My Writing Essay

Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

In this essay, the articles ‘Listen to the north’ by John Ralston Saul and ‘Which ‘Native’ History? By Whom? For Whom?’ by J.R. Miller will be analyzed, specifically looking at each authors argument and his appeal to ethos, logos and pathos. In the first article, ‘Listen to the North’, author John Ralston Saul argues that current Canadian policy when it comes to our north, and the people that reside there, is out of date and based on southern ideals that hold little bearing on the realities that face northern populations. He suggests instead that the policies and regulations should be shaped by people who know the territory and it’s needs, namely people who live there. In the second

1. Question: Why does Gatto think that school is boring and childish? How does Gatto’s depiction of school compare with your own elementary and secondary school experience?

While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.

I began writing with basic vocabulary and barely any sentence variety. As the year progressed, I learned to advance my vocabulary and word choice in addition to incorporating a diversity of sentence structure. Nearing the end of the school year, I acknowledge that I have grown and learned more about writing. I anticipate that I will receive even more arduous writing assignments that require more research and time. Although it will be challenging, I feel confident that I will do well because I feel well prepared from all I’ve done this year. As I grow older, I will have to continue to write. I know I can take the knowledge I’ve learned this year and apply it to future papers for years to

Sophomore year, I joined my High School's division of Kiwanis Key Club. The club prided itself with their devotion to community service. I thought that the club would be a great vehicle for me to assist my community while creating and expanding my relationships. However, I was greatly disappointed in the club my Sophomore year. There appeared to be little leadership present, so hardly any community service successfully took place. I made it my goal to gain a leadership position and turn the club around. Junior year, I was elected as President of the club and was re-elected to the position my Senior year.

My writing styles have changed drastically over the past four years of high school. This memo will explain how my writing has changed and how my knowledge of writing has improved.

This year I have learned a lot from College Writing, this class has taught me a lot about my own writing and what makes a good essay. I have learned a lot about myself as a writer and as a person throughout the course. In this reflection of the past semester I will be going through my past papers and talk about what I liked and how I could’ve made them better. I will also be going through the activities that have shaped my writing the most. Hopefully, I will be representing how I have grown as a writer throughout the year because of this class. Before taking this class I was already relatively confident in my writing abilities and was excited to take the class. Now that the course is completed I am even more confident in my writing because of all the new techniques and helpful tips I learned.

Although I have not appreciated writing like I should, it has increased my knowledge on many subjects. From reading vivid stories to reading elaborative articles on difficult subjects, I've developed the skills necessary to understand at least the minimum that is required to continue through the subject. Because of this, I appreciate what I've learned from reading and writing countless short stories, elaborative essays, and reading books on subjects I am interested in.

(Ramage, Bean, & Johnson, 2012). The best way in choosing an argument is finding a topic that can make a good statement or debate. Gathering enough evidence to prove your topic, can have the audience agree with the focus. College students will tend to write on arguments that they are very interested in or something that they can relate too. There two main helpful ideas when choosing evidence and research. First hand research is research that has been established by doing interviews, experiments, surveys, or personal experiences and anecdotes. Second hand research is research from getting other ideas and or information such as books, periodicals, and web sites. All evidence of work must be trustworthy, dependably, and credible resources (The Writing Lab & The Owl at Purdue, 2016). The reason for an argument is to persuade other people or another person, to your point of view (Hult & Huckin, 2016). The 5 key terms of information are specific thing to look upon when creating an argument. Persuade who are undecided to agree with you, reinforce views with those who already agree with you, try and change the minds of those who are in disagreement, what is being written, the writer should have his/her own feeling to the choose looked upon or frowned upon, and finally, a college student whether they are or not, they need to show the ability to work through the

I decided to read for my second book Teaching Argument by Jennifer Fletcher. I enjoyed reading this book and the strategies and key points that Fletcher decided to give. Some things that I will take away with me from the book are the idea of teaching ethos, pathos, and logos. When I was in school, teaching writing was completely different then teaching writing today. With FSA, students need to learn how to write an argument essay, and not just one way only. I just in my internship was grading students on making claims and counterclaims, and what they understood from ethos, pathos, and logos. I am finding that this book really helps teachers to teach argument in the best way, giving teachers great strategies to teach students how to fully understand

I would like to start this letter off by thanking you for a wonderful and enlightening summer session! This was the first summer session I have ever taken and I was quite concerned being unfamiliar with taking a class at this time of the year, with such a busy schedule, how it was going to go. I had a great time in your class and can say I enjoy writing more because of your class. Throughout this class I have learned many things. I have learned that writing is not just a boring skill or assignment, but it is an art. In the same way, I learned that as a writer it is important to find a topic you really enjoy writing about, because, it makes the process easier and more enjoyable. In addition, it is important that your writing makes sense not only to you, but also to your audience. I now know how important it is to double check for grammar errors to get your point across, as well as, to help sentences flow together with ease.

My experiences in writing have been minimal. I have only learned the basics of writing, like putting together sentences, forming paragraphs with sentences, and things like that. Since I have been taking college English, I can tell my writing has improved a lot. In the future, I hope to be able to improve tremendously at writing essays, paragraphs, research papers, documents, and stories so that I have very little to no errors with drafting and final products. I predict I will be a well rounded writer when I graduate from college.

Over the course of this past semester, my ability to write has improved tremendously. Prior to undertaking this course, my expertise in writing was not as fine-tuned as it should have been. I had never previously been enrolled in a class specifically tailored to writing-- which was quite clear. Upon reading my past works, it becomes apparent that my writing style consisted of fluff, small words, and inconsistently structured sentences. These problems have, for the most part, been remedied with the coursework I have tackled in College Writing. Rather than long, drawn out papers that take an eternity to reach the primary point, my recent work is much nicer in terms of composition and grammar. I credit these improvements to the three primary