Reflection Paper In English

After this year, I have gotten far more comfortable brainstorming topics, instead of simply picking the first idea that comes to my mind. I am able to list out topics and choose the best one, allowing my writing to improve.Especially with the rhetorical analysis piece, as I brainstormed what I wanted to write about for each paragraph. I haven’t improved much in writing appropriate introductions, bodies, and conclusions, as I was already confident in that before I entered this class. I would like to think it is one of my strong suits. I believe I still have room to improve in my transitions, however. I’m not particularly good at finding clever or well done ways to lead into the next paragraph. Using multiple sources, though, is something that comes easy to me. It is not difficult to find topics relating to my own, and sourcing them is just a matter of a work cited or reference page, as well as an in text citation. Fitting quotes or information into my essay is not trying either for me. Revising and editing my work comes easy enough, although I do find it difficult to rewrite portions that did not turn out well. Websites like Paper Rater make it easy to correct grammar and word usage, which is

When I first started English 101, I saw myself as having a few good strengths and a lot of weaknesses as a writer. Some of my strengths included being able to write a good introduction minus the thesis part. I also saw myself as knowing how to write a good conclusion that summarized what I talked about in my essay and being able to understand a article or essay by knowing what the author was talking about. Some of the improvements I saw in my writing thorough out the semester is learning how to write an essay where I can communicate with the audience with my own personal voice. I also feel I improved on knowing how to properly include quotes and how to find good creditable sources to include in my essay and on how to include both sides of a argument in my paper. Another improvement I found in my papers is learning how to revise them and approach each essay. However, there are some items of writing that I believe I improved on but still needs some work. For example, even though I have learned all about the rhetorical appeals and how to determine them in a essay, I still feel as if I do not know how to properly included them in my essay. I also see myself as improving on knowing how to write a thesis but still need work on

Some areas where I need to improve include transitions between paragraphs, being to repetitive, and my conclusions. This class has definitely helped me make my transitions better; however they still could use some improvement. I have to make sure that the reader can comprehend my thought process and that my transitions do not get in the way of the flow of the paper. In some of the rough drafts for my essays I could not find links between paragraphs at all but after work shopping in class I believe that they have significantly improved. I also need to make sure that I do not repeat the same ideas or words too many

The process I used when writing previously changed during the first few weeks of this class. Already I have altered the way I write my drafts, and the way I read other people’s work. Lamott’s “Shitty First Draft” made me come to the realization that one draft isn’t always the best approach. Therefore, I took multiple steps in examining my draft and critiquing it accordingly. Additionally, I started brainstorming topics, and this led me to create a roadmap for the list of destinations and topics I wanted to touch on and the message I wanted the reader to take away. This is just the beginning of the year and I already have a sense that as I progress through the semester my work will be continually get better.

As a writer, I have improved greatly since the first exploratory narrative essay. There have been many challenges that I have faced in my writing, but I have dealt with them in the best way possible. Over the course of the three papers I have written, I have improved in the flow of the papers, as well as the content of the papers. This semester, I have managed to overcome most of the challenges in my writing and have grown as a writer because of it.

In my ePortfolio, I have gathered a series of my writings that I have completed over the course of this semester. Overall in this entire course I have learned a great deal of material that has pushed me to become a better writer. From my past courses, I have noticed that I am not the strongest writer but I do try my best. With Professor Knox’s tough grading system, he has given me drive to bshow my potiential as a writer. I feel as if my knowledge has increased a significant amount on the following topics/concepts and I support each claim with the correlating artifacts 1) Writing process Artifact 1-Writing Log 3, (2) Discourse Community-Artifact 2 Assignment 2 Partner Review, (3) Rhetoric Artifact 3- Assignment 1, (4) Genre Artifact 4- Reading Notes Week 10; and (5) Critical Thinking, Reading, and Research—Artifact 5--Assignment 5. Every assignment has shaped me into a more developed writer and has prepared me more for ENG 280.

