Portfolio Essay
This semester while attending English 1102 I have had some rude awakenings. I have discovered that writing essays for Gentry take time and patients, which is something I never really put into essay before now. I usually just waited until the last minute and wrote the first thing that came to my mind. Then I would do very little revising and I would get a graded I was content with having. Then this class came about and I had to break myself out of the role of writing my essay the day of or the night before. I also had to take the time and read the novel or story I was about to write an essay on. It has also taken me the whole semester to figure out what exactly evidence was and what was supposed to be in the conclusion. I have finally realized the mistakes I have been making and this allowed me to get most of my essays to at least a B.
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It was also my best improvement, which went from a 62 to a 91. This paper was the best because I felt like I could really argue my points. It was like I was debating with an actual person. I am really good when It comes to being right about most things, and getting to see what critics were saying made it easy for me to go and find evidence to prove them otherwise (#5,1). It also took me a while to figure out what was considered evidence and what wasn’t. In this essay I had a total of ten pieces of evidence, which was fairly easy to come up with after I figured out what exactly Gentry was looking for. This paper also had the best conclusion in my opinion (#5, 4). I figured out that once I realized what Gentry wanted for the conclusion that I was good at writing them. The moral comes naturally to me and I find that the overall interpretation is my favorite part of writing the essays now. This essay was good because I had the minimum required number of secondary sources
This English class was the best English class I have ever had. There were no tests, vocabulary quizzes, or in class essays, which made the class less stressful. Before this English class, I was afraid that I would not enjoy writing many essays or writing so many words in one paper. Afterwards, essays have become something that is not so much my favorite task in the world, but it has become more enjoyable to an extent. Professor Sullivan’s class has taught me to formally write a research paper, to analyze a book through responding to different quotes from the story or novel, to understand magical realism, and to understand my own passion for school and how much effort I will be willing to put out in years to come.
The biggest thing I have learned in English 1101 about writing is to write a lot and in detail. By in detail, I mean that I have to write every single thing that’s important for my essay which means to not leave anything out which could also deduct points from my essay. By writing a lot I mean to try and fill in any every idea I have. Or, try to write the full page without editing so I can edit it later and see my ideas and not a bunch of things you don’t need in your essay to try and fill the page.
During the beginning of the English 101 when we began the writing process: I thought at first that we spent too much time on our essays but I soon realized how important it was spending time on the essays to improve them . The revisions that my teacher and classmates made on my essays were truly helpful for me because it allowed me to better my writing. For every week in the entire course we went over the MLA formatting process, annotating, citing within the essay, and how to make the paper flow better. I had the most troubles in this quarter when I started writing some of my essays for my portfolio because I didn’t have a clue how to start them at first. After a while of brainstorming ideas and seeing examples the teacher
As the semester comes to a close, it is always interesting to look back and reflect on the events and opportunities my English class has given me throughout my first semester as a whole. At the beginning of this semester it was evident that I was feeling uncomfortable due to the adjustment that I was going through as a student moving to college. It was very difficult expressing myself through my writing since I was nervous about good impressions and my good grade. While this class was one of the most difficult courses that I have taken this far, it has become quite evident to me that I have grown a substantial amount as a writer and as a person; Especially, when it came to explaining my ideas, writing academic essays, and making arguments.
Throughout the English 101 course, I believe I have thoroughly improved in my writing, peer editing, and analyzing readings, along with annotating my thoughts, misunderstandings, and difficulties. I believe I have especially improved on my thesis statements, providing the basis for my essays. My thesis statements have went from being plain and uninteresting to being more detailed, clear, and concise. This enabled me to produced better written essays that are rich in detail, rhetorical statements, evidence, and experiences. I feel as if I came into this course not exactly sure how to write a college paper. I was always more focused on the length of my essays rather than the structure, vocabulary, and ideas my papers were exhibiting. My writing now flows better and presents my ideas in a clear, organized fashion.
Throughout the course of this semester in AP Lang, my eyes have been opened to many of the weaknesses I never knew I had in writing. Coming into this semester, I had heard about the difficulty of this class, but was not unduly worried about not receiving an A; I have always considered myself as a competent if not strong writer. However, after failing to attain desired grades on several important essays, I was devastated, and realized that although I had mastered the basics of grammar and writing, there was still much for me to work on. Also, I did not understand that much of my grade in AP Lang would be determined by speaking in front of others, which is not my strong suit. What I have come to find is that writing essays containing all of the new information we have learned throughout the semester, such as requirements for different types of essays and good writing strategies, takes a lot of work, time, and thinking. Unfortunately, my procrastination caused me to only get done what had to be done instead of putting in the extra work and truly understanding everything.
