How I Should Spend Your Life

August 28, 2017, the first day of my fresh and scary journey. My first day as a Colorado Christian University student, English composition online is my first class. Part of me is ready; part of me is ready to throw in the towel. I hadn’t even had a chance to turn a paper in, and the first assignment, a 5-paragraph essay had me thinking “you’re a crazy person for going back to school, it’s been 11 years since you had to write a paper. What are you thinking?” I told myself its 5 weeks (later I would realize actually 6) you can make it 5 weeks! Although I knew writing wouldn’t be my easiest subject, I knew I had to try my hardest. This class was condensed and hard, but effective and informative; I’ve learned so much, felt all sorts of emotions and know I can apply what I’ve learned in classes to come.

From being so far from home and alone to fight for yourself in a world focused on themselves is quite daunting to say the least. When everything felt hopeless the words were always there to comfort me, when I felt as though I had no one to turn to, no one to trust with these words I knew the pages of paper never let me down. This semester is when I learned that academic writing can be just as emotional and personal as my journal. Something I try to ask myself every time I write is something Nancy Sommers says perfectly “How do I embrace these experiences, these texts of my life” and create something worth writing? I have learned that this question takes my writing to a new level and makes it interesting. Another thing I have learned is that writing academically doesn’t have to be a list of facts and statements to prove a point but it should include your side of the story as well. What I have learned is like a cook book there are so many forms of writing, like there are so many forms of the same dish, but it all has to include your own personal touch, what would a bowl of pasta be without a little bit of sprinkled cheese on the

Throughout the course of this semester, I have continuously grown as a writer. Prior to taking this course, I had little experience or knowledge when it came to writing. I used to struggle with forming my thoughts into writing, let alone a paper. I was never confident with what I wrote. My writing had no greater purpose other than the assignment. My writing process included: writing my paper, proofreading it, and turning it in. Once the paper left my hands, it also left my mind. Throughout this course we worked with others, visited the writing lab, wrote critiques, and we were able to revise our papers. I believe that all of this is has caused me to grow greatly as a writer.

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

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.

This semester was my very first semester as a college student. Being the first, it was probably the semester I would learn the most in. I learned the expectations for writing that I will have to live up to for the next four years of my college career. Though my high school teachers were usually demanding because I was in the Honors English section throughout high school, writing in college has still ?raised the bar? for me. Also, in high school, we would have weeks to pick a topic, create a thesis, outline the paper, write the paper, and then revise the paper. In college, the time restraints are not quite as lenient. I?ve had to learn to manage my time and be more productive with what free moments I

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

College. English. Papers. This semester, for English 125, I wrote a total of three final papers and read fifteen various text; each with a different argument. I went from soaring through political documents, to running through a field littered with stereotypes, only to end up in a land where the government dictates a society. Each paper I wrote and every text I read connected back to each adventure I had to endure. The first paper for this semester I was blind towards the potential I exhibited as a writer, the second paper I ventured out into the unknown, and the third paper tested the skills I possessed as a writer when conducting research on Christianity; a topic that was foreign to me. I came into this course expecting to be challenged along the way, since I always had a passion for English, and that test was clearly met. The papers written, along with the text read, has not only allowed me to produce bold statements with the objective in mind, but maximize the potential I possess as a writer and reader.

This semester has been quite different, mainly because I took a few different English classes that I normal wouldn’t have taken. I took a ‘reading’ class; I miss reading classes in school. Don’t get me wrong, writing classes are important too, and I’m not just saying that because I’m writing this essay for a writing class. They’re important due to the fact that they teach valuable lessons like correct punctuation, grammar, spelling, dictation and most importantly, how to bull crap your way through any paper.

Ranging from syntax to learning how to fully comprehend Bloom's Taxonomy Level 3, to creating a Hook, to Say-Mean-Matter, to making a thesis/conclusion. Out of everything I wrote this year, my literary analysis paper was by far the absolute worst one I have written, without a doubt. Writing my literary analysis paper took me more, substantially more time than expected, even though I already had everything going, and was ready to start writing. I kept doubting myself, saying to myself, “ that is not what the song is saying,” and kept going through thousands upon thousands of ideas until I found one that I was satisfied with. Time was running out, 1 week to go, Friday night, I was sitting down on the floor putting all the words together. Then it struck me when those words hit: everyone, nightmares, repeat, problems, no heart, empathy, will not give up until everything is “right,” love, and pathetic. It was at that moment I realized what the song meant, and I was brimmed with excitement and went to take a shower and went to sleep because tomorrow was already today. For the course of that week, I spent most of it rushing through homework to get to English, focusing on the paragraphs, fixing every little detail in every sentence, and barely having time to add strong words to it in its final hours. Finally, the due date had arrived, and I was afraid of doing badly as there was a lot more to add than what was there, but nonetheless, time was not on my side I, and I turned it in. Checking back to the essay now, I realized that there is still much more to write than what was there, so many things I did not fixate

The production and knowledge that I have learned throughout this semester with my writing has expanded enormously. I actually feel more comfortable writing papers and being myself with the knowledge I gained throughout this course. I have learned a lot through the writing process from learning how to approach the intro to letting myself write a shitty first draft. I also learned that any paper you write is never perfect and there is always room for improving your paper. I do not really see a lot of writing in my future career, but doesn’t mean it might not happen and I should always be prepared to write a well-organized paper to show that I know how to actually be able to write. I feel that the research paper is the most I am proud of writing.

During this semester, I have strengthened my writing by trying new writing techniques, learning about purpose, and finding new ways of combating writers block. My first essay in this class was less focused then the essays I wrote later in

This year I have done a lot of writing and revising. In this semester I have written more than last year while I was in high school. I was often not the best student in high school. I often left things like essays at the last second and didn’t revised essays. In college I was about to receive a rude awakening because in college I had and have to revise my essays it was no longer an option but a requirement. In college I was ill-prepared and overwhelmed by the assignments. It was very tough adjusting to this class at first because it was more challenging and overwhelming than I

This semester has been full of new experiences, more connections, and better opportunities. I admit this class had me excited, made me think more, and helped me change my writing. Although most people say that a letter grade doesn’t matter, for me, any class is important. I believe in this semester I have learned a lot more about my writing, reading, and the learning environment of English.

At the beginning of this class I was nervous on how this semester will go and whether or not I will succeed to my fullest potential in English. With that in my mind I still was trying my best to work at getting better, despite how much it made me cringe at the thought of it. My perspective of writing began to change as time went on, the assignments were based on interesting topics which made it a bit bearable for me. I’ve learned that you have to make the steps to get to the perfect paper. A paper requires you to brainstorm, make an outline, and writing your rough draft to get that feedback you need before finishing up that final draft. During this class I have also learned where to put my thesis and that I don’t need to have that three point subtopics of what you should talk about. The writing length started getting longer and I was a bit skeptical on how I can get to the word count or what will I talk about within my papers, but I have