Personal Narrative: My Experience in AP US History

The best teacher I’ve ever had was my Honors English teacher, who was the strictest and harshest grader I’ve ever come across. With her as my teacher, I spent the majority of my sophomore year stressed out. What I didn’t realize, however, was that the only reason I was struggling, was because I refused to acknowledge that what she was doing was teaching. The teachers I had previously, never challenged me in the way that she did and, because of that, I could do the bare minimum and still pass. After I finished her class, I realized that she didn’t just set me up to pass her class, but set me up to excel in the future. She changed the way I looked at education, and made me acknowledge that having trouble in a class didn’t mean that I was incapable;

Unfortunately, I would not be making it to your America history 102 class today, due to some unexpected family situation. Hopefully by next week class I will be somewhat caught up. Also, I recently had a situation with my midterm essay, I spend almost two to three hours typing the essay at Kalamazoo Valley Community College (TTC) in the computer center and when I was about to be finished, I assumed I saved the paper so I exit it out and after my wellness class I had gone back to the computer center and I had noticed my midterm essay was not in my document folder. There was nothing I and the computer staff can do, so now I am currently typing a whole knew midterm essay, and since I have a horrible memory I am not sure what I wrote about the

Before this English course, I would not feel compelled to incorporate transitions into my essays. Sentence transitions connect paragraphs and new ideas; it creates a better flow of the sentences. I now value the importance of formality in academic essays. I learned to avoid ending sentences with prepositions because it would not sound proper, to choose the right diction for clear understanding to readers, and to eliminate wordy expressions and needless words because being concise is key. Using active voice is strong and clear in academic essays because passive voice does not focus and emphasize on the subject but in the sentence object. During English 1101, I noticed the use of verb tenses from the rhetorical reading responses and the narrative essay; it is crucial to have the appropriate verb tense for a clear essay. In addition, finding different sources for research papers, such as the concept paper done this course, is pivotal for readers to consider the author credible. Beginning a sentence with a compelling subject will most likely evoke readers’ interests rather than just “there” or “it”. In all these years of sitting in an English class, I finally know why not to use second person: “You” does not apply to everyone when the author is talking about a narrowed topic. Lastly, the one aspect of writing that stuck with me the most was to make any work original and

The final weeks of my first semester in college are coming to an end. My Columbus State english class has written a total of three projects, and a total of four papers. There are a lot of grammatical issues that, at the beginning of the year, I had issues on. However, I have improved on these errors drastically, and have become a better writer because of it. Even though I am still working on many aspects of my writing, I do believe that I have become a better writer. I believe that my biggest issues while writing are run on sentences, making a strong thesis statement, and having quotes stand alone at the beginning of a paragraph.

HELLO GUYS!!! I have something veryyyyyyyy important to tell you! After all of my stressing about FAFSA ( Free Application Federal Student Aid) , Colleges, and Transportation, I decided to further my education at Rowan University. It took me a long time to make this decision because this wasn’t my first choice! My first choice/ dream school was LIU Brooklyn ( Long Island University) in Brooklyn, New York. I was recently accepted there and planned on attending there, but their out-of-state tuition was extremely high! Their tuition was $33,000 a year and poor black man like myself, cannot afford it. I really loved LIU because it's a great school, beautiful campus, and most of all, it's in New York. I had my whole planned before it even started,

My AP government class seemingly encapsulated critical shifts of voter behavior into a single lecture, but I craved to see democracy in action. Working on Raja Krishnamoorthi’s Congressional campaign before my junior year, I was able to translate what I had read in books into practice. Scrolling through endless lists of voter files, I was able to picture how different neighborhoods in Illinois’s 6th District voted distinctly each election. I found myself engaging on issues that may have occupied half a page in Patterson’s The American Democracy, but hit to the heart of voters, from a grandmother dependant on Social Security to a steelworker that was laid off.

Have you ever wondered whether a writer’s voice and the standard rules of academic writing can exist on the same page? According to Dr. Debra Pena, English Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and Mathew Teorey, English Professor, University of New Mexico and the author of "Using Freshman Composition to Analyze What Students Really Know about Grammar" a writer’s voice and the process of academic writing can exist on the same page (Personal Communications February 13, 2017, Teorey 2). However, my first essay In Freshman Composition II titled, “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE): Is it the New Death Sentence for Future Athletes Playing Sports in America?” where I lost the power of my voice to the process of academic writing.

America’s gift to my generation is amazing because veterans have used all their potential for us. They fought for us to be alive right now. Their gift to us is much more than I expected. I am so thankful and I appreciate all they have done for us.

Do not refer to yourself. Do not say I or address the reader. Check spelling. That is all is not appropriate for a research essay.

I walked into room 160 and saw a group of anxious 14 year olds, waiting for the lady we had all heard so much about to walk in. Rumors about her ranged from “she will make you cry daily” to “she’s basically the human form of a fire breathing dragon”. When the bell rang, we all prepared for the worst. The small lady that walked in, with short brown hair and glasses too big for her face did not look nearly as intimidating as all the stories suggested, which was comforting on that first day of class. This was Mrs. Carballo, my AP US History teacher. She started our first day off by talking about the summer reading and our objectives for the year. By the time the second week rolled around, I felt pretty comfortable with the course...that is, until we all received books that were almost bigger than we were!

Being born in Houston, Texas is a privilege in itself learning what gifts I have been given from being an american and how to use them. As Abraham Lincoln once said ¨My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.¨ I completely agree it shows how our generation can make a change in America as well as what gifts we have received.

A subject that inspires me U.S History. I have always wanted to learn more about our country. I have never been the best at math or science, but whenever I go to my history class I was always eager to learn more. I would always show up early to class and read the chapter we were learning about and ask questions to the teacher.

It is great to wake up every morning knowing my life is entirely up to me. We live in the great United States of America. Being an American means I have so many rights and doors are opened up to opportunities other countries do not have. America has given me the right to choose whatever education and profession I want.

Having taken a year off from a history class of any kind, I thought it was time to return to taking history as a junior. What followed was a fruitful year in AP U.S. History (APUSH), having never received below an A for each grading period. Thriving in APUSH left me with a desire to further my interest in U.S. history and government, and I quickly joined Lake Central’s History Club. Focused on volunteer work and preserving U.S. history, History Club is given the honor of designing and organizing the yearly Veterans’ Day ceremony. While hosting the event, club members hear the brave stories of veterans as they are treated to a bountiful breakfast. Still not fully satisfied with fulfilling my interests in U.S. history and government, I applied

In high school I got the opportunity to be involved in honors and AP English classes. Throughout those classes I was able to learn how to annotate, format (is key to writing a good essay), proper citations, personal words should not be added such as “I”, “we”, “us” “our”. To annotate was to skim over and just write what you understand about the text in the margin. If you could have the format of the “beginning, middle, and end” then writing a two page/1,000 word minimum did not apply to grading. In writing a good essay, proper citations were a big chunk of writing an essay. Though, I never learned how to properly cite in the time given to learn it because I was not as advanced as other students. When writing an essay we were also never allowed to use personal words because that meant it would take away from the meaning and credibility of your essay. In my opinion writing in high school