My Reflection On Improving My Writing Class

Writing can be a daunting task for students in any grade. Teachers have to implement new basic components for those struggling to write. Finding new methods and being able to execute them requires teachers to design lesson plans that help

When I stop to think about the memory’s that I have made during my first semester of college; there are both good and bad pieces or times that present themselves. Often with many things there are gray areas, and writing would fall in there for me. I fortunately understand now that I have times where I can over look many of my writing flaws. Such as sentence structure! This by far was my biggest problem in this class, and I fully understand why. Personally I have times that will type up a paragraph and never notice the mistake. That is until someone points it out to me. It’s almost like my brain knows that something is wrong with it, but for some unknown reason it won’t register when I’m revising my paper. So as a writer I have realized that I need to take advantage of people around me and get their feedback on my essay’s; because

The most interesting aspect I discovered about my writing this semester is my ability to read, appreciate, and interpret a piece of literature and write analytically about it. In this course I’ve grown to change my reading process completely. I had a tendency to read

I began this course with goals to significantly improve my writing. I knew there were challenges for me to overcome, because I have not written much at all since high school, which has been more than twenty four years ago. Nonetheless, I was up for the challenge and each week I made sure to do exactly as instructed in the weekly syllabus, reading each every assignment very carefully. At first I felt overwhelmed, but as I completed the homework and discussion post assignments for the weeks prior to the major papers, the overwhelming feelings subsided and I concentrated on each task at hand.

Throughout the course of this semester, I have learned so much about writing. I used to think writing was my best skill in terms of school, but after taking this course, I realized I have a lot to learn still. In high school English was always my highest grade because of my writing, my writing in my SAT scores was always the highest, and last semester in ENGL 1301, I got a high A in the course. But this course has challenged me as a writer to think outside of the box and be more academically smarter in terms of writing. The journals have helped me write about things that we like more than the other assignments because it gives us more freedom and flexibility about what we can write about. These journals are being used as a tool as practice

Reading has never been my strong suit. While, I enjoy it, I’ve always had difficulty understanding what I am reading. This year, I started out pretty average with the grades that I received during our reading units. I got an 80% on the final unit test for Romanticism, an 80% on The Scarlet Letter test, and an 80% on the Dark Romanticism test. As the year progressed, my skills with reading comprehension increased. Once third quarter started and we began reading The Great Gatsby, I started to consistently receive 100% on quizzes, but on the final test, I still ended up earning an 80%. I was able to receive the higher grades due to more discussion in class, and also watching the movie to review as well. The thing that helped me improve in my understanding of books the most, was our in class discussion that we had. In these we were able to talk about things we were confused about, and ask questions to further understand the passage. These also made me more inclinded to think about a book more critically than I had before. After we read The Great Gatsby we entered into our Contemporary Fiction Unit, where I chose to read Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. While this unit focused more on writing, I was only able to do so well on the written responses and our final paper because of how well I was able to comprehend the book. I couldn’t have done this without learning about literary movements and increasing my skills in reading comprehension. One of the things that I enjoyed the most about the Contemporary Fiction Unit was how we compared the modern book that we chose with the literary movements that we learned about this year. While doing this, I was able to find traits of Modernism and Realism in Rowell’s writing. It’s intriguing to see how these literary movements that happened, in some cases, years ago, are still influencing books that are written today.

When it comes to evaluating myself and if I am prepared for my first college writing course I believe that I am prepared to take my first college writing course. Before joining my ESC 021 class with Professor Kraft I felt that I was prepared and that I would be able to complete assignments without difficulty, but I was so used to the one on one sessions where I would go over the little mistakes or find ways to produce an exceptional essay that I forgot that I was own my own now. Through the short time in ESC 021 I learned my weaknesses and strengths as a writer. I now have the ability to receive feedback and effectively use my feedback to better my assignments.

In writing, making a good paper isn’t as simple as putting some words on a paper and calling it good. It is something that takes time to perfect.

Coming into this class I did not know what to expect. Also, I did not know I would learn so much about myself by just reading deeper into literature. This class has definitely opened my eyes to a new style of reading. I wouldn't say I focus on every word when reading books now, but I would say I think deeper about the meaning of a few lines. I do this because of the specific words that are used and the order that they are placed in. I’ve definitely taken what we have learned it class about reading in a different manner and applied it to my everyday reading.

My last class was not a good writing experience; therefore I was hesitant to fully embrace this session’s writing course. Because I do not believe in expectations, my goals were based on previous writing experiences. This helped to support what writing confidence I had left to give this course a chance to be different. In English106, my desire was to improve my writing skills, find weaknesses in my writing, and be a better writer at the end of the course.

As this course comes to and end, it was very interesting to see how my writing has changed over the course of the semester. After having taking multiple English classes and writing multiple essays throughout my academic years, I have always been trained to write a certain way. Quite the opposite of being concise, instead I was trained to over explain and analyze the points I was making in my written assignments.

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.

When I first started this course I didn’t know what to expect. I really enjoyed writing but there was a lot of areas that I needed to work on. When I first started to review the modules I was blown away by all the helpful sites that were at my disposition. The Power points and different sites completely changed my whole perspective of writing to a whole new dimension. Thanks to the modules I am more confident right now before I even begin an essay. I remember in the past how beginning an essay was so difficult for me because I didn’t know how to even start. In this course I have learned how to begin an essay, how to manipulate information, and how to use in-text documentation properly. These are just some of the few things that I will definitely be taking with me in the future for my courses and personal growth.

I believe that achieving success in teaching very different aspects of life may still combine similar processes. My life in high school was very similar to the lives of many other students in that it revolved around two things: sports and school. My sport of choice was tennis and my favorite academic area was English. Unexpectedly, I found many similarities led to a successful performance in both areas. My understanding of the need for a good program to follow and a lot of practice with it led to success in both tennis and my academic performance (especially English). Upon becoming a recognized player in my area, I decided to take the skill that I knew better than any other and utilize it as a

Back in high school, I was considered one of the best writers in my class. Obviously, high school does not have the same standards as a college classroom would. After running through the course, I’ve noticed that my papers required many adjustments that would’ve been uncalled for last year. Uncharacteristically for my stubborn personality, I forced myself to accept that I am at fault, rather than the very tempting anchor to praise, and looked back at my errors to improve. Through this course, I have learned the importance of using peer review and revisions, bettering the transitions between ideas and paragraphs, staying consistent with my topic, and many other issues that would may my writing better.