My Experience In English

I walk over to the nine-year-old boy sitting across the room as I reach for my pen and sheet of paper. As I approached him, I halted. Quietly, I asked him what he needed help with. Looking confused, he asked me what the word bough meant. I froze. I didn’t know what the word meant. Embarrassed of not knowing a fifth grade word, I asked the teacher for some assistance and after she told me what the word meant I understood and was then able to explain to him that a bough is just a synonym for a branch. Noticing that David was still confused as to what he was reading, I sat beside him and allowed him to read the passage out loud to me. While I defined the words that he didn’t know and listened to him read the passage, I was able to classify him as an English learner who just wanted to be just as good as the other kids.

Throughout my two quarters in a row in English classes, I have to learn that I needed to slow down and take my time to re-read my assignments before turning them in. As well not to “eat my words” I may say them in my head and not type them. I can’t always assume that the reader knows what I trying to say if I don’t write them down. I must pay close attention to see what I’m trying to imply in order to implement it into my writing.

There are many experiences that have shaped the way I write today. For example, during my senior year at Plainfield Central High School, I struggled with finding a way to put my paper together using ideas and words of my own. My senior English teacher always said, “Writing a paper is not always just citing what you found on a website. You need to add your own thoughts and comments to make your paper more personal.” She sat down with me after class and worked on my paper with me to try and teach me a way to find my own words and it worked. She had me write the paper before finding any type of citations on the internet. That way, it was all my own words and then I could find my sources and add them in there and delete anything of my own if needed. Another example is, when I was sitting at my kitchen table struggling to find the words to make the paper have good detail. My mother looked at me and said, “Write how you want it to be written. Write it in the way you believe will make a good paper.” That has helped me tremendously because when I write how I want to write, I generally like how my papers turn out so much more. Another thing that has helped me was, about one time every week I would sit down and write about anything I can think of. It could be what I am looking forward to doing in the future or even just what is on my mind at that moment. I realized that the more I write, the better I get at it.

The impact both reading and writing have had on me throughout my school years has always been changing. While I have always struggled with reading comprehension, and anxiety in putting my thoughts into words when writing, I have found some relief when I am able to connect to a character in a book, or given freedom to find a topic I am interested in; which makes me excited and passionate about sharing my thoughts through writing.

Throughout the course English 101, I believe my writing skills have improved through understanding concepts such as rhetorical situation, purpose, audience, ethos, pathos, logos, and rhetorical analysis. Looking back at the semester, I reflect on my strengths and weaknesses. My strengths include my note taking skills and being attentive during class. Doing this, I was later able to use these notes to look back at while writing, which I found very useful. For example, for the essay Comparative Rhetorical Analysis, I took note of almost every piece of information Dr. Braun gave us, writing in the margins of the articles and highlighting important phrases. Because of this, writing came very easily to me not only for that essay but also others,

When I have an essay to write I make sure to pick a day that I am not busy. My children are in school and my house is quiet. I turn off my cell phone and any other noise distraction which breaks my mind concentration. Before I start I make sure my brain is not tired and well rested so it would not feel disoriented or losses focus during the process. In the beginning of the writing I usually get stuck on the first line because of a habit of uncertainty by going back and revising before I actually complete the whole sentence. I try constantly and instantly to re-read what I wrote and make instant changes. I would reconstruct phrases by switching them around to different places or reword any unlike words. There were days that

In my writing assignments, I found that I am good at organizing my thoughts and notes in an appropriate way, also going back and revising my mistakes along the way. In my future writing assignments, my goal is to make sure that I know how to start my writing properly and taking extra time to proofread the whole assignment.

I must disagree with a person who says this. English builds a foundation for every class you ever need to take. Say you get into University for a program such as Architecture, many people would think they wouldn’t use the skills they learned in English in a program like this. This is where those people are wrong. Architecture, like every other program in University, uses textbooks. Without the vocabulary you learned in English, you wouldn’t be able to comprehend what this University textbook said. There’s also many essays and assignments that require you to use extensive language and proper grammar in order for you to receive a high grade.

