Reflective Essay: Improving My Writing Skills

I immensely struggled when writing. Taking my scrambled thoughts and uncoordinated analysis and converting it into clean and understandable words on a page was arduous. I could not express my thoughts in proper academic format. I understood the importance of writing to every subject. It was essential that I learn to condense my ideas and feeling into coherent written word. After much debate, I decided that the best way to improve my writing skills was to take an advanced English course.

My writing skills have fluctuated throughout the semester. I feel, although, I have mastered leads and headline writing. Leads and headlines were the first writing skills we practiced and have continued to practice throughout the entire semester. The continuous practice of leads and headline writing throughout the semester, I feel confident in my ability to write concise, eye-catching leads and headlines. For writing assignment three I needed to provide a follow-up headline and corresponding lead for a criminal case. The headline had to focus on the upcoming sentencing hearing because it was the newest information about the case. In order to do so, as I mention in my blog entry, I had to write several drafts for both my headline and lead. [INSERT BLOG PICTURE] After many drafts of the lead I settled on a summary-lead because the article was a follow-up story about an established criminal case. I wrote the headline after I wrote the lead because the headline had to be a shorter, more intriguing version of the lead. After many drafts I finally wrote a six worded, eye-catching headline that was about the sentencing hearing. [INSERT WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Writing is a practice that most of us were taught when we were young. We were taught the basics of grammar, how to form a sentence, conjunction words, how to write paragraphs and more. Although we have learned this skill while growing up and have used the skill every year after entering kindergarten, this does not mean our writing process will ensure the best work. The authors that I chose each encourage their audience to excel in the art of writing in their own way to help with the writing process.

Two resources that I would use to improve my writing are the Writing Lab (within the College) and the Amherst Online Resources for Writers. These two resources can assist me in proofreading my work, to identify where my strengths and weakness are and assist me with improving my writing skills. The Amherst Online outline and explained with the assistance of a directory of web pages, the specifics of College Essays. I also needed to proofread and ensure that I do not have any grammatical errors.

Over the eighth grade year, I have learned to effectively use feedback and reflection skills to strengthen my writing. These writing processes taught me to include peer and teacher feedback along with self-reflection to earn a better grade on my writing pieces. In the beginning of the year, I would simply complete the drafts my teacher assigned. Proof of my original writing process is shown in the essay, titled One Necessity of a Hero: Personal Sacrifice, in which it reflects on the Thematic Unit. To demonstrate my poor writing process, a segment of my original introduction stated, “After analyzing documents from The Hobbit Thematic Unit, I discovered that the principles of heroism involve personal sacrifice. I also learned that a hero is

Over the course of my studies at university, I have grown and learned more about academic writing and numerous writing styles. I believe there is so much room for me to master my writing skills to succeed and complete my degree and improve my academic writing and personal skills through more practice. However, I have become concerned with my first attempt submitting my piece of paper through the online test in the Writers’ Diet diagnostic tool and was labelled ‘flabby’ in my writing. Analysing my errors and referring to the textbook ’Communication Toolkit’ by Grellier and Goerke (2014), also submitting my piece of writing to Grammarly and paper rater I was able to measure my weakness in the area of sentence structure, punctuation and grammar.

I totally agree with what the author is saying in the text. It takes time to get a good product out even though we think some people are deep and wonderful they still have the same struggles that we have when it comes to writing. I like this text because it is realistic it is giving an account of first drafts from common day people and shows how it is even for professional writers have problems with. This point is important because as people we sometimes feel we are not as good or capable of doing something not realizing that the people we look up to have the same problems we do. Another point that I agree with the author on is that you have to start somewhere. Many times as writers we don’t know where to start when it comes to writing. That being said we will just sit and think for ten twenty minutes when we could've just been information on the paper and then editing it later. In addition I liked that the author used examples from his professional experience when it came to writing food reviews. By him using details like how he went to the restaurant and sat down with friends and took notes of what was said. This was good to me because it helps me connect with him and the things that he does to write his reviews.

