My Struggles with English Composition Essay

The first few years of college student’s lives are not necessarily the most enjoyable time, having to take the basic core classes. Unless someone is planning on getting their degree in something that involves the basic core classes like; Math, Psychology, any Humanities, or English. English has not been my strong suit and I know that I still have work that needs to be done to make me a better writer, but I believe that I was able to meet and achieve the goals and requirements of this Composition two class.

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.

Like transforming from a caterpillar to a butterfly, my writing style transformed from something mediocre to something quite exceptional. In high school, even when I took advanced placement English and Literature courses, I was never good at writing. My writing would lack structure, reasoning, syntax, and a well-defined thesis statement. My inadequate grades on writing assignments lowered my self-esteem, so I assumed I would never enjoy writing papers because I believed I could never improve. However, since attending a university my writing style has improved far beyond my expectation. My EN 101 course enhanced my understanding of the different ways I could approach my writing. Also, it enhanced my comprehension of outlines to complete assignments. Investing quality time into my writing made a substantial difference because I became a stronger writer. Through the late nights, constant revisions, and agonizing head traumas, I learned that my writing is truly spectacular whenever I incorporate well-defined thesis statements, provide sufficient supporting evidence, and maintain a clear focus in my assignments.

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.

One of the challenges high school seniors face is to choose whether to further their education or not. Many students choose to go on to college to get degrees or certificates, but many do not. College certainly is not for everyone. College is important though for people who want to obtain jobs that require getting a degree. I am a person who wants to get a career that requires a quality college education. I will experience many challenges and obstacles throughout my college education. I know taking a Composition and Rhetoric class will be one of these challenges. I am taking English 1101 because I have to in order to get my degree, because I want to get ahead, and because I expect to develop better writing and communication skills.

Robertson revealed how different levels of success has followed students who were previously enrolled in a first-year composition course when applying what they learned to other courses. Liane Robertson’s study showed that even students with majors that only required them to write lab reports learned something from taking the course. One of the participants who focused on STEM academic was able to transfer how to formulate clear ideas efficiently depending on what discourse community the participant was part of during that time. This study reiterates the significance a first-year composition course plays when pairing the gained skills with future

“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

Completing freshman composition is one of the greatest accomplishments I have achieved throughout my high school career. I have experienced an immense amount of improvement on my writing as well as a huge deal of stress throughout the semester. In the past, writing was never one of my strong suits; however, I have learned quite a bit, for example, how to use semicolons, write with metacognition, and how to correctly do a works cited. During my time in this class, I have: reflected, set goals, learned the writing process, tracked my progress, and learned a huge deal about myself, life and college.

As the Fall 2017 term comes to end, I look back on what I have accomplished in this class. English 102 – Composition II was one of the most challenging and toughest class I have taken at UW-Stout, but feel as though it has helped me to improve my writing skills. Even before the semester started the feeling of anxiety had taken over, as writing has never been my strongest skill, but stayed positive and confident I would be successful. Much to my surprise, my instructor, Michael Critchfield quickly addressed that this class would not be easy and amazingly changed my views of writing throughout the entire semester.

My junior year was the first time I had enrolled in an Advanced Placement (AP) English course. Going into this course, I was expecting to read a lot of books and write a multitude of papers (which we did). What I was not expecting, although, was to learn how to read faster, write effectively, defend

Over the eighth grade year, I have learned to effectively use feedback and reflection skills to strengthen my writing. These writing processes taught me to include peer and teacher feedback along with self-reflection to earn a better grade on my writing pieces. In the beginning of the year, I would simply complete the drafts my teacher assigned. Proof of my original writing process is shown in the essay, titled One Necessity of a Hero: Personal Sacrifice, in which it reflects on the Thematic Unit. To demonstrate my poor writing process, a segment of my original introduction stated, “After analyzing documents from The Hobbit Thematic Unit, I discovered that the principles of heroism involve personal sacrifice. I also learned that a hero is

Over the course of my studies at university, I have grown and learned more about academic writing and numerous writing styles. I believe there is so much room for me to master my writing skills to succeed and complete my degree and improve my academic writing and personal skills through more practice. However, I have become concerned with my first attempt submitting my piece of paper through the online test in the Writers’ Diet diagnostic tool and was labelled ‘flabby’ in my writing. Analysing my errors and referring to the textbook ’Communication Toolkit’ by Grellier and Goerke (2014), also submitting my piece of writing to Grammarly and paper rater I was able to measure my weakness in the area of sentence structure, punctuation and grammar.

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I hate English classes. This has always been my attitude, always negative. In my mind English and writing have always been my worst subjects. I think the combination of struggling and having pressure to get good grades ruined writing for me. I am not sure where my hatred started whether it was from yelling matches with my mom at two in the morning as she edited yet another draft and pointed out mistakes or if it was because I never learned correct mechanics and therefore always struggled. Most students learn commas, run togethers, and passive voice around middle school; well I learned how to copy the answers from the board as my teacher wrote them. From this point on I hated having to write because I knew I would make mistakes that I did not understand. With that background, my plan as I walked into the library in January was to make it through and to work as hard as I had to just to survive. The first month was just that, hanging on. Then the weirdest thing, as you assigned grammar worksheets I started to learn what I should have learned in seventh grade. It changed my perspective, of course I still had to work hard and revise my papers, but for the first time I was able to catch mistakes in my papers. I grew so much as a writer this semester; I am now at the point where I do not mind writing anymore, and I actually enjoy it sometimes. It just proves how important fundamentals can be.

When I first started college I did not know what to expect with an English class. I liked writing about topics that interested me, but high school did not allow me to do that. I took American History and we would have to write