How I Taught Me Multiple Things Other Than Improving My Writing

Throughout my whole life, I really struggled with writing. Every time the English teacher gave the class an assignment to write an essay, I was always felt terrified because I never saw any improvements in my writing whenever I got my essays back from the teacher. However, I wanted to change that this year. Writing 101 has been a very interesting class this year, especially since the theme of the class was “tai chi on paper”. In this class, I learned many techniques that helped me improve my writing like I learned how to take time and revise my writing a lot before I turned in my final draft to my professor.

Putting all the parts of writing together is what makes a good piece of writing. Over the semester, my realization of what I was doing wrong paired with the different formatting strategies and the desire to become a better writer has helped me to become better overall. I believe that practice makes perfect, and while I have not perfected my writing or even come close yet, I believe that I have gotten closer to being a proficient writer. I believe that this class has helped me to get closer to becoming a proficient writer, and will help me in my future classes and

At the start of this course, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had a goal for myself to improve and learn skills that would make writing less daunting for me. I have learned so many things about my writing that I didn’t think much about before. Another goal I had was to break the cookie-cutter mold that was set upon me throughout high school. During the process of revision, I discovered many things about myself as a writer and techniques that have been effective for me in the writing process.

The past two semesters were great experiences. Within this past school year my knowledge as a reader and writer has improved. It felt like it was just yesterday, when I had a lot of difficulty writing and poor reading strategies. Now, as I said before, I am an improved writer and reader. The assignments and class activities over the two semesters were great benefits to me, and helped me make progress towards the first year learning goals.

This course was comprised of many learning activities; each was designed to help me achieve the course learning outcomes. I have taken two college English classes in the past; however, it has been several years since my last college class. I have some experience in writing and this class definitely helped me get back into writing. I often have trouble brainstorming and capturing the subject I need to write about. This class definitely helped me overcome the challenges I faced in writing and being able to effectively express my ideas in a clear and concise manner. Not to mention, it definitely helped build my writing foundation through a step by step approach to each assignment. Therefore, this class bolstered my writing and communication skills.

Over the past four months, I have made great strides as a writer. The area where I have seen the most growth is in my use of the writing process. Prior to my enrollment in this course, I would sit down and write all my papers in one sitting. This class has taught me how to lay out a plan for my papers. I have learned how to effectively brainstorm/research, draft, and revise my writings before I complete them. Also I have learned to not just stop there, instead I am now going back and reflecting on my work after I complete it. This allows me to identify where I prospered and also where my downfalls may have been. With this information, I am able to apply this to future writings of mine; lessons that will stay with me forever.

From day one I knew I would face some challenges with this class just bases off of past experiences with English classes overall. Not being a native speaker and having dyslexia have been two big hurdles but I can say this class has made me over all a more knowledgeable writer. Each assignment given was something different and something interesting. The one that left the biggest impact on me was the Sister Flowers story by Maya Angelou. I’ve always been a fan of her work and the fact that I got to read something by her in my English class was amazing. Most of the classes I’ve attended have been very euro centric barely deviating from that path but here there was plenty of variety from the racial backgrounds of the authors to the topics themselves. My strengths as a writer have always been in the passion I can channel into my writing. That skill really came to birth as a way to balance out my lack of proper grammar with sheer emotional impact. An example of this I believe was in my essay entitled Glossy “I felt the rage tinged with fear claw at my stomach and wrap around my neck constricting my breathing.” Although my English may not be the best I’ve found ways to convey certain emotions. Although I have some strengths naturally I have weaknesses as well.

One of my weaknesses in my writing is that I tend to have a “one track mind”. Once I have an idea about how to word something or organize an essay, I tend to only see it from that perspective, even if it’s not the most optimal way to convey my arguments. This class helped me think outside of the box and learn to organize things like I would not normally do, this included how I would analyze texts or synthesize ideas. The in-class activities helped me learn to be creative, the class readings gave me examples on how to organize that creativity and the instructor conferences helped me further organize my thoughts and organization.

The assignments in this class have shown me that I’m a better writer than I initially thought. The assignments have where I have improved, areas where I still need to improve, and how skills developed here can transfer into other courses.

During these past three weeks I have realized that college is going to be very challenging, it is not what I expected it to be like. This class has helped with my reading and writing experience and has contributed to my understanding of expectations for college and goals for my future. It has helped me with preparing and planning my work ahead of time. Dr. Sariscany has helped me with becoming a better writer and helped me prepare for college level work. She has showed me that college is not going to be easy and we should get used to it and put in all our effort and time into everything we turn in.

At the beginning, I took it upon myself to configure the essay, turn in the project on time, and share a Google Doc file with each partner. By creating the presentation on Google, this allowed every group member access the presentation and work on their slides whenever they needed to do so. Choosing the categories came easy, respectfully we gave each other the chance to voice our opinions on why we should have that specific topic. Lance was a huge help getting everything rolling, he offered to drive to Happy Trails to interview Josh Devault and not mention set up the meeting. Ryan kept me updated with his work and asked many questions that added to my confidence that he will get the job done correctly. Eddie hammered down on his section as well as kept everyone up-to-date with his progress through the journal feature on Blackboard. Char Dai’ got her section done before everyone else did and that was astonishing. She influenced the whole group to get their work done quick and efficiently. Every member worked hard and finished on time, I’m quite happy with our group’s

Understanding the project includes three parts, an abstract, a report, and a speech, we decided to delegate the workload based off of that. Each of us brought different strengths to the group, Jess Cinfio being the most eloquent writer, and Alex Bachman and Rachel Roar being the better speakers. With that said, we opted to use those strengths to our advantage, putting Jess in charge of the powerpoint and the written parts of the rubric, with Alex and Rachel offering any assistance, as well as taking control of the speech aspect.

My group presentation during week 10 was around the topic of women at work and more specifically maternity and paternity leave. A common perception of teamwork is that you either have a group that that works well together and finishes the assignment ahead of time or you have group where there is little communication and the assignment is a last minute activity resulting in a grade that is truly reflective of the effort and time taken. Fortunately for myself the group that was formed for this assignment worked well together and produced an exceptional presentation. I enjoy teamwork as it allows for ideas to be bounced off one another and a better understanding of issues and problems to be well comprehended.

My focus this week was my group power point presentation. This was the assignment me nervous because my presentation was going to be a reflection on my team members as well, so I felt more pressure to put an informative and clear power point presentation. This assignment made me realized that team work is essential. We depended on each other to present an informative presentation, and we are not able to do it if we don’t communicate among ourselves. I found this group presentation to be challenging because we all have different schedules, responsibilities and time zones, but I have learned that even if everyone has different responsibilities, it is important to communicate with each other.

It is my belief that through this class and the tools provided, that my growth as a writer has grown through leaps and bounds I would never have assumed possible. It is not so much the skill I refer to, although I would think skill has gone up in some levels as well, but more so the appreciation for the craft of writing itself. Intially, at the start of this class my sole goal was to further my understanding and appreciation of the writer's and books that I so love to read. Through further evaluation within the first week, a few other goals came to mind, of which were, making writing a habit, finishing what I start, stop second guess my writing skills and making effective use of detail and description. Through the use of the many articles, various reading materials, whether poems or short stories, and especially through the workshop, I feel I was able to really push myself to accomplishing these goals. I have thus far learned how important it is not to be skilled at writing per say, but to have the will to write, that poetry is as much about it's sound as it is about it's subject, just how important character development is, how the narration and point of view of a story is essential to the way the story is told, and just how much of a difference peer's critiques can make to your writing.