Reflection Essay

When I first got accepted into Stuyvesant High School, I heard countless of rumors stating: “Oh the workload is terrible”, “The competition is so fierce” or “Out of schoolwork, extracurriculars, or sleep: you can only pick two.” I found it hard to let it faze me, since I graduated from one of the most prestigious middle schools. However, the rumors transformed into reality when I stepped into Mr. Nieves’ Freshman Composition Class. The workload at the beginning of the year was brutal, coupled with assignments from other core classes that seem unaware of the workload of other teachers. Reading assignments were a regular, and there were journal entries and occasional quizzes to keep us in line. What made it bearable was the friends I made in that class; everyone had their own opinion about the topic we were talking about, and listening to other perspectives really broadened my horizon and enriched my learning experience in Stuy. Another thing that this class has taught me is the importance of time management, a skill that I will carry on for the rest of my high school career and life. When I choose to sign up for Mr. Nieves’ AP American Literature class in my Junior Year, I was hoping to relive the discussion-based lesson plans and meet more outstanding peers. I was not disappointed, to say the least, reflecting through all the experiences at the end of the course. The lesson plans he laid out for us were an interesting mix between small lectures and class output, and what I

It is still so surreal to reflect back on my first semester as an incoming college student in the ENC1101 course, analyzing at my progression as a reader and writer in literacy. Since the first day of class I set in stone my goals for this class: receive a 4.0 GPA, develop my connecting theories skills in writing, and become more aware of objectives for each Unit throughout the course. All of these goals became achievements that not only make others proud but most importantly give me self pride. In order to earn the grades and achieve these goals, I went after every opportunity that I was given as an incoming college student, such as office hours and extra credit. By taking this course I have gained confidence with the utilization of literacy, and made an addition to my group of impactful literacy sponsors. Once students are finished with high school they assume that there is nothing else to learn beyond the stereotypical five paragraph essay, but they are so wrong. I was able to obtain so much knowledge about numerous course concepts from Writing about Writing, articles, and my professor. These concepts will carry on with me throughout a bright future of writing courses, job interviews, and any other skills that require literacy. The four outcomes listed below will help illuminate how I improved as a writer, by being a driven college student and going out of the way to earn my achievements in this course. In the first outcome I improved comprehending scholar texts,

Throughout the course of this semester, I have continuously grown as a writer. Prior to taking this course, I had little experience or knowledge when it came to writing. I used to struggle with forming my thoughts into writing, let alone a paper. I was never confident with what I wrote. My writing had no greater purpose other than the assignment. My writing process included: writing my paper, proofreading it, and turning it in. Once the paper left my hands, it also left my mind. Throughout this course we worked with others, visited the writing lab, wrote critiques, and we were able to revise our papers. I believe that all of this is has caused me to grow greatly as a writer.

Entering the class, english comp. one, I had many fears as to what the class would be like. I had no idea what to expect as a senior in highschool. During the past english classes I had, we wrote papers, just not a different one every day. Going into english comp. one, I figured it would be the same method in english just like the past classes I had. On the very first day in the class, I quickly found out that I would have to buckle down a little more than I have been in the past. I knew then, from what Mrs. Garth had told us, that I was going to have many weaknesses while writing my papers, but I would also have many strengths from what I had learned in the past about writing.

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

My writing journey this semester has been a roller coaster. Since the beginning of this course I have improved in so many different areas. When I first began in this class, I didn’t have a clue how to start my essays. I wasn’t very good with being descriptive either. On top of that, revising was something I hated to do. My writing process was very messy and organization was never something I considered when writing a paper. Since taking this class my skills in organization, revision, and description have improved tremendously.

This class has already made me a better writer. When I got the bad grade for the essay, it gave me motivation to do better on the next one. I tried to see what I needed improving, and the professor helped with that. I needed to work on my central claim for the essay and the professor already had a lesson planned to help students with their claim. She knew that people had trouble with the claim and that was what she wanted everybody to improve on. As the time came for the second

This class has increased my knowledge on the aspect of college English, introducing key-points college professors expect. I have learned more grammatical key-points, improved my writing skills, learned how to peer review someone else’s paper and give good feedback, and to properly write an argumentative paper. Those key points will stick with me to enhance my success rate as I further my education in English.

