My Experience In High School

The challenging component this semester was the transition from high school English reading and writing level to college level. It is mainly because High school writing did not have many expectations from students, its main focus was on the ideal five-paragraph essays. As compared to college, writing is mainly geared and focused on one’s ability to thoroughly answer the assigned prompt. Initially, I was not sure if I was capable of handling a fast-paced course, however, I quickly adjusted to the change and I am glad that I chose to stay. In English 10, I have learned many valuable elements that I can incorporate into my everyday writing. I have included my writing from project 2 a rhetorical analysis on, “Black Lives Matter”, which effectively demonstrates my growth as a reader, thinker, and writer.

This English class was the best English class I have ever had. There were no tests, vocabulary quizzes, or in class essays, which made the class less stressful. Before this English class, I was afraid that I would not enjoy writing many essays or writing so many words in one paper. Afterwards, essays have become something that is not so much my favorite task in the world, but it has become more enjoyable to an extent. Professor Sullivan’s class has taught me to formally write a research paper, to analyze a book through responding to different quotes from the story or novel, to understand magical realism, and to understand my own passion for school and how much effort I will be willing to put out in years to come.

At 11:15 on Monday, August 17, 2015, my first official college class, English 1101, began. In general, I had no idea what college classes would be like let alone how college English would be. Even though this class taught me a great deal in one semester, it took a large amount of time and effort to make the adjustment from high school. The simplistic writing style of high school was put to rest the moment the first college English class began. As a result, I learned quickly that college writing is complex and less systematic than high school writing. Five paragraph essays with three strict body paragraphs were no longer the norm for writing. Even though my professor helped guide my writing, I was no longer coddled through the whole writing

Over the first and second quarters of Dual Enrollment English at Brooke Point High School, I have grown immensely as a writer. I learned a great deal about how to write a paper, as well as, about myself. In the beginning of this course, I felt as if my assignments were going to overwhelm me; I also felt apathetic about completing them. This led me to create my own personal agenda as to how I would complete my assignments. My plan was to overcome my weaknesses and enhance my strengths within the construction my essays, depth of paragraphs and overall assignments.

From an early age I have been passionate about reading. Like seriously, when I was five years old I was upset that I didn’t get the newest Little Mermaid book for Christmas. However, I have never had an interest in writing. Unfortunately, as I plan to go to graduate school to obtain my Ph.D, I really cannot avoid it. Over the years, my lack of enthusiasm about writing has caused me to view most English classes as a chore, something I needed to do in order to advance to what I really wanted to do with my life. With the risk of sounding like a suck-up, this is one of the first English classes I have valued because I have felt like I improved some aspect of my writing in each essay.

When I entered your classroom on the first day of school this year, I was confident that what I had learned in previous years was sufficient enough to call myself an experienced and competent writer. However, I discovered throughout the semester that this confidence hindered my ability to improve in the beginning. The first few days of analyzing essays and literary works was something I had never experienced before, opening up my eyes to a side of literature and the English language that I previously did not pay any attention to. After we finished writing our very first in-class essay, I was extremely surprised to see that the score I earned was a 6. But when I look back on that very first essay, I am even more surprised to see what I could improve using the knowledge and strategies I learned in AP Junior English.

It was a miracle that i got through that those essays and the class. My sophomore year came around and so did english 2, i was prepared to dread that class more than anything else. I remember feeling uneasy when getting an introduction to the first written assignment. It was noticeable that the teacher was motivated to get familiar with a new type of outline the english department had came up with since it seemed like the one before was of no support to us students. The outline seemed bearable at first glanced but at the back of my head, the question of “how do i put my thoughts into words” still remained a mystery. I was aware that for my writing to improve, my way of organizing my thoughts in words had to improve too. The teacher used the outline and showed us how to write a proper essay including how to phrase our thoughts in the direction of our writing. In that class i had an awakening and was enlighten to what was the begining to my first real writing. I remembered writing that first assignment with interest and comprehension. My thoughts formulated its way into my writing. My writing constructed into a well written essay about the universal idea of the book ‘Of Mice and

