Reflection On My Second Writing Course

When I first started this course I didn’t know what to expect. I really enjoyed writing but there was a lot of areas that I needed to work on. When I first started to review the modules I was blown away by all the helpful sites that were at my disposition. The Power points and different sites completely changed my whole perspective of writing to a whole new dimension. Thanks to the modules I am more confident right now before I even begin an essay. I remember in the past how beginning an essay was so difficult for me because I didn’t know how to even start. In this course I have learned how to begin an essay, how to manipulate information, and how to use in-text documentation properly. These are just some of the few things that I will definitely be taking with me in the future for my courses and personal growth.

I have been a student at San Jose States University for second years, English 1A was my first regular English class, and over the course of my stay I have grown and learned a lot. As Hospitality major, I do not know whether need my writing skills for future job, but I know the great experience in English 1A class would help me to improve all my writing weakness.

Writing is always something that I needed to spend a little more time at. I was much better answering math problems than I was writing a paper or explaining a book I just read. In my college writing class I felt that I was always given a challenge. The book “ The Book Thief” that I read was quite lengthy and had a lot of symbolism in it that took me a while to completely understand. The papers that I had to do in my college writing class were also a lot more challenging than the ones I had to do in other classes. A song that I would use to explain my experience with writing and college writing class is “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus. I would use Miley Cyrus’s song to explain my experience with writing and my college writing class because there is always going to ways to improve myself as a writer. When I do any assignment in my college writing class I am always taking a chance with it. Writing can be taking in so many different ways and there is not real right answer, most is just personal preference. It is also a process that can be quite lengthy; it is not just a simple one-step process. It requires a lot of editing and having others give feedback about it.

This course was comprised of many learning activities; each was designed to help me achieve the course learning outcomes. I have taken two college English classes in the past; however, it has been several years since my last college class. I have some experience in writing and this class definitely helped me get back into writing. I often have trouble brainstorming and capturing the subject I need to write about. This class definitely helped me overcome the challenges I faced in writing and being able to effectively express my ideas in a clear and concise manner. Not to mention, it definitely helped build my writing foundation through a step by step approach to each assignment. Therefore, this class bolstered my writing and communication skills.

This course offers numerous opportunities to improve our writing. In this class, I not only enhanced the skills I already had, but also learned new writing concepts. Before I took this class, I knew that my writing is poor, and I have always wanted to improve it; however, I did not know how and what aspects of writing to improve. So, I came into this class with the ambition to improve my writing, and I have accomplished my goal although there is still room for improvement. At this point of this course, I have learned the elements that successful writing is composed of, and I am now able to categorize the various techniques that can work together to define strong

All through this course, I have taken in various systems for composing different sorts of essays. This class has truly enhanced my written work abilities; I can now effectively think of enough words, which was a major issue for me before this class. I couldn't have done these without the inside and out rules gave all through this class from the instructor's assignments and lecture notes.

In my opinion my writing ability before I arrived in this course at the University of Dubuque was fair, it wasn’t outstanding, but it wasn’t horrible. My biggest obstacles I faced in this course was coming up with a good topic to write about. Coming up with a topic you care about and can expand on your ideas can be a challenge. When learning to write in a more cohesive manner, I think the chapters we took notes on were very beneficial to improving my writing. It showed me the proper way to write a thesis and how to compose my papers. I also believe practicing our writing by journaling helped me learn to write what is going through my mind and it helped me to just learn to get my thoughts and ideas down on paper.

At the beginning of the term, I came into this class not feeling very confident about my writing. I had taken writing classes in the past, but none to the extent of a college level writing course. One of the skills that I found I lacked the most was my vocabulary. While my writing structure was often not a problem my writing did not sound as sophisticated as it could be. I occasionally used a thesaurus but this would often cause problems as sometimes the words would not quite agree with the meaning of my sentence. Throughout the term the one thing that helped me the most with this problem were the workshops. As my peers corrected my paper they helped me to come up with more intelligent words to get my point across to the reader. I believe that without the inclusion of these workshops my essays would not have been as cleanly written.

Since I can remember I have always loved to write. When I first took college composition I it was so fun and I loved everything I learned in that class. It was so long ago so I don’t really remember everything that I learned but for the most part, I remember being able to pick a topic and write about that one topic throughout the semester. There are three aspects of my writing that I would like to improve which are tone, grammar, and style. I always write in the sarcastic tone. I would love to learn how to write in a different tone such as disapproving, critical, pleading, humorous etc. I would struggle with grammar because I'm always the type of person to do things fast. I would free write and I would write so fast that sometimes I do mistakenly

At the beginning of this course, I was convinced that success would come relatively easy. I had imagined there being few assignments with the guidelines for papers and assignments being broad. I soon came to the realization that I would have my compositional skills pushed to the limit. Although I entered the course with a adequate level of competency in writing, I significantly had my knowledge and skills in academic writing expanded as showcased in the progression of my assignments. I have learned proper procedure for MLA formatting, as well as proper rhetorical analysis, as opposed to synopsis. My writing has become more refined as well as focused. I am better able to concentrate on proper analysis, so while this is my biggest area of improvement,

At the end of this course, I feel that a lot has improved with my writing. When I first started this course, I was struggling with a lot of writing mechanisms. One of the things was transition. I was just writing without thinking of how to connect my thoughts. After completing numerous writing assignments, I am fully confident with my ability to have a paper that flows. Another thing that I struggled with was organization. Although I still have a lot of improvement to make, I think this aspect of my writing has improved. One of the things that helped me immensely was creating an outline before writing my paper. Another aspect of my writing that also improved has to do with run-on sentences. I see a lot of changes in my writing and writing run-on

Before taking this course in-depth writing and research was a task I didn’t have to perform often. As a result, I never thought about the writing process or the details I put into a paper. E.L. Doctorow said “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader- not the fact it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” Reflecting before my technical writing course I would have looked at this quote as just another quote on the internet. Based off some of the lessons I’ve learned in this course to me the quote means when I’m writing I should use concrete details vs abstract. Without the writer saying it’s raining the reader know by the concrete details the writer use.

I came into Writing 150 under the assumption I was well prepared for college level writing by my wonderful high school English teachers. I could consistently write excellent timed essays in AP literature, and I managed to make it through college Composition 101 at a local college. Those things did help me a lot with grammar, transitions, and style, but Writing 150 challenged me to think much harder than anything could have prepared me for. By provoking deeper thought, Writing 150 has immensely strengthened my writing. It has taught me how to make arguments on my own, instead of letting someone else’s quotations do all the work. It also equipped me with many strategies that helped me boost my writing ability throughout the semester and I can now carry in my toolbox for the rest of my college career.

My writing skills which I have worked on over the few months I have been in English 102 have changed quite a bit in my opinion. There are many things which I have improved upon that were amongst my weaker writing skills when the year began. On the opposite side of that point, there are also many things which I still need to improve upon if I want to truly elevate my writing to a level that I will be confident in. Finally, I have gained new skills outside of writing from this class, particularly the activities which we did in class at various points throughout the year. These things all cumulate together to give me an appreciation of English courses which I did not previously have.

Over the course of this past semester, my ability to write has improved tremendously. Prior to undertaking this course, my expertise in writing was not as fine-tuned as it should have been. I had never previously been enrolled in a class specifically tailored to writing-- which was quite clear. Upon reading my past works, it becomes apparent that my writing style consisted of fluff, small words, and inconsistently structured sentences. These problems have, for the most part, been remedied with the coursework I have tackled in College Writing. Rather than long, drawn out papers that take an eternity to reach the primary point, my recent work is much nicer in terms of composition and grammar. I credit these improvements to the three primary