Self-Assessment Writing Style

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

English Composition I has developed my style of writing and my skills analyzing and researching topics to write a piece about a topic. Throughout the course, I got better at analyzing articles and pieces to get the meaning of the topic. With that improved skill I was more able to use the information given from the text and install it into my essays, with proper citation if needed. Before taking the English Composition course, I was not one to organize my essays in an ordeal order to clearly state the point of the work. Now with taking the course, I have learned to organize my essays, examine research for a topic, and develop an essay with proper mechanics, and revising skills. In writing my personal, review, analytical, and cultural

While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.

I plan to build my weaknesses in writing with practice. “Good writing is an acquired art, and it takes practice” (Bethel University, 2014, p. 4). I hope to see improvement with each essay I write. With practice and guidance from my facilitators, I hope to one day list my writing skills as a “5” on the self-assessment survey.

During my analysis of the Stages of Writing, I realized that the Peer Review stage was rarely available to me due to my schedule. Working night time and helping my daughter during the day require me to complete my homework late at night, when everyone is asleep. During the day, finding someone to review my writing is complex because they are working. But the Smarthniking resources offers the option to have tutoring and someone to review my writing prior to submit it.

I have given a sequence of writing evaluation that been tasked during my time of the course. Through the assessment I undergo, I was able to develop a great understanding to the structural ways of forming paragraphs and learned the basics element of grammar and spelling. From this, I was able to highlight issues, such as grammatical errors or word flow, during writing and organize my persuasive points that address topic. Additionally, I was able to use what I have learned during the course and apply to my other classes during day school. For example, the course taught the do’s and do not’s of forming a paragraph; taken from this, I was able to form much faster and easier paragraphs during one of my assignment for my day school course. During

I believe it is important for any student who wants to do their best in a class to take a moment to evaluate their own work to determine the rate their writing is progressing and how they can continue to advance their writing. When I looked through my own work I asked myself “what have I learned this semester?” and “what do I still need to learn in order to improve my writing?”. Answering both these questions will help me with my last step of my self-evaluation, developing a plan to learn new skills.

Writing has never been my forte. Nevertheless, this is not to say that I could not write. Throughout the semester with the assigned reading assignments and the given practical writing exercises I have come to grasp a vague understanding, I had never been taught how to write essays correctly. I am the product of Clark County Educational system. I have always struggled through my last classes and hoped to get out of my struggles this semester. One the greatest challenges that I faced was the distinction that existed among different types of writings that are performed within the English language. I did not understand how the distinction between a narrative essay, report essay and an analytical essay, argumentative essay, and reflective essay among other types of essays. I just thought all was the same regarding content and structure.

Over the course of the English 1B class, my eyes opened to new techniques and to consider new ways to improve my writing. Throughout this course, my class was assigned four essays all of which asking different questions. Some of the essay were more difficult than another because it required more work and research; however, writing these essays helped me to grow as a better writer. During these essay writing process, I was able to grab a sense of what is and what is not essential when writing an essay and to remember to avoid diverging from the essay topic itself.

This semester challenged me more than I expected but in a healthy way. When picking a topic, I decided to write about deep personal turmoils only I experienced. I believed it gave me an edge compared to my classmates, since I could divulge right into a deep part of my soul and write endlessly about my struggles. Writing about my depression and the challenges that surrounded me throughout that time, forced me to face and openly talk about that diseased time in my past. Finding the right words to describe the endless self-torment, dark sights, and never-ending loneliness, encouraged me to use words less common and add a creative touch as possible. For the second essay I decided to write about a painful reality that I persistently tried to forget. Losing the first guy I ever loved shaped me more than I cared to admit for a long time afterwards. I wrote about him, his life, our relationship, and what lead to its demise. Essay one and two were easily my two favorite papers I ever wrote. My third and worst essay challenged me the most! I researched all things fair food but could not formulate my essay as easy as I had with the first two. My personal favorite way of writing is to use the first person perspective. I believe my writing has about as much personality as I do, and I work hard to make it that way. Because of the strong emotional tone I apply to all my writing, my sense of voice established consistency and grabbed my reader’s attention. A perfect example, ‘Words could

In every paper, there must be a sense of coherence so that the reader knows what the paper is trying to convey. Coherence is shown in many ways and the writer must use a variety styles to ensure that the audience is clear on the progression of the paper. Throughout my own essays, my professor and I have seen that I struggled with this in the beginning. In my first few essays they were lacking a through line and often went out on to side points that were not relevant to the paper. Since I have written more papers I have gotten better at staying on track and making sure that every sentence is somehow connected to the previous. By focusing on coherence, my sentence structure has become much cleaner and I am more aware of how my ideas connect. Coherence is imperative to a well written essay and I believe that I have mastered that skill

In the beginning of the year, my writing was actually garbage. I was incapable of expanding on a thought. Reading my first timed write compared to my last shows exponential growth. In the first essay, I wrote in such a manner that I believed was worth of at least a four. To my dismay it received a three. At that moment I felt defeated, it made me realize I was no Max Dammarell. As I learned how to analyze essays, my writing became better. I started using literary devices, sophisticated language, and my scores began to improve. Although I never got a score above a six, I felt as though I improved as a writer. My thoughts and essays are well thought out, and I choose every word carefully.

Throughout this semester of English 49 the students were instructed to write an array of essays: Whole Process Essay (WPE), Revised Argumentative Essay (RAE), Unrevised Timed Essay (UTE). The essays each required a different writing technique. The WPE focused on personal experience and basic writing composition. The RAE was an argumentative essay about whether or not Schools should be reformed and how. The UTE focused on the student's ability to write under time constraints while still writing at a college level. While writing these essays I was able to reflect on my own writing to identify my weaknesses and strengths, find improvement throughout the course, and determine areas I needed to focus on.

Writing used to be a challenge to me. Trying to juggle the many nuances of writing such as ideas, organization, diction, and style was always a difficult process and finding a method of effectively handling this issue was a blessing to me as a writer. Writing became a formulaic thing to me. Whenever I was assigned an essay, ideas flow through my mind and I already begin to formulate what I want to do and how I want to organize those ideas. Being able to apply that formulaic mindset of intro, thesis with 3 main ideas, 3 body paragraphs filled with evidence and details to support the aforementioned main ideas, and a conclusion always seemed to give me a solid guideline. From there I would simply fill in the blanks with my information and as a result, the skeleton of my paper was made. My experience in an AP English Literature class during my senior year helped me write more effectively, find the perfect setup for different types of papers, and overall solidify my strength as a writer. Over the course of that class I learned how to be concise and direct with my words, organize the ideas of my paper to flow smoothly, and how to adapt to different styles of writing whether it be personal, academic, or a blend of both.

In my initial reflection essay, I spoke on how I believed that I had about an equal amount of strengths as I did weaknesses. I acknowledged that my strengths are what set me apart from my other peers while also acknowledging that my weaknesses were what held me back from improving my writing abilities and gaining confidence in my writing. Because I believed that my weaknesses were more important than my strengths, I had little confidence in my writing. My goals that I wished to accomplish during this class were to either entirely put a stop to my bad writing habits or drastically reduce how much I practiced these habits when writing. The materials covered in this course and the way that they were addressed made a huge difference in the way I go about preparing for, writing, and revising my essays.