Reading Reflection Essay

Many people experience exclusion in their lives; yet, when they feel included, they experience the process of healing. In the memoir Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Power of Adversity, Dw Brees’ journey to healing is explored. This experience of exclusion to inclusion is also discussed in Becoming Human by Jean Vanier. The New Orleans Saints accepted Drew, a severely injured quarterback at the time, just as Jean Vanier accepted people with intellectual disabilities into L’Arche. Withal, Drew is given the opportunity to motivate and inspire his team, and those people included in the L’Arche community are given the opportunity to develop new, meaningful relationships. For Drew, having this opportunity results in a milestone for the whole team that represents hope for New Orleans, while the people with intellectual disabilities being able to be in an inclusive community result in the maturity of the heart. Both works suggest that being inclusive towards other people, especially those excluded in society, by welcoming them into a particular community result in a person’s internal and external healing.

When I look back at my writing before having any college experience, I can see that I had a lot to work on. I can say that I was never really a big fan of writing anything much less essays. Even when I was younger, I just did not have a great big interest in writing. This was because I felt that I could not elaborate as well as others. I was not use to having to write anything really, but I now feel that I have a better grasp on the steps that I need to take to get my writing on the level that it needs to be.

Before this semester, I didn’t know what was expected of me in a college writing class. I thought there would be tough requirements and the professor would assign around five to ten pages for every assignment. However, this semester isn’t as challenging as I thought and did make me feel prepared for the WRT102 class next semester, like accessing to the university’s library’s database, making a works cited page, and knowing the format for college papers. I actually liked this year’s writing class compared to the ones before, the topics are different and more interesting. My strengths in writing would be the organization of my ideas and how they are presented to the reader. Before I write, I would write out a simple outline for the paper. My

Coming into freshman comp at the beginning of the semester I was worried this would be my hardest class and that I would hate it. Walking in the classroom on the first day and hearing the words, “you will be writing a 10-12 page paper by the end of the semester,” gave me so much anxiety and made me very nervous for the class. As the class is now coming to a close it has made me realize I should have never been so worried about this class and that I would learn many new things I did not know about writing such as writing strategies, metacognition, and how to write a good research paper.

My decision on a major field of study at Western Michigan University was a process that took much thought and reflection. With my high school teachers’ strong leadership, they inspired me to possibly pursue anything as a career. The long process of finding out what I want to do with my life started in the summer when I was trying to figure out what career would best suit me for the future. Im that kind of person where I need entertainment in my life, so I narrowed it down to some jobs I can't do, such as being a business major and sitting in a office my whole life, and accounting, because I despise math. During my thinking process, I utilized what subjects I enjoyed in high school that I’d like to learn more about in college. I came to a

For as long as I can remember on the first day of class no matter what class it seems that the teacher would always look upon the class and ask what our personal definition of reading and writing or why we were in the class and people always seem to give the same hesitant answer every year. I thought I knew why I in the class, I assumed it was like high school english as long as I stuck to the formula that was engraved in our minds that I would have no trouble making it though the course. However, after the first day of class i knew that this class probably wouldn't be that way. After being turned off to reading and writing from a young age, my definition of reading and writing were hindered from these experiences. Going from classrooms

Writing in college is often a huge transition for incoming freshman that do not have a very good writing background. I came from a high school where education was not taken very seriously, and the teachers did not take pride in their teaching. My grammar and punctuation skills were weak, and the whole thought of writing a four to six page essay was a very stressful thought. At the beginning of the semester I had already learned more in writing then what I had learned in my whole four years of high school. I have passed essays two and three and have started to see my writing skills progress as the semester goes on. The progress I have made throughout the semester is why I feel I should pass this course. I have learned proper grammar, developing paragraphs, and my incorporation of sources has improved to back up my writing.

