much importance not only for academic purpose but also for other fields of work. Too often students are overjoyed in the idea that once they have completed their FYC requirements they never have to write again. Corcoran tries to relate her own personal experiences with the present students. According to the author the overarching mission of FYC is to accustom students with college level reading and writing.

Coming into the 3D program, I was none too excited about taking any general studies classes, including freshman composition. English class has always been the one class I have always had a disdain for. In high school, English was all about reading literature and being told to write several pages on a topic seemingly unrelated without any direction to guide us. Upon coming to Freshman Composition, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the class was nothing like those classes. I feel as if I have learned many things and developed greatly as a writer throughout these last months shown in this portfolio. The main improvements of mine consist of my ability to manage time, my ability to structure paragraphs, and my ability to improve my papers through my own writing process.

As a high school student taking on a college course, I acknowledged and accepted the challenge that lay ahead of me. The main reason I selected Composition I and II was that it allowed me to vastly improve my overall writing skills. Developing my techniques will benefit me when I am required to compose any writing assignments for my future college classes. Therefore, with that goal in mind, I chose to take this class while still attending high school. I began this class as an average writer; additionally, I did not know the majority of the writing rules or how to make an essay meet its potential. Over the course of these two classes, I believe that I have proven my writing to be more seamless and interesting to read.

The first day I walked into Freshman Composition I had the idea that everything assigned was going to be extremely frustrating and difficult, as this is a college class. Equally important, my expectations for the class was to earn at least a B, further my writing abilities, and learn more about college. As the semester started, I noticed that my writing was not at the college level and I needed to learn how to improve it. Along with improving my writing, I was also able to learn about college life. With this essay turned in and handed back, I began to realize my writing needed practice and critiquing. Furthermore, I gave myself goals to achieve in Freshman Composition, I have learned useful tools to improve my writing, and I have learned more

Exploring First Year Composition, now on abbreviated as FYC, as it benefits students outside of the English core curriculum. In what ways does FYC benefit students outside of their English classes? In this first article titled Composition as a Write of Passage by Nathalie Singh-Corcoran, the usefulness of FYC is explored in many different forms. Singh-Corcoran breaks down FYC into many different components ranging from knowledge transfer (which is “the degree to which we can use newly learned skills and abilities and apply them in other contexts”) (Singh-Corcoran 3), to the reason and goals of taking FYC, to even the assessment criteria of a standard paper that would be due in such a class. She goes in depth into the goals of the FYC courses

I never truly had a formal education with regard to composition. My high school was labeled a “national exemplary” high school but I quickly learned it was only because the graduation requirement was higher based only on the number of credits. The credits were easy to get, and I ran out of math classes that would challenge me by 10th grade. Most teachers simply expected the work to be complete, and the content was irrelevant. I hope and expect the readers of this content will see my growth throughout this course.

“…As for all the seniors, I want you to challenge yourselves this year and don’t think you’re going to cruise through to graduation.”-Mrs. Smith, County High School. Although some seniors in high school refuse to take a hard schedule, I decided to take a challenging composition course my last year of high school and learned more than ever before from it. My teacher, Mr. Bacz, focused mostly on vocabulary, grammar, and how to right an essay. Each one of these subjects combined to give me a year of hard work, which eventually paid off.