This is challenging because I’m not used to writing anything over two pages. Although because of the page requirement I had to be more careful with my work and this made my papers better. I did think that because of the page requirement that my educational history narrative was my best work so far. What I would like to improve on this year is my style or flow of my papers. I think transition is hard to achieve in an essay and I think this class will help with my flow. Having flow is important because the reader can follow the paper better. Another goal that I have for this semester is to turn in assignments on time or early. I have seen that with my other classes I have a lot of coursework and I struggle to find time for my essay’s. I also find it challenging in my class with grammar, more along the lines of comma splicing. I think it’s hard to determine when I put a comma or not. One way to fix this is that when I write a paper I put the essay in “paperrater”, which helps with multiple things like comma

I walk into a new place where I have never been before trying to find where i’m going next. I struggle to look for my friends in a commons area full of people. It doesn't help that my eyesight is very poor. I start walking straight into the commons in hopes to find someone. I finally find a group full of familiar people who had graduated two years ago from the school I went to. I go up to them and ask them where my classes are, if i have good teachers, and if anybody has the same classes that i do. Unfortunately none of them did but as i spot my better friends i say goodbye and head away from them. I walk up to my best friends alec and tyler they tell me “Gracie there's nothing to worry about, its college!” I figure that they are right but that doesn’t change the fact that it was only my first day and i had no idea who anybody was here. I was scared, i knew it was going to be way harder than high school. Both alec and tyler say they have the first class with me and it was 15 minutes to but they joked with me and said that it's almost mandatory to show up at least 5 minutes late to a college class. So of course it also made me nervous that they were going to be late to class. I had thought about all the times i got threatened for my attendance at the high school and how the teachers would make you go to ISS for the whole hour if you were even a minute late. I had millions of thoughts running through my head, who am i going to sit by? What if the teacher yells that we are

From Day One of Ms. Steiner’s Honors English class, the importance of sentence structure, and grammar, and proofreading, and analyzing texts was drilled into my brain like a screw into a board. I could see why upperclassmen referred to it as “the most challenging sophomore English course”. The first essay was due the next week, and after all it was the first week, so she’d be lenient, right? Wrong. Did her nose bleed over my paper? Run-ons, vague pronoun, weak thesis, no transition. This could not have been mine, but the 12 pt

A tradition at my high school for the senior class is choosing a city to spend a few days in before graduation. My class chose to go to Baltimore, Maryland. We had an action packed four days going to Adventure Park USA, Six Flags, The National Aquarium, a Baltimore Orioles game, The Smithsonian Zoo, and shopped around downtown Baltimore. I became close with classmates I rarely talked with throughout high school and saw a different side of them than what I had seen in the classrooms. My small circle of friends became even closer over the course of the week both individually and spiritually. My senior class trip to Baltimore was a memorable trip, a little chaotic, but it brought us closer together.

While registering for a college-level course, last year, I questioned how difficult the class would be. I had taken a course the previous semester that had covered the basics in business and economy, yet this would be the first course in English—a topic that I had been told, on many occasions, that I excelled in. Because of this, I came into this year’s English class confident and sure that I would receive top marks easily. Unfortunately, it was not so. I struggled through several of the assignments given to me, yet I learned several new techniques and gained insight in what a college-level essay truly consists of. Because of this class, I learned of the importance of transitions between points, the importance of reducing wordiness in sentences, and the importance of explaining information and quotations fully.

The challenging component this semester, was the transitioning part from high school level english and writing to college level. High school writing did not have many expectations, its main focus was on the ideal five paragraph essays. As compared to college, writing is mainly geared and focused on one’s ability to thoroughly answer the prompt. However, I quickly adjusted to the change. In English 10, I have learned many valuable elements that I can incorporate in my everyday writing. I have chosen to include my writing from project 1 “Why English 10” and project 2 a rhetorical analysis on, “Black Lives Matter. These works effectively demonstrates my growth as a writer.

Over the course of this semester this class has allowed me to grow in many ways and helped me to reach my full potential. Throughout this class, I have had to write four separate essays which have all taught me something different. The first essay was about the theme of impotence in the summer reading novels, which has taught me about that struggles of daily life after World War I and World War II. Similarly, the second essay was about a memoir that taught me that even though life may have many uncontrollable struggles, you don’t have to let those struggles hold you back your entire life. The third essay I wrote was about the reflection of social issues in music. When writing this essay I had learned about the social issues in the 1960’s and 1990’s and how they compare to the today’s social concerns. Lastly, the essay about education had brought my attention towards the unseen issues taking place in higher education. Along with learning about the topics I had written about, I have also learned many skills and grammar rules that have improved my writing such as writing in an active voice, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and first references.

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.