When first coming to Introduction to College Writing, I was nervous. I didn’t know anyone and nobody knew me. One thing I did know was that I was going to be writing tons of papers. As the class began on the first day everybody looked tense, but the professor made everyone feel comfortable. She told us that we were going to be writing 3 important essays and that we were going to improve as writers. When I wrote my first essay, I expected a decent grade. When I got my paper back, it wasn’t what I expected at all. This made me understand that most of the things in college are nothing like the things in high school. The professors won’t care if a student doesn’t come to class or if a student doesn’t do homework. Students have to be accountable and take care of themselves.

At the beginning of English Composition, intimidated by the expanse of knowledge that my teacher had. I was worried about if my papers would ever be good enough because in my earlier years, writing was not a thing I was good at. However, as the semester progressed, I learned that I my writing skills were up to par with college writing. In the end, I realized that my introductions and conclusions had improved compared to high school and that I needed to work on my grammar, development of my ideas, and making sure my main points are developed and clear. Furthermore, I plan to correct my errors by using various writing strategies and resources.

My College Writing course last semester was my first writing class since high school in 2011. As you can imagine my writing skills were rusty, and I was not prepared. During my first day in class,

As a junior in high school, I was extremely nervous about taking a college level composition class. I might have earned only A's throughout my high school English classes, but we only wrote a few papers a year and I was not confident in my writing. Yet, I am very glad I chose to take this class because I am very proud of the work I have created. Plus, I have improved my writing skills more this year than I ever could have if I continued my classes at my high school.

Writing had always seemed so calculated. Since fourth grade I was taught that when you write a paper for school it should be a five paragraph essay with an opening paragraph, three supporting paragraphs, and then a closing paragraph. If you wrote in this exact format then you were sure to get a good grade. Up until college writing had always lacked creativity for me and seemed more like formula that was to be followed. Writing had always seemed dull to me and more like a chore rather than a chance to express or research ideas that I truly cared about. It was not until I was in my college writing classes that I began to realize that writing involves a lot more than just following a formula and that writing can be in all different forms with various purposes. College Writing I and II has expanded my knowledge on the different forms writing can come in, what are some of the process steps that can be taken, and that overall writing does not have to be a chore.

When thinking about college writing I think about really long papers and being extremely grammatically correct. Throughout high school, I have been working on different ways to prepare for college. I have realized that after four years of preparation, I have not been very well prepared at all for college writing according to the article “Framework for success in postsecondary writing.”

Looking back now, I think reading was the most important part in my formative years. Growing up was an extremely boring process, so having a book nearby felt essential. My parents didn’t read to me much, but they always encouraged me to read for myself and to find what I liked. The times they did read to me they read usual fantasy children books, like Where the Wild Things Are or Cat in the Hat. As I got older, I started to read whatever I could get my hands on. Non-fiction always seemed to hold my attention, more so than fiction, so when the school book fair rolled around I’d always ask my parents for those DK Eyewitness books. When I’d read the same book or encyclopedia for the hundredth time I’d borrow from the school library or classroom, but I had a bad habit of never returning them. To this day I probably still have a book in storage from my elementary years. The most memorable book to me growing was always Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. Since then, I’ve tried to branch out more into fiction to try and find the qualities of that story and what made it special in other works of literature. When I heard about the works of George Orwell, I decided to try an audiobook for the first time with my choice title being 1984. It wasn’t what I expected or maybe I didn’t give careful thoughts to my expectations. I think if people are not used to having stories read to them, then the experience is rather quite jarring and would be a turn off. As it was, I nearly didn’t

The reason I decided to get a degree in English is so I can go to law school, and in order to do that I know that my writing skills need to be far beyond good. In my English 202 class I did well on both inward and outward looking theories, but didn’t necessarily perfect either. Going forward in the major I would like to focus on perfecting both types of theories by taking advantage of the resources provided to me. Although I had a clear understanding of all theories when it came down to writing my essays I didn’t execute my papers to their full potential. I would like to be able to use the feedback given to me more efficiently in future English courses. But although I was able to understand all theories, there was one theory which I did not enjoy at all, linguistic discourse analysis. However, there was a theory which I fell in love with, Marxism. Overall, I think I did well in the class, but I plan on striving to be able to write much better as I move on in the major.