My First Year Seminar ( Wifys )

Writing, and literacy in general, is one of the founding cornerstones of modern society. It is difficult to find any sort of occupation that doesn’t require at least some basic writing skills. From business managers to lawyers to doctors, despite their notoriously bad handwriting, all require intimate knowledge of writing skills. Yet, teaching critical writing skills is not the cure-all to solving the problems that the public education system faces in producing students better prepared to tackle the challenges of the world as Peg Tyre portrays it as in The Writing Revolution. Critical writing skills, despite its current underemphasis in the classroom, should not be the only focus of the public school system’s curriculum as Peg Tyre suggests in The Writing Revolution, because critical writing skills do not prepare students adequately enough for the standards of the real world which require more technical skills, critical writing skills only teaches a small subset of underlying critical thinking skills, and critical writing skills education, as presented by Peg Tyre, is formulaically based which can result in long-term inability to further student’s critical writing skills despite initial success.

A freshman college level English Composition course aims to improve students' abilities with writing, critical thinking, mechanics and usage, punctuation, grammar, and vocabulary. By studying English 101 at Luzerne County Community College, I will work diligently to improve in all of these aspects. My main focus is to develop skills specifically to create clear and concise thesis statements, strong and persuasive essays with cajolement, and to develop different perspectives on narratives and other essays. These writing skills may also improve my critical thinking and reading skills.

Writing used to be one of my strengths, but throughout my coursework in this semester, it was challenging to take the first step to approach my first draft. I was always taken a long time to think about the thesis and introduction because I personally felt both were very important for the entire essay in order to attract readers. Merely, I could not make my thesis clear and good as always. Therefore, I would get some inspiration from my friends or tutors, or watched drama and news; this would be my first step to write a first draft. Unlike in High School, we have assigned at least 1200 words essay, and greatly opened my mind to develop a deeper understanding of each topic. For my writing habit, when I first look at the topic, I would think about what professor taught us in class or search some websites for stimulating more inspiration. Especially working on critical response essay or opinion essay, these two types of essays were required to write an argument and to be more thoughtful. It is difficult to identity some controversy topics in my knowledge as an English learner. Although I have always been a thinker and I

Advancing in my critical thinking skills is as important as my writing skills. I have to take the appropriate steps in continuing to engage the readers throughout the writing process. Writing is crucial as a student and everyday life because it is a form of communication. I will utilize the necessary resources to assist me in applying the lessons being instructed for completion of each assignment in accordance with the University guidelines. Allowing myself to create an outline for the topic before the rough draft is setting

Composition 1, also known as English 101 or FYC (First Year Composition) is an entry-level course taken by a majority of college students to introduce them to college-level reading and writing. FYC is a prerequisite course at many colleges and universities and therefore must be taken before students can enter into courses specific to their major. Though FYC serves as a bridge to college-level reading and writing many students and even some compositionists (those who teach writing in a college or university) do not see the relevancy of the course and instead view FYC as a course with very little applicability within the majors and future careers of college students. Others, including Nathalie Singh-Corcoran, believe FYC is a crucial prerequisite course that does teach skills crucial to the futures and lives of college students. In her essay, Composition as a Write of Passage, Nathalie Singh-Corcoran first, speaks to the purpose and overall goals of an FYC course before explaining how the skills learned in FYC can actually be applied to the majors and future careers of college students.  From the very beginning of her article, Singh-Corcoran establishes a strong foundation from which she can reach her main audience, but, she fails to support her main points in the best possible way by a very sparse use of non-anecdotal or personal experience based evidence.

In Freshman Composition I learned what metacognition means, and how it applies to academic writing. Next I learned about textual evidence and backing up your opinions with research. *I expect this class to help develop my writing skills, as well as find my voice in writing, all together I expect this class to be challenging but rewarding. Therefore I have set a few goals for myself, my first goal is to step out of my comfort zone and research topics I have never heard of before. My second goal is to not second-guess myself on my writing topics and/or choices. Furthermore I expect great things to come from this

“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

When it comes to critical thinking, reading and writing are two factors that deal with the critical thinking process. A few key aspects of critical reading and writing are identifying the tone in ones writing, how to throughly read and annotate a text, and the revision process. In the essay, “The Maker’s Eye”, Donald Murray explains how the attitude of a writer, listening to what readers have to say and how to edit your own writing makes your work better when critically thinking in college. These aspects of critical thinking, reading and writing make will keep the reader interested and make the writing easier to translate when read.

