Reflection Paper: My Writing Work

Throughout my semester in English 131, I have gained many improvements to both my writing skills and my writing process. One such improvement was making me think critically on my essays in both this class and another class where we had to write essays. On all of my later self-reviews, I constantly gave way below what I was eventually given, and that helped me so much, by changing my essays so much more than what I would have done originally. That is evident by how my grade has steadily gone up on each of my papers. The memoir that I first wrote was my first ever graded that was really beneficial to my grade, and I got a 44 out of 50. The next paper that I wrote was a profile, and I got the same grade on that as my memoir. The first improvement that I had was on the review essay, and that was only by one point above the other papers that I wrote. Lastly, the best improvement that I have had was with my final paper, a proposal essay. On that essay, I got a 49 out of 50, a major improvement to my other pieces of writing.

I believe I got the grade that I got because I didn’t spend time more look over my paper more carefully. I noticed after I saw the comment that the reason I repeated myself a lot because when I did my revisions on my paper, I didn’t really by close attention to what I wrote and what I wrote before. That led me to repeat myself few times in my paper. When I was final checking my paper, I thought there should be more Honda discussion than Audi because the Honda ad is my main discussion. I didn’t know that there should be a balanced ratio between both of them. I am happy with the grade that I got for my paper, but I could’ve gotten a better grade if I checked my paper more carefully than what I did before I turned it in.

About nine years ago now – when I turned eighteen and received my G.E.D. – I was under the impression that a higher education was definitely not an option for me, and honestly, it wasn’t. Due to my knowledge of this, along with the fact that I was hired right away at what was my “dream job” at the time, I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t ever need or want a higher education; I accepted the fact that my family nor I could afford to put me through college and made the best of it. Yet here I am, 27 years old and just beginning my journey through college, because I need to, and because I want to. In this reflection paper I’ll cover the highlights

This research unit expects the student to keep learning throughout the semester. To attain this objective, each of our group members has put in the best of our efforts and has maintained the rough draft of our learning process as depicted under.

In my initial submission for Lesson 1, I recall being amused by the statement in the introduction of Navigating English Grammar that humans have always been fascinated by language. Then, and now, this still seems like an understatement to me. Language is an incredible facet to me and humans of all ages. To consider that an infant can communicate with few words and more gestures and then continue to develop the use of language as the number of words increase proves to be such an interesting phenomenon which has an influence on a human’s existence. This influence permeates throughout language in formal or informal use. In that same lesson, I recall the childhood influences upon my language development. Being a young Southern woman, a distinct dialect permeated my childhood environments; from home, school, and small community, the slow, slang-filled conversations enlightened me in the ways of people around me. This information partnered with the Grammar Quest proved that my own method of verb usage perplexed me. The instruction received in my local elementary and middle school demonstrated an error in my grandfather’s way of speaking; therefore, my way of speaking did not follow prescriptive rules, and additional instruction was deemed necessary. With this review and research of prior writings, the use of verbs and verb forms used in a prescriptive nature proves to be an area of concern for my own proper use of Standard English.

It is incredible how a few weeks can affect a person’s knowledge and skills. I described my lack of using writing in the preliminary writing assignment, knowing I had plenty of room for improvement. By utilizing the knowledge I gained within my first few weeks of school, I received a surprisingly pleasant grade on my reflection paper which revealed my writing strengths; similarly, exposing my weaknesses. Knowing my writing skills have improved slightly makes me determined to continue improving my strengths, ultimately transforming my writing weaknesses into strengths while I continue building new skills in writing.

I am a high school junior who picked English 101 to try and earn college credits. I had heard good things about the class from my friends, so I figured it would be a good starting point. My experience in the class was engaging, and I stretched myself to write more with different material. English 101 was a beneficial class that helped me grow as a writer and learn to analyze subject matter critically.

To most children, the world is seen as a utopian society. Nothing can go wrong, and the concept of death isn’t ingrained in their memory yet. But, what happens when that façade is broken? For me, it was ruined at a much earlier age than most. In this speech, I will detail what effect certain events have had on my life, as well as what they’ve done to change me as person.

