My Writing Reflection

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.

In my persuasive essay on “The Star” I have a few things I need to work on to improve my writing. As well as a few things I did well throughout my essay. In order to better myself as a writer I would need to work on my run-on sentences, learn how to not be repetitive, and learn how to properly punctuate my sentences. I had a few run-on sentences and I was very repetitive throughout my essay. Although I had a few mistakes I improved my writing a lot on this particular essay. This time I did very well on my thesis statement. My thesis statement supported my entire essay and I had strong topic sentences that supported my thesis statement. I did not leave my readers clueless to what my argument was. Overall my paper was good I just had a good amount

There comes a time in life where we see an impossible obstacle, and do the best that we can to overcome it. For me, this was my AP English Language class in high school during senior year. The time was now, summer is nearly over. I analyzed my strengths and weaknesses, giving a full re-evaluation of myself. In the end, I consider myself an average writer. There have been times in the past when I’ve written letters or personal stories. However, those have never been my strongest set of skills. While I have been serious with my writing, I never recognized the unbelievable advantages that good writing has. Therefore, I’ve made it my goal to improve my literal skills and become a great writer. Maybe this new class will assist me in becoming that

First off, my paper did not fully explain in my words the development of my argument that I was making. I would state my thoughts and not fully explain what I am trying to say, which would leave my argument not fully developed. For example, in WA #3 I wrote that “Images that effectively communicate a message can often time be conveyed visually through its time,

Before now, I use to write essays without taking into consideration the elements and rudiments that make an essay holistic and complete. I have always picked up a pen and paper and write without considering who will read my write-up and the structural development of my essay. Essay for me has always been nothing but pouring out my ideas on paper and ink. Until now, vagueness and ambiguity have been the major characteristic in my academic writings because I never thought the need for fluidity and coherency of my sentences. As such, I discovered that in some of my past write-ups, ideas are presented in choppy, ambiguous and frivolous manner which is one of the major reasons for my

Another error of my writing process was not having a clear and specific thesis statement. I would often combined to many thoughts and ideas all in one sentence, which made it very difficult for readers to understand my main argument. For example, in my fourth essay about performance-enhancing drugs, my thesis “Athletes are constantly recognizable to the public eye; their actions can affect the children and adults for whom they serve as role models, which is why many athletes depend on the use of performance-enhancing drugs to better their performance,” was very vague and was not the main focal point of the essay which it should have been. In recent years prior, I never had any problems trying to convey my message or point. College was entirely a different league. My professor suggested that I read other research papers to better understand how my thesis should sound and be constructed. My professor then told me that I needed to add that explanation into the paragraph so the reader can understand exactly what I am trying to get across with

People have many ways that they write. Some do a process of doing drafts so they can look through, edit and make the paper better. Others will just write a paper and turn it in. My process consist of starting with making a thesis. Then from the thesis I create the topic sentences for the topic at hand. The best way to write the essay in a good format and have good detail in the writing I would write a paragraph a day. By doing that process it allows me to get what is needed out on the paper so none of the paragraphs are mixing content and making the paragraphs less structured. This process not only makes writing essays less stressful while also getting the paper done quickly.

One of the areas in which we must all strive to improve to the best of our abilities is the potential to effectively articulate thoughts and ideas into our writing pieces. Improving my writing capability has been one of the most gratifying accomplishment because I have always been one to feel insecure about my assets as a writer. This insecurity spawns from self-awareness and knowing that writing can place you in a vulnerable state, as you allow others to perceive you personal notions and mental process. Some the most intimidating experience as a writer was having to write three essays within a short period of time because this type of task can demonstrate one’s genuine ability to both write coherently and rapidly. Due to these timed write,

I have been practicing on how to improve my writing over the past few weeks, which has taught me a great deal about writing. My teacher would like me to evaluate and explain my strengths and weaknesses in my own writing. This evaluation is in between my two essays. One on my own and another with my teacher's help. I have strengths and weakness in my introduction, body paragraphs ,and my conclusion.

During this class I expressed the use of rhetoric in the four major essays I wrote, including the Narrative Essay, Rhetorical Mode Essay, Argumentative Essay, and Research Essay. Being able to think critically is a crucial part of success when it comes to writing these essays. At the beginning of this class, I had a much less understanding of this particular area. I struggled with being able to use research effectively to persuade others of a certain argument. I also had difficulty with grammar issues, and paying attention to my overall “voice” of an essay. I believe that I improved significantly in all of those areas because in each essay I have learned to put myself in the audience’s position and view the piece of writing in the reader’s point of

The composition classes that I attended advocated the students’ profound examination of the texts formulated by other individuals. It also challenged the students to write their ideas using other people’s creative ways to identify similarity. Doing that means that the scholars obtain a broad exploration of the writing craft. This idea drives me into assessing Birkerts’ model of argumentation and writing. Birkerts says, “The first step requires at least that the language can reach the reader, and that the word sounds and rhythms come alive ...” (Eposito, par. 2). His statements focus on the writing acting as a tool for offering an appropriate opportunity for the readers to

To effectively persuade my point I used a range of persuasive writing techniques such as personal pronouns, expert evidence, inclusive/exclusive language, and hyperbole,etc. As this was based on a speech, I have attempted to appeal and direct most of my writing towards the reader/target audience which was students and attempt to convey a compelling yet factual piece of writing. Overall my goal was to provide some unusual as well as interesting facts about

Being able to make concise points became very important to making strong argument essays or blog posts. The most evident case of my writing becoming more pointed and argumentative is in my blog posts. Early in the semester I would write blog posts with a lot of different ideas jumbled together, but as the semester progressed I began to hone my blog posts into one or two point arguments with a lot of factual evidence backing it up. This change can be seen very clearly in my first blog post and my last blog post. In the first blog post I loosely linked Dziga Vertov idea of the keno-eye to progress being made in China. This argument lacked a lot of support and was not very clearly made due to the fact that ideas were not followed all the way to the end. However, in my last blog post I am able to make a very clear point and deliver it in a manner that is convincing and logical. In this blog post I argue how Rapture, a city of dreams, became a dystopia through means similar to how Nazi Germany became a monstrosity. This was a much better argument due to the fact that I made a coherent claim early in the blog post and followed that point enhancing the argument all the way to the end of the blog post. This change was a gradual process as shown by many points during this semester I relapsed into making

The composition classes that I attended advocated the students’ profound examination of the texts formulated by other individuals. It also challenged the students to write their ideas using other people’s creative ways to identify similarities. Doing that means that the scholars obtain a broad exploration of the writing craft. This idea drives me into assessing Birkerts’ model of argumentation and writing. Birkerts says, “The first step requires at least that the language can reach the reader, and that the word sounds and rhythms come alive ...” (Eposito, par. 2). His statements focus on the writing acting as a tool for offering an appropriate opportunity for the readers to have the best

Writing is way that we can express ourselves, it is a way to interface ideas and thoughts and to prove a point. Throughout my writing experience or process I have struggled with writing especially using details or really expressing myself my work. In this course Facts & Fiction: Portraits in World Art I expect to gain more knowledge on how to write a perfect essay, story, letter, and assignment. I expect to learn new genres and rhetorical situations. I also think my writing will improve academically and I will develop my skills in writing. Also taking my writing to a different point of view, level, and writing something different rather than the usual. I look forward to getting feedback from my peers and learning their thoughts on my writing and how they can help me improve.