Nathhalie Singh-Corcoran Composition

When I first entered english composition 1101, I expected this course to be manageable. As an outstanding english student at Clarke Central high school, I believed that I had enough knowledge to excel in this course with no challenges. Dr. Catherine Rogers was able to knock me off of my high horse and make me realize that I has a lot more to learn about reading and writing. She is very comprehensive and analytical, which caused her to give me a c average on my midterm assignments. I put the blame on myself because I believe that I should have been more open to Dr. Rogers’ methods with pre-writing and revision. Now I think highly of reading and writing.

Many people may feel as if College composition is a writing intensive that is not necessary for them to take whether if they are not majoring in English or whether if they just simply feel that they shouldn't due to a score in which they may have received from a standardized exam from perhaps an AP English course during the time that he or she were enrolled in high school. However, It is very critical to continue to improve your language skills. It is necessary, not only to have the ability to write, but to also be able to read between the lines. Whereas high school English courses may teach you about symbolism and proper grammar, as well as sentence structure, college composition teaches you to

Thonney states, “a study of scholarly research articles from six disciplines provides insight about academic writing that composition instructors can use to prepare students to write across the curriculum” (2011 pg. ). Moving forward, Joseph Williams and Lawrence McEnerney’s essay, “Writing in College” targets students currently enrolled in college which is clear from the title itself and its first opening sentence at the beginning of the first paragraph. The author states, “Some students make very smooth transitions from writing in high school to writing in college, and we heartily wish all of you an easy passage” (Williams and McEnerney page 1). Throughout the essay, the author provides a set of structure and tips that first year college students should know when writing an academic paper. Among this paper, we are able to see that there are students whose instructors are dissatisfied with their paper because it is “lacking something” ( Williams and McEnenery’s pg1 ), it isn’t “quite there” or “You haven’t change”. Both passages consist of informative research that first year college students can identify themselves.

In “How Do I Write a Text for College” (The World is a Text, 2006), Patty Strong said that writing in in college is much more different than writing in high school and so as the purpose of it. In high school student were told to write texts depending on their prior knowledge while on an institution of higher education students have the flexibility to write not only about what they already learnt but what they are trying to learn. In addition, writing in college requires a higher level of critical thinking and understanding, but it will unequivocally expand their knowledge.

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.

In Dan Berrett’s article “Students Come to College Thinking They’ve Mastered Writing”, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education on March 21, 2014, the author describes some issues regarding writing that first-year students face. Berrett claims that “the students’ notions about writing” do not meet their instructors’ expectations. I, as a freshman in university, agree with most of the author’s ideas. However, there are flaws in the article, which make it less convincing.

In the article by Downs and Wardle “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions”, the author’s state a common misconception of writing for first year composition is that academic writing is somehow universal. This idea can be misleading since teachers have always taught that there is a basic set of rules for writing. However, I agree with the idea that writing is not universal because college students write for a various number of discourse communities and do not have one general audience. Content, context, and genre are bound to change while attending a university.

Revisualizing Composition, by Jeff Grabill along with his fellow co-authors is a paper about a study carried across seven different universities across the United States Of America. Each university ranks differently in terms of various statistics such as enrollment, size and setting, therefore participants have different styles and approached towards writing. Following the standard survey method, a series of questions based on 30 different types of writing, were ranked in terms of popularity and value.

In “Expectations for College Writing,” the author indicates the importance of thinking and communicating to succeed after college. A writer’s style acknowledges a social or academic expression. A writer’s skill to rationalize ideas and think critically demonstrates an essential technique for enhancing communication in the work environment.

The importance of college-level writing is a topic that is very much backed up and accompanied by facts and studies. Writing in the college-level is needed in order to master college work in any class. Basically all classes require you to more than likely submit some kind of research paper or essay. Writing for Learning to Improve Students’ Comprehension at the College Level by Fahad Alharbi as well as Luiza Costa Ribeiro, Writing Essays at College: Why it’s Important both go into detail on how important writing at this level is and all the skills learned for during and after college. As well on how you can benefit from them.

Proficient writing is an essential skill in all aspects of academic and professional achievement. English 101, Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric, provided the framework to good writing, teaching me composition and rhetoric fundamentals, polishing up my grammar and style, and expressing a clear message. English 102, Composition, Rhetoric, and Research, continued to build on the skills I learned in English 101, focusing on the subject matter research process and employing various rhetorical and literary devices to better express a clear message to the reader. The course also improved my critical thinking capacity, allowing me to culturally evaluate my target audience, present logically flowing arguments using appropriate language and structure, and critically reviewing my writing projects for content and expression. Every writer inherently knows there’s always room to improve and I hold fast to this mindset in all academic, professional, and personal writing projects. English 102 has both challenged and inspired me to grow into a much better writer than before I began the class, providing the necessary skills to be not just a good writer, but a great writer.

This is a informative passage written for new college students in a composition class. Corcoran tells the reader about her experience as a freshman in FYC and how other students had similar feelings about FYC. They didn’t see how it applied to their other courses and careers, but in her thesis, she says “As I reflect on my FYC experience, I believe that the things I learned as a student laid the groundwork for my future writing life” (p.25). She gives us examples of the skills learned in FYC. The ability to breakdown what is being asked of you, knowing the reader, thinking critically and applying your writing to different audiences and context.

Writing is so much easier when you don’t have a ridiculous amount of guidelines you have to follow. With literary freedom, we are able to express ourselves more than if we have to follow a specific set of rules for every thing we write. This is one downfall for high school English. We have to order our papers in a specific sequence while writing about a topic that is chosen for us. This English composition class changed all of that. We were able to write about anything that related to the given type of essay, which greatly improved our ability to fully immerse ourselves into every paper. This greatly affected my writing thoughts about writing; they changed from hating to write for school to actually enjoying it because I was able to

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 essay taught me that I needed the composition course to help better prepare me for future college writing. I realized that I was not prepared. After completing this essay, I was not sure I could be a successful writer.