My Personal Learning Experience For A Student And Writer

A person can read and write a great deal in one day whether they realize it or not. Whether it be texting a friend or reading a textbook for a certain class, you are reading and writing constantly and a daily basis. What surprised me the most about the reading and writing that I did on Sunday was how much I am reading and writing on my phone. Whether I am texting to coordinate plans with a friend for the night or reading a random article I saw while reading a Facebook news feed, I am constantly reading and writing on my phone. I never considered it reading and writing when I used my phone, I just saw it as looking at my phone. Just staring at this four-inch screen for some sort of entertainment. What also surprised me was how much we read without noticing it. You can walk down State Street and you will be constantly reading by looking at stores, posters, or even words on a bus that is passing by. Our eyes and brains are looking at and reading words all the time.

During my past writing experience, I have struggled with formulating and initiating interesting points of discussion, grammar, and transitions. I have often sat down to work on a paper and found myself completely drawing a blank on anything interesting to write about. Whether I am given a specific prompt or general topic to discuss, I constantly struggle with finding a starting point. Once I do, I become too focused on trying to create a poetic sounding paper, rather than focusing on the main discussion points. In some ways, focusing on making my papers poetic have added detail and depth to my writing. However, this frequently distracts me from my papers main theme. One of my biggest drawbacks with writing has always been proper grammar usage.

A semester has passed since I started college and my journey of becoming a better writer. It has been a very important semester for my future college career, and I would not be here without the things I have accomplished. The composition program has really helped me to prepare for what college writing is all about. Now standing here and looking back I could not imagine how it would be without that class. I believe my English, and my writing is better than it has ever been, and all thanks to the composition program.

I have improved very much in my writing process over this semester. I have grown as a writer in each writing process step such as prewriting, drafting, revising and editing, and overall. Outlining, writing a good thesis, getting peer reviewed, and giving myself plenty of time to finish a paper are new strengths that I have learned over the semester. I will reflect on all the topics in the writing process and my growth in argumentation essays. In fact, my previous attitude and feelings about writing was that I disliked it, and I knew that it was a weakness of mine. Now, I feel that I can write a strong argumentation essay. I have the sense that I have progressed a considerable amount from my first essay to my last.

The inevitable had happened; I, as a small child, was demanded to read. A little antisocial human being launched into a world of, at first, difficult words and lengthy phrases. While words and literacy were forced into my mind, I had reluctantly begun the adventure to enjoy and accept the art of literature. Later however, my hopes and dreams were crushed to pieces by a gruesome teacher with an interesting form of a so called “grading policy.”

I immensely struggled when writing. Taking my scrambled thoughts and uncoordinated analysis and converting it into clean and understandable words on a page was arduous. I could not express my thoughts in proper academic format. I understood the importance of writing to every subject. It was essential that I learn to condense my ideas and feeling into coherent written word. After much debate, I decided that the best way to improve my writing skills was to take an advanced English course.

The most important improvement for me in this course was on my grammar. I was not aware of the comma rules before. It was shocking to see where commas are to be put and the places that I usually miss. The Hacker lessons we did in and out of class on commas have improved my grammar significantly. Looking back through all of my graded essays it is unbelievable how many commas I have actually missed. Also, writing the essays in MLA format and including work cited entries and quotations, has helped me become more comfortable with it. When I write essays now, I do not hesitate or get anxious if I have to add a work cited entry. However, even though I have know a little bit more of when to use commas and have a little bit more knowledge about grammar there is still a lot of room for improvement.

I became the literate person I am today by mostly writing, I write all the time and I do a little reading. What made me love writing was the fact I found an escape, not on an emotional level, but writing is something to help ease in my opinion. My personal writing has influenced me more than the writing I was assigned in school, I continued it outside of school as a choice of my own, once I started I never stopped. My viewpoint on reading is different than my viewpoint on writing, reading is not that bad but it can get boring. What made me feel different about reading from writing, is probably the fact, reading just takes time, like when I write, I write any and everytthing however I want. But, to read a book, I have to read it a certain way

My experience have been good but not so good. I'm not the best writer I struggle to get my ideas down.

Lacking experience in writing and reading, English is my most feared subject. It is the one and only vulnerable spot in my in my mind. I hate writing and I hated reading, other than sports pages in the newspaper or sports books. My earliest time that I started reading and writing was extremely abhorrent for me. Sometimes, you could even say that some of these experiences bothered me. It was quite hard because I wasn’t able to focus on what I need to do. I was even struggling to write my own name. The young mind that I had, it was so easy to get distracted on what I need to learn and also accomplish, especially for the future ahead of me.

My journey into the unknown world of composing has proved to be just that - unfamiliar, alien, and foreign to me. In the past I had once or twice, possibly more than I am willing to admit, patted myself on the back for what I thought were well prepared compositions. Never would I have conceived that I was more of an amateur composer rather than a skilled and experienced writer.

When I was young the last things I ever wanted to do were to read and write, I just never had the desire. When I made it to first grade it was discovered that the main problem with my lack of desire to read and write was the fact that I was unable to see clearly. I was diagnosed and sent to get a pair of glasses that I was to wear full time, then I also spent time in vision therapy so that I would be able to better comprehend what I was seeing. The main reason I was left with my bad vision so long was because I never knew that there was something wrong I only had my frame of reference on what I was supposed to see the world as and since I was used to it being fuzzy or blurry I never realized that there was a problem with my vision. Another

Reflecting on my peers work, I noticed a wide variety of writing quality, It varied in length and quality. Comparing it my own I can’t say that my personal writing is better. Since the people ranged differently. Some of my peers writing was better than mine and others were better. I did realize that most people put in a lot of effort and comparing my writing to that it shows that I need to put in more time to get the quality of writing. Furthermore, I was surprised when there was a minimum of 500 words some people went beyond the requirements while other did it. During the debates, some individuals did put in the effort to make a good argument and that showed through in their mid-term. And since it was a group debate assignment a lot of experience and levels of writing came together to come up with the best outcome.

Write down for both your writing - as well as for your audio-visual skills what your strengths and weakness are. Be concrete and detailed. Give evidence / arguments why you think this is so. Below some sentences are given which may help you on your way.

I often describe myself as an affectionate, animal lover, outspoken, but timid at the same time. I have never described myself as a writer the reason being I’ve never been skillful at expressing myself on paper. At first, as I start to prepare to write I think to myself this is it, this will be the greatest essay I’ve ever typed, this will be the greatest statement ever written. My mind quickly changes when I realize that I have nothing to put down on paper. It took me 2 years to finally take the English courses I was required to take at the beginning of my college years. It frustrates me to look at a blank word document and the blinking arrow cursor, it literally drives me insane. When I took my first developmental writing course, in order to take English 1, it bothered me seeing how fast people could type their ideas in comparison to me.