Reflective Essay Relating To My Writing

Writing has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was in high school, so I used to spend many hours to writing in my daily journals in Vietnamese. However, when I came to America, I felt more difficult to write and express my thoughts in English because I did not know much vocabularies and lacking grammatical knowledge. Then, I decided to go back to school to improve my writing skills because I recognize the significance of writing in my everyday lives. As a college student, most of the writing assignments are reflections, journals, essays, and research papers. Working as a teacher aide in the preschool classroom, most of my writings are reports, observation, notes, and curriculum planning. At the beginning of the Academic Writing Seminar (AWS 100) when I wrote my first essay assignment, and I found out that writing essays in English were not easy. At the end of the semester, I realize I have learned valuable lessons while working seriously to write assignments for the AWS 100, so this class will be a step with deep preparation to help me successful in writing research papers at Pacific Oaks College. In this essay, I will also introduce the “best” of my writing, and share my experiences in the process of creating this portfolio.

"Most of the time they like to listen to sad songs about love"(89). William plays his guitar and his girlfriend, Tiffany sits next to him leaning her head on his shoulder as she studies for her Geometry test. The sound carries and echoes through Mamiya. We may be on different sides of the building, but the memories of being on the same side linger. As people grow older and become romantically involved with others, they start to change their habits and don't pay attention to their old friends. Sometimes the old friend must accept that others have changed and move on to be happy.

Writing is something magical and a good way of expressing myself. To be honest, I never thought that writing, and English as a subject would be this enjoyable. At the beginning of the semester, I was scared and nervous because of my grammar. I actually thought that I would be one of the worst students when I was placed in the class because I had very low confidence. This was mainly because of the fact that English is my second language. To my surprise, the grade “B” that I scored on my first essay made me proud of myself, and it helped rise my confidence. The fear and worry I had at the beginning is now washed away because currently, writing has become my favorite form of art. My confidence has risen, and I owe it to my English 101 class. That aside, I am going to recognize the improvements I have made in my writing, and how far I have come as a writer during this semester.

Writing is hard. Writing is difficult. Writing is...laborious, burdensome, tiring, and, above all, a process. It is a long and tedious process that consumes time and energy. Personally, I despise this system but I have never given up. English has never been a particularly strong suit for me nor have I enjoyed it. I am aware of the fact, however, that one of the most important skills is writing, so I have pushed and strived to be better and more formal, more impressive and more engaging. That is where this class comes in. I need a push every now and then to become better, and I believe that is precisely what this class has offered me. I believe I have been challenged and I know I will continue to do so in the next semester.

What classroom never failed to meet the sound of distasteful, classical music, embody hundreds of huge, intimidating books, and reak of abandoned flowers left by the far window sill weekly? Anyone that has attended De Queen schools in the last century can answer this question without being hesitant, considering Mrs. Wanda Smith has been teaching since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. As a result of Mrs. Smith’s 9th grade English class, I’m currently in college having to constrain myself to write papers. The significance in the beginning of my hatred for writing was going to impact tremendously due to the constant use of it in my future. Writing is used in our everyday lives, compelling it to be very consequential for the inevitable as a whole as well. Therefore, assuming that I had let this adversity continue to frustrate me, I wouldnt be as successful as I am anticipating to be.

In my early childhood, I went to John Bayne Elementary a school where expressing yourself was like screaming to a soundproof window. Even though, there were a couple teachers who actually cared and didn’t come every other friday and have the smell of there brand new check coming later that day. When I was in 6th grade, my teacher Mrs. Middleton was teaching a new concept on writing, a topic i was actually really familiar about. A topic where if i would began to write all of the truth from my lips will unapologetically spill on the paper. This topic was a concept people use the very most to let anger out, to be heard and just because teachers would say we have to match each and every other word with a rhyme people would think that they are rappers. The topic i am expressing is poetry, a lauryn hill type poetry, a maya angleou type poetry. In one of my classes, after a day of just a lesson based upon different types of poems, this would be the first time i would be able to express myself on paper without anyone with a red pen who would come and scratch words off because of “grammatic error”. When all i want to say to that pen was “I ACTUALLY MEANT WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ERASE AND FIX!” This day was free writing, words didn’t have to match unless people who wasnt really good at writing, that was a way they can help there poem go into length and meet the right stanza we had to reach. This day was the day poetry became my light in a dark place. But, this was not the day where i