To begin, essay writing and critical thinking, as taught in this course, are useful skills that will continue to be used throughout my lifetime. Essay writing is essential for myself as I am required to write numerous papers throughout my years as a student and as a nurse. Furthermore, it allows me to better communicate my thoughts, ideas, as well as increases my critical thinking skills, and professionalism; all of which are useful skills

During this semester, the realization of my past was that I have often skimmed through parts of the writing process to get the job done. Not being an avid reader often hindered my writing abilities. This class most definitely made me realize that the entire writing process is important and having peer reviews also helped significantly and certainly made a difference in the result of my work. Taking the time to read, brainstorm my thoughts, write an outline, rough draft after rough draft, reading constructive criticism of others helped in the revisions of my papers’ reaching the best possible outcome. When selecting English 102, I knew I would be challenged, but to what extent I was unsure. If like past English courses that were taken learning to write essays would be the goal. Once realizing that my work would be shared with others, providing informed information

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.

Writing a college-level essay can be tricky, especially if there is lack of inspiration or the ideas aren’t organized well enough to articulate into a draft. However, in the case of higher-level education; students are encouraged to stimulate their learning through writing, in order to acquire an analytical and understanding capacity to be successful in college. Coupled with planning, research, and hard work; writing essays for college becomes an easier task in a short time, resulting in the improvement of critical thoughts. In the article, Using Writing to Promote Reading to Learn in College, Hayes Christopher G, states that, “the written text allows both reader and writer to examine thoughts captured in time and recorded in words, thereby encouraging more complex thinking because constraints imposed by memory have been abolished by the written record” (Hayes 4). After all, more than any other invention, writing has transformed the human consciousness. This mastery gives society the ability to improve every day, by enhancing their personalities, considering that having a good use of language and information, will result in achieving great success. In the article: Reconsidering English Teaching for Improving Non-English Majors’ English writing Ability, Yuru Shen declares how, “it is self-evident that grammar plays a very important role in language learning, including English learning” (Shen 74).With this in mind, understanding that college level composition is important will

However, my progress as a reader has significantly improved and changed during this semester. First, I learned to improve my critical reading skills through the in-class reading assignments. My professor provided very useful help in assigning us the first reading response question: “Summarize the main ideas of the reading assignment. What questions do you have?” I think that a combination of being able to understand, summarize what the text says as well as interpret its meanings is a helpful approach one can apply to better his or her critical reading skills. Therefore, I have applied this approach to any reading I had for this class and I am still using it for other classes as well. Secondly, I changed my reading habit after the third essay in which I chose a research topic in my discipline to write about. While doing the research, I noticed that I was also encouraged to become familiar with many different subjects in my discipline. The essay assignment was to pick a topic that I am personally interested in writing about. Coincidently, this was also one of the goals that I listed on the first class writing “read articles and

Although my writing process is not where I want it to be yet, I have made significant improvement. This class has been instrument in providing me the necessary guidance to improve my skills and grow in many areas. I feel more confident and will continue to work tirelessly to continue to grow. In regards to the final draft of this week critical essay and my writing process in general focuses on several key techniques. I have found my brainstorm technique to be an effective way to embrace any subject I have to write about. My weakness lies probably in organizing my writing. I’m working on following Dr. Idowu’s guidelines and recommendations to strengthen my abilities to deliver better results. Our professor’s guidance has help me tremendously,

As the semester started, I had set my mind that I was destined to achieve a lot. During the start of the semester, I had several difficulties writing English assignments especially in terms of grammar. During the first week of the semester, I sat down, organized my thoughts and comprehended that throughout the semester, I had to achieve all that I had planned for. As a student of English, I had planned that throughout the semester, I had to improve my skills as a scholar, writer and critical thinker. Now that the semester has ended, I can reflect all the semester activities to depict how my writing skills and critical thinking skills have drastically improved. This paper presents a reflection paper of how this