Reflection Paper

As your paper finally slides into that dreadful homework basket, you realize you are finally done. That stressful weekend, with the anticipation, the typing, reading, re-reading and retyping. Is finally over, you have now handed in your essay. Does this sound familiar? Of course, it does! We have all worked on that English or history paper and felt relief after handing it in. But, why is this common event always so stressful for students? Perhaps it is in the way we write our essays, but is there any other way to do it? As it turns out… YES! There are many different strategies to writing, and in this editorial, we will outline some of the most commonly voiced methods.

Within English 219, we have already learned a vital set of writing skills, that will allow for the improvement of essays, and summaries that must be written for future assessments. Some of these skills that would be relevant for achieving general writing improvement could be ideas such as thesis development, structuring and planning, or more specific examples when actually fleshing out the essay such as elements of grammar and style. Thesis development which is crucial so that ideas can be fully explained and related back to a point which can be interpreted as an overarching theme for the entire paper, and allows the reader to interpret the topic of not only the essay but of each paragraph. Taking a step back we looked in class at the subject

Coming into college, I have had experience in writing analytical essays, research papers, and creative writing projects. For two years in a row I had the privilege to be taught by the same honor’s English teacher—Mr. McConahay. Mr. McConahay constantly stressed the importance of writing. He spent the past two years preparing us for college level writing because he knows that in college, writing is a big part of one’s English class. We wrote about American citizenship and what it meant to be a citizen of the world as well as a citizen of one’s community. Mr. McConahay valued structure and a good thesis the most out of anything. This writing was very difficult for me because my mind works more creatively than it does analytically. Academic writing has always been my weakest attribute when it came to schooling. I would much rather write a paper full of opinions or made up people rather than write a research paper. Though his class was hard for me, I noticed a difference in my writing as it improved over the course of the years. Mr.

Typically, after being assigned an essay, my first step used to be sitting in front of the computer and starting to type aimlessly with no specific goal in my mind. This process usually ends up taking hours, and I do not end up accomplishing much at the end. This year, I plan to formulate a new process that will hopefully improve my writing exceptionally. Breaking down the essay writing into pieces will result in quality content. The writing process that I devised incorporates some of the basic elements of writing such as: prewriting, revising, and editing.

Over the first and second quarters of Dual Enrollment English at Brooke Point High School, I have grown immensely as a writer. I learned a great deal about how to write a paper, as well as, about myself. In the beginning of this course, I felt as if my assignments were going to overwhelm me; I also felt apathetic about completing them. This led me to create my own personal agenda as to how I would complete my assignments. My plan was to overcome my weaknesses and enhance my strengths within the construction my essays, depth of paragraphs and overall assignments.

Writing has continuously served as a getaway in my life. It has kept me from bottling up my thoughts and emotions and has allowed me to express all of these things on paper. Communicating through speaking has always been a weakness of mine. It is for this reason that I often turn to writing to convey my feelings. Though have such an immense passion for free-writing, I have found myself struggling when comes to writing academic papers. Generally, I enjoy writing when it is something that I am interested in. In Composition I and II, I often have had the opportunity to choose the topic that I write my paper on. I am confident that this has been a major turning point for me within my academic essays. Ultimately, Composition I and II have taught

One of the most important parts about writing is the process behind it. An essay should consist of an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Even though essays seems very mind boggling, it is actually an easy process if following the correct writing steps. It can be even easier if the writer enjoys the topic of the essay. There are certain steps a writer must take to keep a reader interested while showing enthusiasm for them wanting to learn more. These steps follow a set of guidelines including planning, free writing, revising and editing.

An essay is a great way to express your knowledge in a topic and also learn new skills involving reading and writing. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses when it comes to writing. To turn those weaknesses into strengths, I have practiced my writing and took the advice given by my peers and professor. Throughout this course, I have overcome many of my writing weaknesses such as citations, thesis statements, and transitions. Although there are still skills to improve upon, I have improved these skills by taking my time with each essay, proofreading them thoroughly, and reflecting on my work when finished.

So, when I came to the end of the first draft of my thesis, I was convinced I had produced a solid piece of writing and that I was finally, and thankfully, done with it. At the point at which I was ready to jack the thesis under my rear tires, I knew I had worked hard on this piece, harder than I had ever worked on a piece of writing in my life. It was certainly the longest piece of writing that I had ever produced; yet I had erroneously equated length with good quality. I had done no revising to this piece, nor had I achieved any distance from it in order set it aside to come back to it at a later time.

In writing an essay I also struggle with incorporating clear topic sentences and connecting my paragraphs ideas back to my thesis statement. This struggle is based on last years’ experience with writing essays. This struggle can be improved upon by concentrating on what exactly my thesis is stating and building my sentences to relate and explain the thesis further. Improving on this will allow my writing ability to increase and help me become a more successful writer.

Coming into ENG 106 I thought I had a good understanding of english and writing. As I started reading the first chapter "They say", I came acrossed a sentence. A sentence that made me think wow I never thought about it that way. On page 20 it states, "This story illustratees an important lesson: that to give writing the most important thing of all---namely, a point--a writer needs to indicate clearly not only what his or her thesis is, but also what larger conversation that thesis is responding to"(Page 20). When you start to write you don't think about a thesis. You think about what your ideas are and what all you can write about in the paper. For me it has always been hard for me to form a thesis.The sentence made me think about how I needed

Instead of responding to a prompt from the text to form a thesis, I was tasked along with the rest of the English 9H class to find my own topic and write about it. Finding a topic that I could write extensively on that was original was extremely tough, and a major problem I had was finding sources to use to validate my points. However, the organization and thesis writing skills I acquired throughout the year managed to alleviate some of the stress that writing the essay incurred upon

Over the course of the semester, there has been numerous amount of areas where I believe I have improved in comparison to high school. What has helped me in my writing is the writing class and the in-class writing workshop. The writing class that is located in the Kremen education building has helped me with my writing greatly because in the writing center the person in charge teach us lenses and we apply those lenses to the writing, draft, or reading that someone brings in. The in-class writing workshop has helped me because other students get to read my writing. This is helpful because I get feedback from many students and they let me know what needs to be fixed. A new tool I have been using is They Say I Say. The book is very helpful because of the information and examples it provides such as the templates. I have been applying the templates into my essays and I have seen a significant difference.

I have been writing since I have been in Middle School. I have realized that by college it was easier for me to write down my thoughts in order for me to remember what I have said or done. Writing out my thoughts gives me a sense of recollection, knowledge, and pacification that gets me through my day. I pictured writing to be as simple as jotting down a few sentences, but as I got farther in school I realized that there is more to it than just writing sentences. English has been my most difficult subject I have ever endured, but I have somehow been managing to make excellent grades and achieving all requirements. First in the essay, I will discuss my experiences in the English life that I’ve taken so far up until college. The second part will list my struggles in creating a thesis, a work cited, and properly citing my sources used in the papers.

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.