I signed up for English 111 hesitantly because English has always been, since grade school, a weakness of mine. Over the years I have become increasingly better when it comes to my writing, however, thanks to my teachers working with me in high school. I was able to go from standard classes to honors although I was still unable to feel completely comfortable writing essays. Writing always felt like a chore rather than an activity for me. Coming to college and having to take English again was something I feared and something I wanted to get over with as soon as possible. However, I now find myself enjoying writing much more than I did before. I enjoy working through the process coming up with my own ideas and attempting to convince my audience to take my side of an argument. This class has put me in a position to build up my confidence in my writing style while also focusing on my weaknesses and making me a better writer in the process.

I still have issues with placing my hands in the right position and remember exact signs, I feel like I’ve overcome a lot in it and have improved over the semester. So, while I’m not necessary satisfied with where I’m at, I’m satisfied with my development as a beginner.

Do you have the habit of waiting tell the last minute to write a paper? Well this is what I would do when I would dread writing a paper for a class. I would start the night before the paper was due and I would write a draft, then proofread then print it off. Since gaining knowledge from taking ICW, I have gained experiences and ways to overcome my writing problems. My major problem was procrastinating, and overall just starting the paper. This was due to not having a process and an outline for the paper which was an effect of procrastinating.

When thinking about college, the first thing that may come to mind is college parties, more freedom, new experiences, and opportunities to make more friends. For some, the years spent in college will be some of the best years in life. However, aside from all the fun, college is still school and school work must be done. Essays will be written, books will be read, and sleep will be deprived. These years will definitely be a different ball game than high school, filled with many unexpected surprises. As someone whose parents did not attend college, I hope to facilitate your experience by sharing a few writing and reading strategies as well as general tips. I will explain in detail the writing process and the steps involved, the benefits of annotation, and the importance of time management.

I cried, I was overwhelmed with emotion, as I stood there with my fist clenched and eyes red. I realized that this was not the end. I went to yet another session of office hours. I told Ms. Maria that she had made a mistake, that she was punishing me for things that I can not control.

I have never written to write. I always write for a teacher, college admissions, a good grade, but it has never been for me. My writing is not bad, I struggle with things like spelling and grammar to this day, but I can form an idea and put it to paper well. After years of learning how to structure an essay I am confident in my ability to do so. I have filled out mind map after mind map and learned 50 different “correct” way to format a piece of writing. I have mastered how to hit all points on a rubric. Focus on the ideas, outline, and flow, because grammar and spelling is only 10% of the grade. Writing is a game for me. It has been about how I outsmart the teacher, how I put in the least amount of effort for the most pay off. Working with this mind set has created a dangerous relationship between me and writing, and ruined the potential I may have to succeed in my writing career.

There are over seven billion people currently living on earth. The majority of which we will never see or speak to within our lifetime. Questioning why I write and who exactly I am writing for makes me wonder how many people will actually come in contact with my writing. Consequently, why bother? The reality is a person writes primarily because they are taught to do so and thus believe they are important enough to be heard, but there are also many other reasons which manifest themselves with time. Personally, I have found myself writing for historical and political purposes. Both of which wouldn’t have occurred if I wasn’t forced to write in school from a very young age. Writing has existed since the beginning of humankind for the same reasons we dance, sing, and speak. Writing is its own form of expression unlike any other which allows us to communicate and relate to others on a universal level.

As a settled immigrant in the United States, fluent in multiple local languages in Kenya, I ambitiously attended various colleges to pursue a career in Nursing. Although different areas such as punctuation, sentence structure, paraphrasing and grammar to mention the least, aimed to strengthen scholarly writing this quarter, writing in English still pose a challenge.

Since I have been in school, English and Writing has always been my least favorite subject. English has just never been as easy to me as it is for some other students. English is the subject that I continue to make the least grade in every year and struggle to improve in. This year, The Dual Credit course has really taught me a lot. College-level writing is very important to me because it is preparing me for the real world. Evidence from three of my EN 1113 papers this semester suggest that I've made great progress in is identifying author's purpose, organizing my paper, and gaining a better understanding of how my introductory paragraph is supposed to be. Reading through these papers, I'm stilling working on improving my knowledge of conventions.