When composing an essay, or journal entry, or just plain writing, I struggle as a writer with avoiding awkward or wordy phases in my written work. This struggle is yet again based on last year’s experience and feedback from my English class. Improvement with this struggle can be made by the following strategies: reading over my paper more carefully, avoiding the use of words that sound intelligent but don’t flow with the paper, and editing my paper with peers. Recognizing this struggle and following these strategies would improve my writing.

Socrates once said: “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Though this quote can be applied to many aspects of life, it is also true about me as a writer. Throughout this school year I have made many changes as a writer. I have improved greatly as time has passed and I have learned from my mistakes. At the beginning of the year I had little knowledge of what a thesis statement is, and what I thought I knew was wrong. Also, I used no transitions between my thoughts and ideas. It made so my ideas did not flow well. The introductions to my essays were vague and undetailed. This made my papers confusing. Altogether, my writing did not sound good. Now I have made changes to my writing through my thesis statements, use of transitions, and introduction paragraphs.

As the course has progressed, I have learned new skills and improved old skills. I improved in the revision process and vocabulary in my works, as well as learning how to go through all stages of the writing process.

Throughout phase one we identified a topic and had an approach to a paper that we would be reflecting off of this whole year and soon building better research, but then we saw a lot of issues on my first paper. Even though I was not thrilled about these changed I had to make they have to change for this next phase two. Although I wasn’t happy with the grade I had received lets just say I learned a lot about what I can do differently to improve my writing, for this phase two. In my phase one I talked about how I use a lot of fillers for words, run on sentences and even some sentence structure fragments. In a paper these things are common and defiantly in mine they show up a lot. I will be trying to avoid some of these issues in the Problem Solutions essay that we are beginning. Some of my strengths as a writer in

I saw how simple errors can vastly adjust a person’s opinion about a topic, therefore I will work harder to catch these errors before I turn in a draft. I also learned how crucial thoroughly explaining the aspects that I bring up in my paper are. I have not seen the final copies of our class’s papers, however I heard from the conferences that we missed some items that needed to be better explained. We thought that since some of the drafts did not have enough pictures, that the pictures they would add would help the reader to understand what they were trying to say. Similarly to my last reflection, I still believe that people learn to be exceptional writers by learning the mechanics, reading eloquent works, and revising their own papers. I will continue to develop my papers and hope that the editing process has helped with

Revision has always been my favorite part of the writing process, yet this seminar class tested just how far I was willing to go to edit a piece of writing. Several of my essays address extremely personal matters, and these works were difficult to edit because of their sensitive subject matters. These essays tempted me to develop an unhealthy, protective attachment, which would have caused me to resist any editorial suggestions. In order to solve a majority of this problem, I strove to view my essays as imperfect art rather than a page from my personal journal. Despite this challenging revision process, I believe that my edits greatly enhanced my collection of essays by making them more potent, clearer, and more polished. Overall, I consistently worked on

Even the smallest changes to a paper can become a great improvement. From the first papers completed at beginning of this course to the last papers submitted far more recently, my sentence structure, grammar, and syntax visibly improved. During the first few weeks of the course I struggled with the exclusion of verbs and tenses I used far more often than I realized. “Using passive voice to avoid attribution is, therefore, a problem. Fortunately, the solution to avoiding passive voice is relatively simple: use active verbs (Smith, 80).” After my professor informed me of my mistakes, I took advantage of the opportunities given to rewrite my papers, even when I received an acceptable grade to begin with. By doing this I found ways to improve my writing even more and followed Mrs. Patria’s guidance until I felt that I completely fulfilled the requirements. An example of this: the four word movie essay written about Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow originally received a grade of ninety percent, but when I chose to rewrite it I managed to bring the grade up to a ninety-five percent as well as learn from my mistakes.

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

Back in Bucks County, PA, I currently live with my mom, Jo Ann, along with two dogs, named Amber and Toby. Over this past summer, I decided to have one dinner hangout party with some of my Bucks County Community College friends before attending Kutztown University this fall, however, my mom, did not know what to exactly expect, since she did know them as well as I did. Usually when we decide to have people over, the process is extremely time consuming. Although, the house usually needs cleaning prior to people coming over, however, this is the perfect example to discuss for this assignment.