Reflection Paper

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.

English 101 might seem like an easy course to take for some students. For other students such as myself, English 101 was one of the classes I feared and procrastinated on taking. Coming from an ESL background, English was the class I have always struggled with the most. I’ve always excelled in science/ mathematics courses. I prefer the correct answers to be facts and universal. Creativity is not my forte. The process of putting my thoughts down on paper in an organized manner, with correct punctuation, and citing works used, seemed like a complicated, tedious task before taking English 101 this summer.

During the fall semester I enrolled in an English 111 course to help improve my writing skills. Throughout the semester I was instructed to write four papers, not including this one. The topics for my essays were about; the value of education, victims and creators, a report essay, and last but not least a review essay. Each essay became more challenging than the previous one. As each essay came along, I applied the skills I learned in class and necessary peer evaluations to correct my mistakes so that I could get better at writing.

What have I learned in English 102? When I began this class, I had not taken a formal English class in over thirty years. I understood sentence structure and essay writing to a point. To elaborate my understanding was based on story telling rather than research and factual commentary. Of course, rhetorical review and research was foreign to me. I had a loose understanding but had never practiced or been in a position to apply these skills. Or at least that is what I thought. Since beginning this course, I have found it both challenging and enlightening. I feel that my skills have developed over the last few weeks and a greater understanding of what it takes to identify and understand complicated subjects has progressed. Not just that I can read difficult scholarly text, but that I can focus on what they are trying to say, their argument, and then develop my own counter argument in support of or against the authors statements. It is more than just saying I concur or I do not agree with you. It is stating how my point of view differs and supporting my statements logically and directly with facts, not just conjecture. Within the following paragraphs I will discuss, in more detail, the specific areas where I feel I have matured and how I intend to apply this new-found knowledge to my future writing as well as reading materials to assess their value.

While taking this class, I have developed as a writer, arguer and college student. My writing style and organization have greatly improved this semester, as I have learned through writing several different papers. As an arguer, I have

The Fall Quarter here at Bellevue College has helped me increase and further enhance my writing capabilities. Having to forget all my past knowledge in high school level writing was challenging but necessary. In the past, my writing never had the opportunity to progress. My high school essays were all carbon copies of each other. I would do the bare minimum and not put any effort into my writing, but still I would somehow receive a passing grade. The majority of the time I would wait until the night before the essay was due to start it. It would usually take me less than three hours to complete a paper. I became more focused on doing exactly what the teacher wanted than working on developing my style and enhancing my writing skills. After taking English 101, I have learned that writing is a process and I can’t write an essay the night before it’s due and expect a satisfactory grade. Taking English 101 has led me to think more critically towards my writing and others, develop style and tone, and learn how to use collaboration to my benefit.

English isn't one of my favorite subjects, but it was interesting to learn much more about English through this course. This course, overall, taught me about how to organize my ideas and the importance of clicking the button that checks one's spelling on the paper. Even though, I improved throughout my time in this course in my organization and expressing my ideas. I still have some mistakes to improve on in my writing. English 101 showed the importance of writing and the ability to express my ideas throughout my academic career.

English 102 has been an extremely huge learning experience for me both inside and outside of the classroom. I feel as though I have grown as a writer in more areas than others throughout this course but overall I feel that this class was extremely helpful. My English 101 course was very different compared to English 102 in terms of what we learned. In English 101 it was more of a personal based writing class while in English 102 there was a lot of emphasis put on academic sources and research. Coming into this class I believed I was a pretty well rounded writer but I soon learned I had a lot to work on. When we were assigned to choose a topic we wanted to focus on for the rest of the semester I knew I wanted to focus on Social Media since it’s a huge part of my life and the way it has impacted society. It was a difficult topic to cover

I don’t know how I will do in this course, since I cannot predict future. Nevertheless, I will put in the effort in order to gain the highest grade possible. English 101 has given me the tools necessary to do well in English 394. This course allows a student to obtain the tools necessary to become a successful student in the University of Maryland. I learned about the different analysis of writing, such as a summary, rhetorical analysis and the position paper. Each of these assignments has given me a valuable understanding of writing, which is often negated in our teachings. It has helped me understand that a well written paper needs a purpose and critical thinking to establish legitimacy.

