Dear Margaux, A year ago, I was very poor on writing papers, with very little knowledge on writing papers. I came from an entirely different background of English writing and literature and I was taught to use difficult words which made no sense and made readers reach out for dictionary every time. I was hardly improving on my writing skills and was afraid of getting into a college in the United States and write papers. When I joined your class ENGL 160, even though I got into the class after taking the placement test, I was not ready to believe that I don’t have to take any low-level courses prior to taking 100 level courses. My writings before joining your class, reflected vague generalizations, plagiarized content and lacked expressions. I had never cited any sources in my high school and never knew the importance of citing resources. At the end of this semester reflecting on my work in your English 160 class, I can very easily see how much I have improved as a writer and as a reader. I have started to notice my strengths and weaknesses on the papers I write and to learn from all of them. I have also started writing the “Shitty Drafts” and the feedbacks on several assignments and peer reviews, helped me a lot to improve my writing skills. I also learned to frame proper sentences with passive and active voice, editing other papers helped me to realize my strengths and weaknesses. My portfolio includes three Writing Projects “Art Review- Picasso”, “Profile- Science Learning Center”, “Beware- Argument Paper on Gun Violence”. I have learned to use information on different topics effectively and legally. I have improved my writing skills to write MLA formatted papers with proper citation and learned how to revise, edit, and proofread others and my own papers. After the learnings from this class, though I still have a lot of areas to improve, I think now I have developed better and effective writing skills.
Sincerely,
Harsh Devprakash Gupta
It is my first semester at University of Illinois at Chicago, and taking English 160 during my first semester has impacted my writing skills and reading skills in a very positive way. I had to write three Writing Projects throughout the semester for
Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.
As look back on this class, I have realized just how much my writing has improved since the beginning of the quarter and the first big assignment. I kind of went from being a writer that really didn’t understand how to correctly write a good essay. To a person who also went from being a writer that was not very confident in her work and one who over thought everything into a person who kind of found her own kind of writing style. Who can quickly and effectively write an essay( also including revision as well ).This portfolio was made so that I can show off what i have learned from this class, and show off just how much I have improved as a writer.The work that I’m going to be showing, is work that I have made some
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.
I plan on taking all these mistakes that I made and all the things I did correctly throughout this semester and applying them to my future papers and my writing in general. English 1100 taught me many things I plan on taking everything I learned and applying it to my future work as a student. Overall, during this class, I feel as though I grew as a writer, I learned things I did right and things I did wrong. I
This past semester I have been taking English 219 which is formally known as essay composition and critical reading. In this class we have focussed mainly on analytical reading, writing summaries, and writing essays. Not only did we discuss how to successfully write an essay we also learned about different tools and techniques that can be used to help discover our position in regards to a topic and many different ways to overcome writers block. There have been many things that I feel I have learned in our English 219 class this semester. Even though I am very happy with the amount of learning I have completed I do still however have some areas that I need to focus on. I will be taking more English classes throughout my college and university education. In English 219 is has been confirmed that we will all have our own individual strengths, weaknesses, and ambitions for the future.
The overall course of English 102 with Professor Lyn has impacted my writing and me as an individual. Not only did the course help me improve my writing, but it helped me think of the ideas and norms that we ascribe to in the world as more complex. This portfolio shows how some of the learning objectives of English 102 reflects my growth as a writer and thinker. The papers that are included in this portfolio demonstrate my mastery of the learning objectives of this course. There are first drafts to show where I began in my writing process and final drafts to demonstrate my understanding of what was wrong in my first submissions. My ability to edit and recognize errors in my paper shows my improvement of writing. The different types of writing and audiences the papers are intended for impacted my approach of writing these papers.
