Literacy Reflection

Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.

Like transforming from a caterpillar to a butterfly, my writing style transformed from something mediocre to something quite exceptional. In high school, even when I took advanced placement English and Literature courses, I was never good at writing. My writing would lack structure, reasoning, syntax, and a well-defined thesis statement. My inadequate grades on writing assignments lowered my self-esteem, so I assumed I would never enjoy writing papers because I believed I could never improve. However, since attending a university my writing style has improved far beyond my expectation. My EN 101 course enhanced my understanding of the different ways I could approach my writing. Also, it enhanced my comprehension of outlines to complete assignments. Investing quality time into my writing made a substantial difference because I became a stronger writer. Through the late nights, constant revisions, and agonizing head traumas, I learned that my writing is truly spectacular whenever I incorporate well-defined thesis statements, provide sufficient supporting evidence, and maintain a clear focus in my assignments.

Throughout high school, I have always received high praise for my good writing skills. As I entered college, I realized that their writing standards are higher and tougher than high school, but with guidance, I was still able to write exceptional essays. This semester, I wrote three major essays in ENC 1101, and each essay displayed not just my high points, but also mistakes and areas of improvement. This final essay will reflect on the highs, lows, and trends of my previous essays.

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

As the semester comes to a close, it is always interesting to look back and reflect on the events and opportunities my English class has given me throughout my first semester as a whole. At the beginning of this semester it was evident that I was feeling uncomfortable due to the adjustment that I was going through as a student moving to college. It was very difficult expressing myself through my writing since I was nervous about good impressions and my good grade. While this class was one of the most difficult courses that I have taken this far, it has become quite evident to me that I have grown a substantial amount as a writer and as a person; Especially, when it came to explaining my ideas, writing academic essays, and making arguments.

While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.

Writing has never been my strong suit so I understood why I had been placed into EWRT 211. Before this class I had not written an essay since I was a junior in high school (six years ago). I have always struggled with writing, but it was not until my first diagnostic essay that I realized how terrible my writing skills were. Everything about the diagnostic essay screamed that I did not know what I was doing. Since then, I have noticed a vast improvement in my writing. This class has taught me how to become a better writer by creating stronger theses and by knowing why rough drafts are important to writing. Nevertheless, I still need to develop better strategies to manage my writing. I chose my essays, What Influences Teens To Become Adults and Resilience Among College Students, because they demonstrate my growth throughout this class. Even though I still need to improve on managing my writing, I am confident in moving to EWRT 1A because I have learned how to create strong theses, and how rough drafts have a great impact on my writing.

“The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year” reflected my writing experience while I transitioned from elementary writer to a critical writer. Sommers and Saltz write, “freshmen need to see themselves as novice in a world that demands ‘something more and deeper’ from their writing than high school” (Sommers and Saltz 134). This line highlights the hardship that most students face when trying to write successfully. My earlier written works were much weaker than my current pieces because I often wrote for the sake of passing the class. While developing my writing, I focused on the new ideas that were introduced rather than limiting my argument to familiar techniques and ideas. Because of my new attitude towards writing, I began to demand

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.

Throughout the course of freshmen year I have developed different skills and opinions on writing. I feel I have created a more mature style of writing and a better understanding of literature. I have changed my view of writing over this semester and acquired a strong liking for it. The importance of writing has become more visible throughout the past few months. Writing is crucial in many aspects of a person’s life. I have grown to be a more powerful and well built writer throughout this course.

This was my first time taking part in the actual literacy night festivities and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to attend this time around. I can honestly say as a parent of three children, I have never had the time to attend their literacy nights, and I regret that. Participating in the literacy night made me aware of the importance of holding literacy nights such as the one I was apart of. It provides students and parents/family members the opportunity to spend quality time together while practicing academic skills/concepts in a authentic and engaging way. The center that my group created was called Recycled Music and it allowed students to create a musical instrument by reusing recyclable materials. We put a lot of thought into

Working a full-time job, raising children, and attending college are not an easy task as many people could think. Parents always have difficulties in managing and prioritizing their time. I had to sacrifice my social life as well as my family this semester because I needed to focus on my English 1100 class. MacCaughey, who is my English 1100 instructor, has helped me grow as a writer because of the way he taught us on how to be a good writer. My confidence as a writer had always been low and I never had a clear direction in writing. Through this class, I was able to learn how to develop my ideas into writing process. Ascending the banisters of my writing process, I greatly learned about the narrative style of writing, the formal way to critical analyze a text, and write a response about it. I also learned how to write a persuasive text in a conveying manner and answering a question with the help of a secondary source more of

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.

Over the course of this past semester, my ability to write has improved tremendously. Prior to undertaking this course, my expertise in writing was not as fine-tuned as it should have been. I had never previously been enrolled in a class specifically tailored to writing-- which was quite clear. Upon reading my past works, it becomes apparent that my writing style consisted of fluff, small words, and inconsistently structured sentences. These problems have, for the most part, been remedied with the coursework I have tackled in College Writing. Rather than long, drawn out papers that take an eternity to reach the primary point, my recent work is much nicer in terms of composition and grammar. I credit these improvements to the three primary

Throughout my time writing at the City College of New York, I experienced a slow and dramatic transition to my first semester of this college course. During that time, I've learned from several feedback and lessons from certain peers and my professor. Because of the strict comments written in my drafts by my professor, a few helpful suggestions to include in my writing, and a few miserably failures, I was able to see how my writing and habits have changed during the duration of this course. Back in high school, I was always comfortable writing only five paragraph essays (Introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion), but I've never expected to write something more complex. Here, I was encouraged to include as much detail as I can instead of writing something vague