This class has been one of the more challenging classes I had this semester. It was challenging because it forced me to really sit down and check my writing process. It gave me a whole new outlook on how I write my papers. I always thought that I was pretty decent at writing papers and I would not have to worry too much. However, this class has given me a new perspective and has allowed me to see that there are many areas that I could improve on in my writing. I needed to improve in areas such as the style of my writing and my sentence structure. I needed to work on my grammar and my punctuation. I had to work on paying more attention to the little details in my writing. This class has allowed for me to really deconstruct and examine how I

The idea of presenting a workshop in class is a very scary thought for me. As the sign-up sheet went around for our in-class workshop, the date picked was for convenience rather than subject. For the first time at Cal Poly, I am juggling four classes. What a time to start to be ambitious! The early weeks I was completely lost in class and up until that point I had relied solely on my life experience to hopefully get me through this class. Understanding the concept of analyzing text or imagines merely by looking at the piece was easy, but terms like ethos and pathos, additionally, the explanation of new criticism’s goal for literary analysis to emulate scientific theory really all escaped me. In the weeks that followed, and our second journal was due, I had read, Sarrasine (Balzac); and The Purloined Letter (Poe). Now a tiny voice inside my head said, “I got this.”

I learned a lot in my life like math, history, fitness, health, etc. Though I always had one curriculum that catch my interest than others. That subject would be english as the one that caught my eye as one might say. I was always fansticated with the certain techniques and skills you can learn from it. The expressiveness that people can learn from that subject and put what they learn into something big like for example writing an play, movie, skits, etc is truly something special. So as young adult I find myself willing to learn these intrestic skills that many talented writers have master and I have belief that my techniques will be sharpen to mastery. In english 102 I can proudly say that those beliefs did happen as the class went further through days and weeks so did my progression as a researcher and writer that in factly impact my future career. I own to the teacher and support programs in the school that provided me this which I couldn’t thrive without.

As i a still learning i am/did have trouble with this. This time I am going to connect it into one section(I will try and split them up but they may run together)

This semester was my first semester as a college student at Front Range Community College. Since it was my first, it was definitely one of the most difficult and stressful due to the importance of starting my college experience off well. During my English Composition 1 class, I learned several different things. I learned how to self revise my work, the importance of having an audience to write to, using better word choice, how to write in different styles and genres, how to incorporate research sources into a paper, and an understanding as why writing is important. Through articles, class discussions, class exercises, and lessons I was able to obtain these skills. I know these writing techniques set the expectations that would be essential for me to follow the next four years. These techniques have only helped me become a better writer. Although, I was able to learn these new skills my writing still needs an improvement. Some skills that need improvement are better word choice, staying on topic, correctly placing resources into papers, and writing to a specific audience. However, I’ve still noticed some improvement in my writing from high school up until now.

English is a class that I have always taken lightly. Up until this class, I always had thought that I was a good writer. Papers were pretty easy for me and I never put that much effort and still got the grade that I wanted. When I came into this class however, that all changed. This class has taught me so much and has really developed my writing. I have learned many new writing styles and techniques, and I became familiar with new genres. Looking back at previous years, I now realize that I was a decent writer. But after taking this semester writing class, I can now say that I am a good writer with many new skills. College Composition has shaped me into a better writer, student, and thinker. Over time each paper became easier to write and I achieved better grades.

At the beginning of this class I was nervous on how this semester will go and whether or not I will succeed to my fullest potential in English. With that in my mind I still was trying my best to work at getting better, despite how much it made me cringe at the thought of it. My perspective of writing began to change as time went on, the assignments were based on interesting topics which made it a bit bearable for me. I’ve learned that you have to make the steps to get to the perfect paper. A paper requires you to brainstorm, make an outline, and writing your rough draft to get that feedback you need before finishing up that final draft. During this class I have also learned where to put my thesis and that I don’t need to have that three point subtopics of what you should talk about. The writing length started getting longer and I was a bit skeptical on how I can get to the word count or what will I talk about within my papers, but I have