The last piece of paper I will refer to was the comparison paper. In the comparison paper I felt I also learned about two influential women from two very different periods and also enjoyed connecting and comparing the two. Through these pieces of work I feel I've improved my grammar and spelling and also have learned how to write in English a paper that requires investigation and expressing thoughts, something that I've never done before. Before this semester the last time I wrote in English was 9 years ago and even then I don’t remember myself ever writing an essay, mostly un-seens and book reports. I feel that next semester in need to continue to improve my writing skills. I feel that my oral skills are relatively good, but my writing skills need to improve. I feel that I am not able to really express myself in English through writing. I feel that my vocabulary and grammar are not fluent enough. I enjoy writing about topics that have to do with current events and politics. I enjoy expressing my thoughts and comparing different situations and using creativity to connect
This course has helped me with many chances to figure out how to properly write papers. Prior to this class, I had little experience with how to build a legitimate paper. It has taken experience, and getting normal evaluations, to show me how to precisely write. Despite the fact that this course required different papers to be turned in, I am appreciative to have possessed the capacity to gain from my oversights and develop as a writer. I have constantly cherished written work, however now I am ready to improve my writing as the semester
As I was putting this portfolio together, I was thinking back on what I have acquired from this course and how it has shaped me into the writer I am today. Three to four months is not enough time to completely transform my writing voice and make me an incredible writer by any means, but I do believe that this time in the semester has influenced my writing a somewhat substantial amount. In this portfolio, I have included all my formal writings, along with a few informal writings. These works are just a few examples of the leaps and bounds that I struggled with while writing these different works. Before this class, I lacked style in my writing, strong topic sentences, and organization of thoughts. This was not good considering I would be writing in
Off the top of my head when I think of important qualities of good writing three things come to mind, quality content, evoking emotion, and proper punctuation. Quality content is a must, because without it your reader will be asleep after the first sentence. Evoking emotion guarantees that whatever is read will be remembered in some way whether its good, or bad. Proper punctuation helps sentences flow , which makes the reading experience better for those who like to read, and those who have a hard time, or just don't care for it. My view of my own writing is that I must have been an eccentric artist in a past life. My writing has two of my good writing qualities, which is quality content and evoking emotion, but unfortunately I like the proper
As a writer, I feel that my weakness is struggling with time management and trying to get my best draft as my first draft. I have always struggled with trying to put forth the best draft on the first one and just making little adjustments and then turning the paper in. Another weakness I have is to over complicate my writing and over think submitting the final draft. Every single essay that I have had to write throughout this semester I have struggled with these problems. Particularly the research paper, since the paper was worth such a big percentage of the grade in the class. I was extremely self-conscious about submitting and writing the paper. I took a long time just to finish a rough draft. I reviewed the final draft for hours before submitting the paper. I also experienced the problem of being extremely self-conscious after I submitted the paper and question everything I choose to write on.
My writing skills which I have worked on over the few months I have been in English 102 have changed quite a bit in my opinion. There are many things which I have improved upon that were amongst my weaker writing skills when the year began. On the opposite side of that point, there are also many things which I still need to improve upon if I want to truly elevate my writing to a level that I will be confident in. Finally, I have gained new skills outside of writing from this class, particularly the activities which we did in class at various points throughout the year. These things all cumulate together to give me an appreciation of English courses which I did not previously have.
Writing is a skill that takes time to develop. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is very important. Being aware of your strengths can help you stand out, and your weaknesses show you areas where improvement is needed. Like everybody I have weaknesses as well as strengths, and being conscious of them helped me improve my writing skills.
This first semester at the University of Akron has flown by. I learned many new writing concepts that helped me become a better writer. English composition was a required class that I had to take in order to get my degree. Although this class was required I still wanted to take this class to become more knowledgeable about writing. Coming into English Composition I was worried about all of the papers and the workload that I would have to complete. I knew that I was going to have to write a lot more than I previously had in highschool, but I was unsure of just how much. The works that I decided to include in my portfolio comprise of my Literacy Narrative, Image Analysis Paper, and essay titled Mayas Hardships based on Maya’s experiences in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I selected these works because I felt that they are the ones that require the most improvement to them. The papers i've chosen show how far I’ve came In English Composition.
Writing is not just as simple as putting words down on a document or a piece of paper, it is a process. Within this intricate process are steps that involve more than just writing, such as critical thinking, planning, and editing. Using these steps has not only helped me when planning an essay but also when composing one. Throughout this course, I have managed to improve many skills and gain a lot of strengths, but I still possess some weaknesses. Overall, I believe my strengths have definitely outgrown these weaknesses and have led to a better, more high-quality writing process which leads to improved essays.