I enrolled in English 112 to pass a required course in my degree. At first I tried to avoid it and take a public speaking course, but I needed to meet with classmates, or gather family members to do most assignments requested, which I couldn’t. Than I planned to take this course in the summer so I would give it enough study time. And so my plan was to succeed in this course with a good grade. Thankfully, Professor Williams made this course fun to study, and I liked her study plan.

I have truly enjoyed this semester in Mrs. Jones’ English 1105 class. This is my second time having her as an instructor and over the past two semester she had helped me immensely in sharpening my writing skills. During this semester we wrote serval different essays, each focusing on different aspects of English and Writing. The first essay of this class was one that was in MLA format while I became comfortable with MLA in my English 1101 course this was a good refresher on it, in this essay we also learned about visual analyses. Essay number two was about memes and fallacies and this was our first essay in APA format. On our third and final essay we had more free range on the topic and style of our paper. Each of these essay helped me improve

From the lustful feeling consumed within my soul I gained by writing obstructed by the overbearing slaughter of never being good enough, reality struck. I knew I needed to find an English class that would be able to help me overcome my life long writing obstacles and that is exactly what English 100 did for me. Ever since a young age, English has never been my strong point. The most common errors I seemed to struggle with consisted of grammar, putting my thoughts into words, and knowing the difference between nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Honestly, English before college seemed pointless and monotone, there wasn 't a class i hated more. I never thought I would be able to overcome the predicament outlook that college held over me. Now, after surviving my first semester at the University of Southern Indiana I have procured new adroitness within my English class. A small list of the aspects I have accomplished from English 100 are: constructing a strong thesis statement, what makes a paper good or bad, correctly using punctuation, transitions, and clearly describing objects to create a vivid image.

For my service learning project I worked in Mrs. Evelyn Costa's first grade class at Meadowlane Elementary. Meadowlane is located at 4280 W 8th Avenue in Hialeah, Florida and was constructed in 1957. There are one thousand one hundred and seventy seven students enrolled at Meadowlane Elementary school. Meadowlane has fifty three classrooms and fourteen portables and there are one hundred and seventy nine students per grade level. The school was built on nine acres of land. The student population of meadowlane Elementary is comprised of 97% Hispanic, 2% White, and 1% Asian.

During my Junior year in high school I was assigned to write a narrative about a conflict in my life. While the story did not have to be necessarily true, the emotions that I felt had to be conveyed in some way to the reader. After spending a whole weekend not once contemplating which dilemma in my life I would elaborate on in my story, I finally began to brainstorm for the assignment, the night before the rough draft was due. Unfortunately for me, I never quite caught onto the fact that my mind does not handle procrastination well. No matter the vigor with which I contemplated my own life, no matter the duration in which I stared at my computer screen, and no matter the albums of my photos I went through struggling to find a memory I could write about, not one single idea struck me as one that had any significance to my life. Although many may have viewed my struggle as simple writer’s block, my personal dilemma quickly evolved into a more dangerous phenomenon: the existential crisis.

Life is about learning new things and allowing for others to open our minds to the possibility of new perspectives. In life I have always found that it is important to learn something new every day, so I do try to learn something new every day. In starting this class, I knew that I would be learning so many new things. From school I had a basic understanding of how the world was but to read these stories and poems, that were written on an emotional level, I never realized how bad things really were. It has made me very grateful for what I have in my life, opening my eyes to the world we live in now. So of all the many pieces I have read so far in this class it was hard to decide what pieces to choose for this assignment, but I managed to choose. First “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake (pg.129). Next is “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid (pg.121). Lastly “Bartleby, The Scrivener” by Herman Melville (pg.235). These three pieces of literature really spoke to me as a person, mother and friend. And I plan to tell you how these wonderful literary works have changed my perspective on the world.