Tick, tick, tick. You look up to see you only have a few precious seconds to sprint down the field past the two remaining defenders and hit a shot with precision and enough speed and force to get past their goalie. As you sneakily avoid the first defender the other comes from the side and shoves you causing you to fumble your stick and lose possession of the ball just as the time runs out. While some may shy away from any activity involving an opposing player shoving, slamming into you or pushing you out of the way I yearn for field hockey season. I pride myself as an athlete on being the type of player that can take a hit get right back up and make you pay on the next play. I have always believed that no matter what sport or even what gender an athlete's true character in displayed when in the face of adversity. It did not take long for adversity to find me. Summer had ended and I was back at school for my senior year. My first two classes had gone just fine, it was the usual get to know your teacher and get to know the class stuff, but here in third period English things had just changed. Our teacher told us to write about what we had done this summer, pass it to the person to the right of us to read and then discuss with one another what we had read. I sat next to a friend as usual and she passed me her paper on all the exotic trips she had gone on. I always made sure to sit next to someone I knew, but what I forgot to take into consideration was who was sitting to my

Last Friday, classes were cancelled, the Honors College closed early and professors moved their office hours to accommodate the football game. It may seem contradictory for a University to make this move. However, the UA is not just a school, but a community. That is what makes this school so special.

Spanning 169 million square miles, the Earth is composed of countless regions, all of them incredibly different from another. This is especially true of the two places I have been able to call my home: Houston, Texas and Carmel Valley, California. I lived in Houston for twelve years, and while I found myself complaining daily about local characteristics such as weather, traffic, or school, I never knew how taxing it would be to make the transition across the country, from an urban-conglomerate hotspot to a quaint, nature-centered community. I found most of my hardship in being suddenly dropped into a public school, something I had only had nightmares of, as the public schools in Houston are of some of the worst in America, and I was accustomed to attending a Jewish private school for the first twelve years of my life. Every day seemed to drag onward a continuous eternity of loneliness. But if it were not for Mr. Stadille, the Carmel Middle School Drama teacher, I would not have much of a life to look forward to. Every day as our connection grew, I saw how impactful he is as a teacher, a member of the community, and as a friend.

During this semester of taking English 101, I believe I have improved to some extent. In the beginning of this year I was hoping I would change the way I wrote papers to sound more like a college student. Learning how to incorporate more detail into my pieces, researching the topics, like doing interviews, and coming up with criteria are concepts that helped me grow. Continuing writing every week in this class, helped me practice, growing furthermore into the writer I want to become.

My writing style and the information I’ve learned about English since being in 1101-18 has drastically improved, which is why I chose to do my reflective analysis on paper 1. My papers improved each week, and I became more and more confident in myself as a writer. Being a freshman in college, I was very nervous about my English class, because I felt I never really learned what I should have about English. Plus, I knew we were going to have to write essays. A lot of essays! I heard many horrible stories about students staying up all night just to finish a 10-page essay for one class. I knew I would be that student, because I procrastinate way too much.

This semester was in awkward transition for me, mostly due to the expectations that were implied from day one. I have always written basic and monotonous five-paragraph essays about a pre-determined topic because that was what was wanted of me. Having independence from that process has helped me become a better writer in this class, but also others. This freedom has enhanced how I think when I write. For instance, when I would write a paper a year ago for English 11 I would just type away with little regard for my wording as long as the topic was recognized and supported throughout the paper I was writing. Now, at least I would like to think, my essays are more concise and coherent.

There is so much meaning and value, when it comes to work. To some individuals, work may just be a way to earn money. For others, work is general labor and is all about an employee taking orders from the boss of the job. However, my personal work profile and thoughts about work are vastly broad. I believe work should obtain a larger meaning when compared to the normal ideas of work. The reason for this is because of my discovery of new found knowledge of God’s design for work. I have thought about how to fulfill God’s purpose and develop a personal and biblical work ethic. I will tie in both the traditional and spiritual concepts of work in my work profile.