I always thought that my writing skills were pretty good until I started this class. It has been thirteen years since I graduated high school and I quickly realized that I had a lot of “refreshing” to do as far as writing papers. I actually felt very discouraged when I took the grammar test and did not score very well. I knew that I had to dedicate myself and put a lot of effort into this class to really improve. The practice quizzes were a major help to refresh on everything I must have forgotten since high school. Being able to write a quality paper is a skill that everyone should master. Writing is such a major part of communication in this day and age so being able to write an intelligent paper will benefit you not just through school but also through life. Writing skills are a reflection of intelligence and I want to perfect my writing the best that I can. Being able to write a quality paper is a skill that everyone should master. Writing is such a major part of communication in this day and age so being able to write an intelligent paper will benefit you not just through school but also through life. Writing skills are a reflection of intelligence and I want to perfect my writing the best that I can.

“There’s always room for improvement” (Shannon Fritcher). In your opinion, you may be the best you can be but non-the less, there is always a place that could use improvement. In the past months, I feel like I have accomplished a great deal. As the semester comes to an end I find myself reflecting on not only how I managed to survive the first semester as a freshman in college, but also what I have learned. One of the most valuable things I have learned thus far is becoming a better writer, mainly because I didn’t think I could become a better writer. I once believed you either had what it took or you didn’t, but I was wrong. As with any skill, it takes practice to make perfect and even then, you still need to adjust some skills to make them even better! I have grown as a writer, and I am now in the process of meeting at least half of the course outcomes. My writing and learning process, now being able to compose sentences that are accurate, concise and varied in structure, and lastly the amount of learning I have left to do are all factors of my growth as a writer.

Throughout the year, I have learned a variety of writing skills that I have been able to apply to my essays. I have attained skills that have helped me write better argumentative essays, creative essays, and narrative essays. I have also overcome many of weaknesses this year, but I still have weaknesses that I need to work on in the 10th Grade. This year I have been able to strengthen many aspects of my writing.

America is a place full of immigrants with no single ethnicity or race. America can also be referred to as the ?Melting Pot? because it consists ingredients of multicultural backgrounds. There are cultures such as French American, Asian American, Italian American and African American. I am Mexican American. My culture has helped me to become the writer I am today. My bicultural background and constant moving back and forth from Mexico to America has both influenced and weakened my writing. Although I was born in America, my Mexican culture has always been a part of my life. I have spent the majority of my life in Mexico, and Spanish is my first

This fall semester in ESL 91has been pretty interesting, and so far successful. The main object of this semester was to improve our essay writing. We were taught various lab techniques that helped us to improve our English writing skills, such as using appropriate verb tense and how to write a research paper with a works cited. Through my work on the research paper I have learned how to write in an academic style, how to find appropriate sources from an academic database, and how to cite my sources. Most of all, I can say that my reading skills have improved because the research for our papers required me to do a lot of critical reading.

While I definitely have more strengths than weaknesses, I do consider myself to have three weaknesses in my attributes. My weaknesses would include: Impatient, Shy and Reluctant. When working on a project, I can become a little impatient if the other group members are not pulling their weight properly or waiting till the last minute to do things. According to Melody Fletcher’s How To Overcome Impatience article, “Impatience is a response to fear”. I have a strong desire to control not only the outcome, but also how that outcome will come about and being impatient causes stress for myself because of the fear of failure. It can be somewhat irritating to work so hard on a project to have other group members conduct themselves in a manner that is unprofessional or not up to our higher education degree standards. I have managed to work on this weakness by knowing that every individual works at a different pace and levels of proficiency. I can be pretty shy when working in a group setting. While I try not to be reserved or nervous, I tend to sit back in listen during the first few group project meetings. I have worked on this weaknesses over my time at Full Sail University, by being more proactive in the group setting and taking control of either being the

An experience that is important to me is developing my reading and writing skills. After a few semesters at Cosumnes River College, I had to take my English assessment exam during the spring of 2014 where I believed I was good enough to assess in college level English, however after I finished and saw my results it turned out I assessed in remedial English for two semesters (summer and fall 2014) before taking college level English. Upset with my results, I had to change my habits in order to get the help in need improving my reading and writing skills.

Before I started this course my writing was standard, and I had not yet developed skills that have made me the exceptional writer I am presently. I have improved as a writer by utilizing these skills and developing my own style of writing. Some of the skills I have learned are critical thinking, locating scholarly research, supporting opposing viewpoints, writing to a variety of audiences, drafting my own writing, improving on grammar, punctuation and mechanics. Showing these skills throughout the assignments I have wrote in GSW 1110, proves that I am prepared to not only move on to other college writing courses, but also to use the skills to influence change in the workplace and the community.