I remember the day I became enamored with the subject of English. It was freshman year and my English teacher Mr. Lubera was also new to the school. I stepped into the small classroom full of Shakespeare posters combined with the soothing scent of an apple pie candle resting on his desk. I did not know what to think at the time because at this point English and books were something I could not care less for, however the moment Mr. Lubera walked through that door full of excitement and the cheesiest puns I have ever heard I knew I would love his class. I remember sitting in the library working on a persuasive essay for two weeks and how he told us of every pitfall we could encounter and what to do if it does. I remember acting out Romeo and Juliet during class and then discussing what happened and the meaning. Most importantly however, I remember the time we finished the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and had a socratic seminar about the ending and the enduring themes within. It was in this class that Mr. Lubera showed me how fun English can be and I have been enticed in the subject ever since. Every year I would look forward to my English class in hopes that I would learn something new or read something interesting. It is because of this experience that I want to become an English teacher and recreate my experience for others.

As a writer, I have always struggled in a few areas. I have this bad habit of delving too much into summary of a work and not really analyzing what the author is saying or why they are saying it. I also tend to lose focus and veer into speculation rather than remaining focused on whatever topic I am discussing. At times I have completely forgotten the point of a paper and therefore omitted a required point. I am also guilty of common mistakes such as run-on sentences, punctuation errors, and fragments. But I do have strengths as well. When I focus on it, my sentence structure can be varied and intriguing. When I really believe in the point I am arguing, I can give stellar analysis and even give some thought provoking questions out

First, staying focused as a writer can sometimes be a challenge. Writing is one of those things that usually takes time, especially when it comes down to a big assignment. However, a writer has to be able to overcome and persevere to stay focused through the process and finish it. Welty writes, “Still illiterate, I was ready for them, committed to all the reading I could give them” (Welty 6). As long as a writer can stay focused and key in on the subject, they will be able to compose a great piece work no matter what it is.

Our first assignment was to compose the diagnostic essay. The essay was created to showcase our strengths and weaknesses. Understanding my strengths and weaknesses came as a difficulty because in high school we were never asked to explore these traits within ourselves. While constructing this essay I had a hard time evaluating my own writing so I needed an external source. I had a friend look at my writing and point out my strengths and weaknesses. I then listed the pros and cons of my writing. Understanding the prompt has always been a stronghold of mine, I am able to fully comprehend the purpose of the assignment. Being able to fully understand the prompt has lead to stronger writing as I revisit the prompt and revise my papers. A sure weakness of mine was clear organization of thoughts. I can say that it still haunts me. I can write a good sentence yet, delete it because I tell myself that I can write a better sentence. The diagnostic essay was

English has never been my strong suit. Ever since elementary school, I found it hard to fully grasp the grammatical structure and concept of the English language. It was worse through middle and high school, where things got all the more complicated and I learned how to write personal, analytical, and argumentative essays. This not only forced me to rack my brain for strong thesis statements, but to also think deeply and profoundly about a variety of subjects and topics. Eventually, through my struggles I saw my writing skills slowly improve throughout the years but even so, I realized that this skill is one where you have to constantly work and improve on because it’s an essential skill to have and will benefit us later on in life. For example, even though I’m a Biology major, English is a requirement I need in order to graduate and surprisingly enough my English class is filled with a diverse group of students in other majors as well, such as criminal justice, engineering, and business.

My writing skills are decent, if I take the time to fully process my thoughts. When it is a timed assignment or test, my skills go right out the window, I concentrate more on answering the prompt rather than the grammar, punctuation, or structure. It’s like a jumbled mess of writing filled with lots of errors. When I’m writing my main goals are to answer the prompt, have good structure, and no grammatical or punctuation errors. These goals sometimes get in the way of me expressing myself freely; if a sentence doesn’t flow right with rest of the paragraph, I will re-examine my paragraph or paper to see if I can conjure up a sentence to finish out my paragraph before moving on to the next paragraph. Another example is if I feel like I don’t

English classes have always been a requirement at the two schools I attended, Century Community Charter Middle School and Animo Inglewood High School. Every year in middle school and in High School english would be on my schedule, sometimes even with two different english classes a year. We read different writing pieces, wrote essays, and learned techniques that help us develop our reading and writing skills.