English classes are very important if you want to pursuit your academic goal, and there are a lot of things that I learned about academic writing in this semester. At first, I thought that it was going to be easy as long as I kept doing my brief assignments on time and showing up in classes. However, I was wrong, English is hard, especially if you are an international student because the methods of writing an essay are different. Though, I decided to take English 1301 because I wanted to be able to write something that would make it easier for a reader to understand, and of course to make me get good grades in other classes assignments. Also, because I didn’t know the difference between writing a rhetorical analysis essay and writing a normal
My attitude going into English 1301 was excitement at first. When I was in high school I took English and when I would turn in my essays I would get an "A" on every essay. The second week of English 1301 was when my instructor assigned me my first essay. This essay was to explain my composing process. At first I had no idea that I even had a process for composing an essay. I had never really thought about it. Then the instructor said that it had to be in APA format, 12 point font, and Times New Roman. This was all very new to me because in high school my teacher did not require me to do this. Throughout this essay you will see the changes of my composing process, the impact this class has had on me, and how I feel about my improvement. My composing process changed throughout the semester because I felt that my old process was not good enough. Therefore, I decided to walk into my house one day and sit down and begin to do homework. In doing this I paid close attention to every step I took from beginning to the end of my essay. A few things that I have added into my composing process was an outline and going to a public area where no one knows me or wants to talk to me. Throughout this course, I have realized that if I am around other students that are working on homework, I am able to buckle down and get my work done too. However, if I am in a public area such as the Student Center at TSTC, I am unable to focus because people come up to me and start talking to me which takes
As writers, many students write to the expectations of their professors and not to their fullest potential. Throughout English 101 I had been writing only to please my professor or to fill the basic requirement to pass English. I always felt that my writing ability was never enough for my professors throughout the previous years. They always wanted clear and concise essays, which for some reason was unreachable by me. However, starting college and taking English 101 helped me with my weaknesses and changed my technique of writing essays. My experience in English 101 taught me to write to my fullest potential and to write what I felt; rather then writing what was required.
During this semester, the realization of my past was that I have often skimmed through parts of the writing process to get the job done. Not being an avid reader often hindered my writing abilities. This class most definitely made me realize that the entire writing process is important and having peer reviews also helped significantly and certainly made a difference in the result of my work. Taking the time to read, brainstorm my thoughts, write an outline, rough draft after rough draft, reading constructive criticism of others helped in the revisions of my papers’ reaching the best possible outcome. When selecting English 102, I knew I would be challenged, but to what extent I was unsure. If like past English courses that were taken learning to write essays would be the goal. Once realizing that my work would be shared with others, providing informed information
Sylvia, from “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, and I have experienced a very similar realization of our naivety. The good grades came easy in my high school English classes. I assumed they would in English 1102 as well, but I could not have been more wrong. This class has been especially trying, but I can honestly say that I have grown as a result of it. The unexpected bad grades I received influenced me to fully grasp and understand the errors I made throughout my essays, in order to create clear works that exhibit all of the necessary requirements. I intend to portray my strengths and weaknesses in my portfolio by specifically discussing my complications with introductions, generalizations, and grammatical errors.
In the beginning, I felt as this English course was just another typical course with the purpose of allowing students to write more essays without the use of creativity and acuity. However, as I ventured deep into the course, I found my original opinion to be biased. Throughout my spiritual journey in ENGL 1304, I not only learned many concepts and new ideas along the way, but I was also able to connect with all my readings. From researching my online sources to constructing a coherent argument, I grasp the process of communicating my voice for each assignment through careful observation and visualization. As a result, I was able to write my essays in a more personal manner. It also led me to stray away from the concept of “just writing anything
I’ve learned a lot of useful tips from this semester in ENG 201. English has never been my strong suit nor has it been my favorite class. However this college course has changed my point of view of the subject. Prior coming into college I viewed English as a useless class because I’ve already knew the basics: how to talk, read and write essays. Today I view English as an important class. It helped me in other courses that involved writing, such as World Civilization and Communications, because it allowed me to practice my skills. In my world civilization exams I had to write essays. This course helped me write an impactful essay. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that almost all of my exam scores were in the 90s, usually I do poorly in the
When I first started the class I was struggling a lot. Since English is my second language, I had many stressful moments that made me think about dropping my classes. But when I thought about my future, I just kept studying even harder, waiting for my performance to improve. As a result, I felt like every time I wrote an essay, it got easier, which tells me that I’m on the right path. In addition, this class has helped me improve my grammar, taught me an important life lesson about sticking on my goal and helped me to enhance my computer skills
My experience with English has changed drastically from middle school to college. Being in middle school I have really had to do much of a big paper, but as I progressed through college I’ve realized there much more that has to be added. I had always wondered why middle school was so easy but as years went on, I realized that advancing to college there’s a lot more requirements and importance to writing. In middle school, I was young and just starting to really realize what an essay was and after high school I really understood what an essay consists of. No matter how