The Reflection Of Writing : My Voice In Writing

In high school, when my teacher told me to research a topic and write an essay on it, I would go to Google and type in the topic. Once Google provided me with millions of hits, I usually chose the first one and used it. Also, I would use Wikipedia. Wikipedia contains information about topics, but people can edit those pages and put false information. At the beginning of my second semester, I started to learn about scholarly sources. Scholarly sources usually come from an expert or doctor. These experts and doctors take the time to research the topic and provide it to the public. Using scholarly sources helps improve your argument or viewpoint. Sources such as CNN, CBS, and NBC are popular sources and do not

Well, my first semester in college is coming to an end and I have learned many things about myself, my learning and most specifically my writing. My writing 101 class was a bit of a culture shock for me. I was surprised by the amount of freedom we had in that class and how much I didn’t actually know about writing. Our class’s instructions were to keep a blog of what we were feeling or thinking while writing each essay over the course of the semester. With each essay and blog post, I learned more and more about my writing style and what I liked to write about.

As a student entering the 10th grade my essay writing abilities were questionable at best. However over the course of my sophomore year I acquired new skills and techniques to construct and write essays. In some cases this class broadened my abilities already in place and in others it constructed new abilities to help strengthen others. All in all I am a better writer than when I entered my sophomore year. Despite all the positive changes to my writing style that have occurred over the past year some parts of my writing style require more effort to come to par with other parts of my writing style. As a writer over the past year I have reinforced my arguments well, and learned to develop a thesis better than I had, however I require more work

Writing is an important form of communication. It is a personal process that portrays your thoughts and views to someone else. It is not only an important skill to have for school work and certain professions, but daily messages such as emails, texts, and tweets as well. It can have a big impact on how you come across to certain people. Because of this, it is very important for me to practice writing. I believe that this course has improved my writing, which will help me in many ways in the future.

Olympian, Kim Collins said, “Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” This quote can also apply to students in school in many different ways. Students always want the best project or writing grade that they can possibly get. While that is a worthy goal it is not realistic because students are not perfect and they are still learning, and developing important skills. In my personal essays throughout the year I did strive for perfection, but I learned that I could not do it. I had to make slight improvements to better my writing for the next essay.

Looking back in this class, I have realized just how much my writing has improved since the beginning

Here, I had to connect in-class resources with outside sources. The online resources required me to annotate and create supporting claims for my topic. Argumentation was vital in this paper because I had to make sure I properly addressed the opposing audience and make my view appealing. Once more, this ties back to exigence because, without it, the opposing side might’ve cared even less for what I had to say. Writing multiple drafts for the Semiotic Analysis was beneficial with making sure I wasn’t off topic and that I could create a successful paper. Supporting evidence was also important for this paper to try to support my claims. I had to do research on Huck Finn that would advocate for my audience, exigence, and the opposing sides. However, the evidence used in this paper came from knowing who the audience was going to be as well as why people should care.

Coming into San Diego State University I wasn’t sure what to expect out of any of my classes, especially my writing class. In high school I had taken AP composition and language which helped me improve as a writer but even a college level high school course is not the same as an actual college class. Before college and throughout high school I didn’t think of myself as a great writer, I have always been very average at writing. At the start of the year I wasn’t a very strong writer but RWS 200 is a huge reason how I overcame challenges and became a better writer.

After looking back at all the writing I have accomplished in this class and experiences I have faced in other English classes, I realized how they have affected me as a writer and where I stand as one as of now. The writer I am today has been greatly benefited with years of learning English in school and other literacy sponsors. Throughout the years, I have learned a number of ways to write and I have been positively impacted by these methods. I now know the type of writer that I am and how I write best and in under which conditions. Now, I have my own writing process that most likely differs from my peers.

Throughout my years in writing and taking English courses I have always been a faulty writer and never have been strong in this aspect. Truthfully my writing was the same until I came to college and took English 104 with Professor Horjus. Horjus had taught me things about myself and my writing that I never gave my full attention too and explaining my thoughts. Professor Horjus had started off class on making us say things we could work on after turning in an essay and feel we lacked or felt very strongly about. Being able to talk about the lack of my writing skill or even the strong aspects in my writing let me see that everything teachers have taught me in the past has honestly not really helped. College English has defiantly shined a new light on writing for me.

This week I think my writing was better than the previous weeks because I had learned about many of different type of writing including cause and effect, positive and negative, persuasive writing and comparison which can help me to collaborate the style in my writing to show the variety of the structure. Also, this week I prepare an outline for the research project and I faced the problem on my idea which I’m not assured with this idea so this might be the problems when I write the paragraph. As a result, I got the advised that I should find more references to support the ideas. The another task in this week was listening. The teachers showed us about the listening exam which you have to answer in multiple choice. In my viewpoint, I think answer

While I was starting the process of writing the connection narrative I felt that my writing was going in the right direction. When I finished my rough draft, I knew more work was required in order for me to get a high grade which I would eventually work on. Going into the peer review I felt nervous because I received low scores on my previous papers by my peers. When I got back both of my reviewed papers I was surprised, to say the least. I thought I understood the purpose of the prompt better. I lacked details on how the issue connected to me which discouraged me to keep writing. I felt embarrassed that my peers had reviewed my work. It was hard to accept that I don’t always have strong writing. I do appreciate the feedback they gave me which allowed me to rewrite everything in a way that would address the prompt and would be better understood.

Socrates once said: “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Though this quote can be applied to many aspects of life, it is also true about me as a writer. Throughout this school year I have made many changes as a writer. I have improved greatly as time has passed and I have learned from my mistakes. At the beginning of the year I had little knowledge of what a thesis statement is, and what I thought I knew was wrong. Also, I used no transitions between my thoughts and ideas. It made so my ideas did not flow well. The introductions to my essays were vague and undetailed. This made my papers confusing. Altogether, my writing did not sound good. Now I have made changes to my writing through my thesis statements, use of transitions, and introduction paragraphs.

I came into Writing 150 under the assumption I was well prepared for college level writing by my wonderful high school English teachers. I could consistently write excellent timed essays in AP literature, and I managed to make it through college Composition 101 at a local college. Those things did help me a lot with grammar, transitions, and style, but Writing 150 challenged me to think much harder than anything could have prepared me for. By provoking deeper thought, Writing 150 has immensely strengthened my writing. It has taught me how to make arguments on my own, instead of letting someone else’s quotations do all the work. It also equipped me with many strategies that helped me boost my writing ability throughout the semester and I can now carry in my toolbox for the rest of my college career.

During this semester, I have learned a great deal about my own writing, and writing in general. One of the main takeaways from this course for me was how to break down the intricate process of writing papers. In addition, I developed viable skills regarding going into more in-depth detail during each step of the writing process. I enjoyed having the freedom to write about a topic that I was able to choose. This allowed me to research and write about something that actually interested me immensely. Having to work with one topic for the entire semester taught me how to find reliable resources and how to pick out the essential research from each article.